Show HN: Atopile – Design circuit boards with code - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39263854 - Feb 2024 (292 comments)
But that flexibility means that you lose a lot of common constraints that are actually desirable.
https://atopile.io/atopile/quickstart#a-typical-workflow
A typical workflow
1. Sketch your circuit on paper.
2. Search https://packages.atopile.io and GitHub for pre-existing modules you need, and use ato install to install them.
3. Design a module and do its calculations using ato code.
4. Run ato build to compile your project, choose components to suit your design, and update your layout (PCB) file.
5. Use KiCAD to lay out any changes
6. Repeat steps 3-5 until you’re happy with your design.
7. When you’re done with your design, push your changes to your repo.
8. CI will automatically build and test your project, and generate the manufacturing files you need to order your PCBs.
9. Take these manufacturing files to your PCB manufacturer to get your PCBAs.
[0] To be fair I'm not a professional electrical engineer, maybe there are expensive databases that I don't have access to. I personally always thought that EDA tools have a natural business opportunity where they give you the razor for free (the EDA software) and sell you the razor blades (e.g. part libraries).
https://dl.espressif.com/dl/schematics/esp32_devkitc_v4-sch....
The quality however is meh.
Libraries are a very touchy subject. Most of the time, outsiders to the field just want "plug and play".
Professionals in the field? Holy fucking hell can we get neurotic. In a large company you may have more than one person dedicated just to managing libraries and drawing them to your standards instead of letting the internet do it. And there's a whole list of reasons why one may do it vs. not do so. (Schematics are a form of design expression and as such there are many standards and thoughts on optimal forms of expression, including dependency on the particular sub-industry you are)
No different than software engineers having their favorite programming language, markup language, config file language, code style guidelines, deployment workflows, etc.
https://atopile.io/atopile/essentials/1-the-ato-language
So the idea is you basically do all of your connections (the netlist) in code. That actually seems like a reasonable idea to me, especially for digital electronics.
However, I would say that schematic capture is only a small minority of the work of most circuit design. Probably 90% is creating components and layout/routing.
> If you want to layout or route PCBs you will need to install KiCAD.
I couldn't really figure out what the deal is with components. They have a website with a few packages on it (https://packages.atopile.io/) and they say:
> Check first-party packages for a list designed and used internally at atopile. Discussion planning to open this up publicly These are built, known to work and come with a functioning layout too.
Ah also I didn't realise this is actually a startup. Makes sense given how much effort seems to have gone into that website!
yodon•6h ago
I gave up hunting through your website because I never managed to find an example of what the code for a real circuit looks like. That should be front and center on the first page.
kitd•6h ago
https://atopile.io/atopile/essentials/1-the-ato-language
yodon•5h ago
gus_massa•4h ago
themgt•3h ago
https://github.com/atopile/cell-sim/ also quite interessting.
ted_dunning•2h ago
https://packages.atopile.io/packages/atopile/ti-lv284x/relea...
AdamH12113•1h ago