[sdiy] AI code generation

charlie charlie at finitemonkeys.com
Sun Jul 26 17:16:55 CEST 2026 

i did it on a subscription, so just some usage, but not that much about
$20-30 i'd guess at from the context size, if i'd used deepseek around $4-$8


On Sun, 26 Jul 2026 at 01:42, cheater cheater <cheater00social at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Neat - any clue how much it cost you?
>
> On Sun, Jul 26, 2026 at 6:43 AM charlie <charlie at finitemonkeys.com> wrote:
> >
> > i had claude convert  an older altium binary pcb/schdoc to eagle for me,
> it did a good job, way better than any of the existing scripts or tools
> i've used before, fusion july 2026 wouldnt even open the altium
> pcbdoc/schdoc.
> >
> > the erc matches except for three components that exist in the altium
> schematic and not in the pcb, so its correct.
> >
> > some minor issues, mostly to do with slots and such since eagle, but  i
> had it make the lbr/sch/brd and link it and verify it so i can edit the
> parts it couldnt easily do. and nee dto update my drc
> >
> > https://i.imgur.com/ViWxQA4.png
> > https://i.imgur.com/pxapS9B.png
> >
> > left it going while we ate dinner and came back to it done.
> >
> > On Sat, 25 Jul 2026 at 12:06, grant musictechnologiesgroup.com <
> grant at musictechnologiesgroup.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I think this is simply an example of what all of us on this list can
> >> relate to. I ran into that identical dongle.  I think very many people
> >> have. It's legend!
> >>
> >> They messed up the firmware too. Two  replacement PCBs are available
> >> that allow one to build an STM32 or 8051 board and replace the guts of
> >> these. The opto-isolator issue is rampant on Tindie and other places too
> >> (Amazon, obv), possibly propagated inadvertently by the Arduino crowd.
> >>
> >> GB
> >>
> >> On 7/25/2026 11:21 AM, cheater cheater via Synth-diy wrote:
> >> > Yes, of course.
> >> >
> >> > Focusing on only the shittiest products won't tell you anything about
> >> > top-end capabilities.
> >> >
> >> > On Sat, Jul 25, 2026 at 8:14 PM Ben Stuyts <ben at stuyts.nl> wrote:
> >> >> The MIDI dongle doesn’t surprise me a bit.
> >> >>
> >> >> They are good at manufacturing, I think we can agree on that. Both
> good and bad products, with and without QC. See e.g. Big Clive’s youtube
> channel for lovely Aliexpress (or Amazon for that matter) items like
> chargers that can kill you. And then there are also the people/companies
> who (re-)sell fake products of course. So buyer beware.
> >> >>
> >> >> Ben
> >> >>
> >> >> On 25 Jul 2026, at 18:52, Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com>
> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> It's not a case of being dismissive, it's a case of spending half
> the day tracing a hum loop to find the Chinese MIDI dongle doesn't have an
> opto-isolator in it as per the MIDI specs !
> >> >>
> >> >> By all means design out excess cost, but never ever ignore the
> specification.
> >> >> ________________________________
> >> >> From: cheater cheater <cheater00social at gmail.com>
> >> >> Sent: 25 July 2026 17:20
> >> >> To: Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com>
> >> >> Cc: Jonatan Liljedahl <lijon at kymatica.com>; SDIY <
> synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> >> >> Subject: Re: [sdiy] AI code generation
> >> >>
> >> >> Eh, there's no reason to be dismissive of what engineers are doing in
> >> >> China, no countries have had the same manufacturing and design
> >> >> capabilities since probably 2000. There were tiny holdout niches, but
> >> >> by now that's almost fully gone too.
> >> >>
> >> >> On Sat, Jul 25, 2026 at 4:18 PM Mike Bryant <
> mbryant at futurehorizons.com> wrote:
> >> >>> Imagine, a whole series of AIs that think it is okay to remove the
> opto-isolator from a MIDI input because it still works without it (sic).
> >> >>> ________________________________
> >> >>> From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of
> cheater cheater via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> >> >>> Sent: 25 July 2026 14:17
> >> >>> To: Jonatan Liljedahl <lijon at kymatica.com>
> >> >>> Cc: SDIY <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> >> >>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] AI code generation
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Honestly I wonder if Chinese models trained on the Chinese language
> >> >>> space would be better for electronics design, given how much of it
> is
> >> >>> being done over there and nowhere else...
> >> >>>
> >> >>> On Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 10:11 PM Jonatan Liljedahl <
> lijon at kymatica.com> wrote:
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> I had great help from an LLM (don't remember if it was Gemini or
> GPT) to repair an old shortwave receiver. It guided me step by step until
> we found a faulty transistor, and helped me pick a replacement.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> But for circuit design, the results have been mixed, and wasted
> more time than it saved..
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> /Jonatan
> >> >>>> http://kymatica.com
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> On Fri, 24 Jul 2026 at 13:30, cheater cheater via Synth-diy <
> synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> >> >>>>> 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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