[sdiy] AI code generation

[cheater cheater]

I see some bad experiences with AI and analog electronics. Have any of
you tried any of the following approaches?

1. Rather than use an image of a schematic diagram, provide it with a
plain-text netlist + BOM and have it parse that
2. Use a "research" type AI, which you feed documents. Feed it books
and papers about the kinds of things you are doing, and then ask it
questions about your circuits
3. Point the AI to trusted resources such as "better quality" forums
or even this mailing list's archives in order to get it to answer
questions
4. People have mentioned giving the thing access to be able to measure
some signals when they were working on DSP code. When working on
analog hardware, has anyone tried to give it access to AD/DA and a
digital oscilloscope, and build your circuits on a board that has all
(or very many) nodes tied to an i/o multiplexer so it can measure
things? (I think azonenberg's open source oscilloscope software can be
helpful here as the oscilloscope interface)
5. I wonder if some form of modular pick and place machine would be
helpful for building circuits. Put all the parts on DIPs, have sockets
that can open and close, have the thing connect things... basically a
big breadboard style thing. Leave it alone in a dark room for a month
and do other stuff in the meantime.

Has anyone tried spending some time on focused learning on how to use
AI for analog circuits? Maybe other forums might have answers, like
idk, eev blog or diy audio or gearspace or kvr. It would be
interesting to see what others come up with, I think this sort of
knowledge is going to be shared across silos but sharing between silos
only happens when someone does that on purpose.

On Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 11:31 AM Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com> wrote:
>
> I didn't think it would need an AI to point out that most USB audio dongles are s**t 😄
>
> ________________________________
> From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of rrsounds via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> Sent: 24 July 2026 08:39
> To: Eric Frampton <eric at ericframpton.com>
> Cc: SDIY <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] AI code generation
>
> Using Claude to design audio DSP on my Mac Mini, I ran into a situation where the audio I could hear was occasionally cutting out, with some pretty bad digit-itis squwawking. I wanted to blame the DSP, but Claude couldn’t find an error in the code that would likely result in such a series of glitches. Since AI is only as good as the questions you give it, I carefully described what I was hearing and it was able to discern by probing into OS system signals that the USB driver for my cheap AES-out dongle (or the dongle itself) was probably at fault. I attached my Yellotec PUC-2 in its place, and the problem disappeared entirely. And the audio sounded clearer, too, so I guess the dongle was f*cking with me.
>
> David Reaves
> David Reaves Audio.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Jul 24, 2026, at 6:08 AM, Eric Frampton <eric at ericframpton.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Also yeah, Claude’s rate for diagnosing hardware issues is pretty bad - maybe 10% of the time it gives me something useful, but when it is useful, it’s spot-on.
>
>
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