Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
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Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#2Dear HN Community,
I wanted to introduce our startup SnapEDA to the HN community. We recently completed Y Combinator, and have been quiet about the platform while we've been improving it. With that said, we’d love to get feedback from the HN community!
Our goal is to build a canonical library for making circuit boards: one trusted, centralized place to get digital models. These digital models include PCB footprints, schematic symbols, and 3D models. The library exports to a growing set of popular EDA tools: EAGLE, Altium, KiCad, Cadence OrCad/Allegro (Beta), & Mentor PADS (Beta).
The library is free because we believe in making this data widely accessible to enable innovation. The purpose of this new feature, InstaPart, is to give designers an option to "skip the queue" and get a part quickly if it doesn't yet exist in the free library. Once that part is made, it is then made available for the entire community to download for free. Growing the library is a top area of focus, so we hope to eventually render the InstaPart feature obsolete and just have everything available natively. :-)
In terms of standards, all new libraries are being made to IPC, and we also source models by partnering with component manufacturers. To ensure quality, we have an automated verification checker on each part page that provides a pass/fail result on common manufacturing issues that we plan to expand with additional checks.
Thanks HN!
Natasha
Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#3Not an EE Am I correct that you replace this lengthy process? https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/designing-pcbs-smd-foot...
Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#4Not an EE Am I correct that you replace this lengthy process? https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/designing-pcbs-smd-foot...
Yes! That's our first area of focus!
Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#5[deleted]
Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#6Dear HN Community, I wanted to introduce our startup SnapEDA to the HN community. We recently completed Y Combinator, and have been quiet about the platform while we've been improving it. With that said, we’d love to get feedback from the HN community! Our goal is to build a canonical library for making circuit boards: one trusted, centralized place to get digital models. These digital models include PCB footprints,…
Awesome added service! :)
Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#7Dear HN Community, I wanted to introduce our startup SnapEDA to the HN community. We recently completed Y Combinator, and have been quiet about the platform while we've been improving it. With that said, we’d love to get feedback from the HN community! Our goal is to build a canonical library for making circuit boards: one trusted, centralized place to get digital models. These digital models include PCB footprints,…
This is something that should exist, and I hope you can find ways to finance it sustainably. What are your plans?
Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#8Dear HN Community, I wanted to introduce our startup SnapEDA to the HN community. We recently completed Y Combinator, and have been quiet about the platform while we've been improving it. With that said, we’d love to get feedback from the HN community! Our goal is to build a canonical library for making circuit boards: one trusted, centralized place to get digital models. These digital models include PCB footprints,…
Could you explain this for someone without any hardware experience?
Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#9Dear HN Community, I wanted to introduce our startup SnapEDA to the HN community. We recently completed Y Combinator, and have been quiet about the platform while we've been improving it. With that said, we’d love to get feedback from the HN community! Our goal is to build a canonical library for making circuit boards: one trusted, centralized place to get digital models. These digital models include PCB footprints,…
Could you explain this for someone without any hardware experience?
So you're designing a little board in KiCad and you want to add an LPC1768 to it to do some processing. You need to get a schematic representation and a physical footprint of the part into your CAD software. You could spend an hour carefully reading the datasheet and recreating all of the pins and landing pads, but this is the 21st century! You look at the manufacturer's website, SparkFun's part library, google a bit, and you can't find premade files for the part. So you go on InstaPart and pay $29 and someone at SnapEDA does the work for you and then releases the files for free. Now they're listed on the SnapEDA database for anyone to use, and you know that they're going to be correct.
Re: Show HN: InstaPart – Build circuit boards faster with instant parts
#10Dear HN Community, I wanted to introduce our startup SnapEDA to the HN community. We recently completed Y Combinator, and have been quiet about the platform while we've been improving it. With that said, we’d love to get feedback from the HN community! Our goal is to build a canonical library for making circuit boards: one trusted, centralized place to get digital models. These digital models include PCB footprints,…
Lookw great! I used many footprints from SnapEDA before.
In many cases I prefer to draw the schematic symbol myself though. I like organizing the pins in a way it fits nicely in the schematic. It takes a bit more time to start but it makes the schematic cleaner and easier to maintain.