Super cool. Wonder if we can input the circuit as code.
No one realistically speak SVG. Human consciousness isn't a software built on language. Speech center is just a part of a human brain.
Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
51–60 of 107 posts
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#52This was done before, years ago, but in 2D. I forget what it was called. It was like an LT Spice clone with better UX.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritzing
That’s it, but I was also thinking about https://www.falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#53I could not sign up, because "email rate limit exceeded" but i was wondering if it had a feature to probe the voltage at a certain node.
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#54This was done before, years ago, but in 2D. I forget what it was called. It was like an LT Spice clone with better UX.
This was my first thought: this seems like a web + 3d port of Fritzing. Perhaps they even reuse some of the code?
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
So we're just using "vibe coded" as a generic insult now for project we don't like?
Well, it somehow gives off vibecoded vibes, even though it's not. Make of that what you want, but that's expressed in quite a few comments here. Maybe it's just the extremely clean and generic presentation on the website without any links to the author / team / twitter.
For me there seems to be a listing of configurable settings or something but it only pops up for a single frame after I right-click-drag a component - this seems like a broken mouse interaction.
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#56I remember following this at the time! FYI it was "shut down" (kept online but no further development) two years ago (https://x.com/KennethCassel/status/1620500575183073280)
> Decided to shutdown Diode. (For now the site is live, I'll likely open-source the code in case anyone wants to take the baton and run)
Kenneth is now working on RMFG (https://www.rmfg.com/)
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#57Black screen with "Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information)."
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#58Not a fan. The standard schematic abstraction is great and actually helps us parse circuits. Don't add unnecessary complexity just because AIs are good at vibecoding threejs demos (edit: even if this particular demo seems to predate vibecoding and was likely used for training instead of being the product of inference).
On the contrary, when I was in high school we had one class dedicated to digital electronics and it revolved around breadboard circuitry. You only had 30 minutes/day to tinker with the physical hardware then it had to be disassembled for the next class. Simulations like this are more approachable then schematics and would have been great for tinkering outside of class.
When I was a small child it was cool to play with circuitry (dad did some electronics) but as soon as I encountered components of different shape (a capacitor that looks like a resistor) it stopped making sense to me. thinking in schematics early is key
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#59I appreciated that smoke comes out of the battery if you short it :) Edit: I am ex EE. I will note that it's horrible using this view. It is marginally more horrible than using breadboards in reality. Schematics exist because reality tends to suck or have inconsistencies. For example TO-99 packages come in different pin orders, so 2N3904 has the opposite order to a BC547. Also breadboards tend not to have full length…
Schematics also help explain your circuit because the idioms of drawing them communicate intent. Which is one of the things the Shenzhen/Ladyada/Sparkfun/SeedStudio crowd don't get with their "schematic as data entry for layout" style. Some of them should know better. Breadboards make me wince a little especially in a professional setting but I've made my peace with dev boards that come with DIP-style pins for them.…
"…schematic as data entry for layout style…"
Maybe you can explain.
Are you saying in these cases often the physical PCB layout follows the geometry of the schematic?
Re: Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is actually very cool and predates vibe coding, please stop gatekeeping.
I'll grant you the vibecoding comment. That was uncalled for and unjustified. From an EE perspective I still see limited value in having a 3D breadboard. Having a standardized schematic language is really nice. Everybody knows how resistors, capacitors and transistors look like in a schematic, whereas they are all just little cuboids with varying number of pads in their smd packages. I recommend multisim blue for lea…
Is there a good free circuit simulator (that use a schematic as interface, I assume)?
I somewhat agree with you in general though—if the web UX is a breadboard… maybe just get a breadboard? At the same time, while physical parts are generally cheap enough, power supplies, multimeters, an oscilloscope… that part of the hobby can add up.
Sometimes too I am waiting a week or two for a part to arrive from Mouser, it is nice to be able to mock up a circuit online.