[sdiy] AI code generation

Fri Sep 4 17:02:51 CEST 2026

I've been playing with this for a bit now too. I can't get them to route worth a damn, but I have a pretty reliable workflow where claude will fetch the symbols / footprints, build pin maps with electrical limits for each, build the netlist, check nets back against the pin maps, draft a schematic (which even looks fine sometimes...), then place components on the layout in functional blocks.

If I'm out and about and curious about something, or have just left a meeting with a client, I can have a great head start waiting for me when I get back to the office. It's got kinks but when I look back to last August when code generation wasn't reliable, I think models will be at least as good as me very soon. They're already less lazy than I am! Though it's funny how often claude cheats. Part of the workflow is breaking the schematic into a grid of smaller pngs and he has to ask himself "is this beautiful? will chris be embarrassed on my behalf when he sees it?" and he has gone to some silly lengths to not actually do it while still passing the gate. 

Claude did everything except about 15 minutes of routing on this board. 

Wild times 

Cheers,
Chris McDowell

> On Sep 4, 2026, at 7:42 AM, Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Even after 50 years, automated place and route is poor on most PCB packages.  Maybe AI will crack the problem at last.
> 
> 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: 04 September 2026 12:45
> To: drheqx <drheqx at gmail.com>
> Cc: synth-diy at synth-diy.org <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] AI code generation
>  
> Looks like upcoming models are trying to do electronics. We'll see how
> that pans out, but it's promising at least.
> 
> https://x.com/0x50484244/status/2095628076092936376
> 
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 2:27 PM drheqx via Synth-diy
> <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> >
> > I have a degree in computer science, and I'm smart enough to know that I can't write GUI apps in 30 seconds. Chat GPT gave me a compiled python executable in under a minute with embedded demo data to illustrate future functionality. In the mean time I've got the head EE ,who is ten years older than me working out complex algorithms for a big FPGA using Claude. He uses Gemini for the easy stuff. He's kicking ass!! I love it!! We're saving so much time and money, it's astonishing.
> >
> > On Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 7:47 AM Tom Wiltshire <tom at electricdruid.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> Yes, exactly this. It's very easy to "turn up the speed" a bit for the communications with the voices while keeping the basic MIDI protocol or something very similar to it. You can have "external MIDI" coming in at 31.25Kbaud and "Internal MIDI" going to voices at a few hundred Kbaud with no problems at all. Keeping the two things the same/similar makes merging and passing the external messages along very simple.
> >>
> >> > On 11 Aug 2026, at 12:27, Roman Sowa via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > In most cases I haven't dig down so much to analyze the transmission, it was rarely the problem anyway, and first time I saw it was when servicing Polyevolver keyboard. I was really surprised that all controls and voice assignment is done with plain MIDI messages, they were possibly faster than MIDI, but I can't remember correctly.
> >> >
> >> > This is possibly the easiest and pretty common when you have MIDI input in a synth.
> >> >
> >> > To mention my long time ongoing project, I did exactly the same. MIDI in from external world and MIDI IN from the panel. Main reason is that I can simply merge those 2 and throw at CV/voice control without caring if it came from external controller or its own panel. One set of procedures for all.
> >> >
> >> > Roman
> >> >
> >> > W dniu 2026-08-08 o 16:57, grant musictechnologiesgroup.com pisze:
> >> >> I love that the panel MCU is a MIDI controller for the rest. Is this a
> >> >> pretty common technique? Reminds me of some laptop keyboards and/or
> >> >> trackpads that are USB HID devices. I think I've seen this before.
> >> >> Perhaps Korg.
> >> >> On 8/7/2026 4:31 PM, cheater cheater via Synth-diy wrote:
> >> >>> Someone's been reverse engineering the Roland TR-6S using Claude and Ghidra:
> >> >>>
> >> >>> https://averywagar.com/post/tr6s-part1/
> >> >>>
> >> >>> I thought people in this thread might be interested
> >> >>>
> >> >>> On Mon, Jul 27, 2026 at 11:33 AM Sean Ellis via Synth-diy
> >> >>> <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> For this project I've asked it to do any work in Arduino language and add comments on every line. Fantastic way to learn, not just to hand it off.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> ________________________________
> >> >>>> From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of francesco mulassano via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> >> >>>> Sent: Monday, 27 July 2026 10:08 AM
> >> >>>> To: Adam (synthDIY) <synthdiy at adambaby.com>
> >> >>>> Cc: SDIY <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> >> >>>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] AI code generation
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> No, be careful.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> You need to know what you're doing, otherwise you'll never end up with something that's actually production-ready.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> Think of AI as a junior developer who writes code better and faster than you do, but who doesn't know what to do without your guidance. When it gets stuck or goes down the wrong path, you have to steer it in the right direction. And if you don't know how to solve the problem yourself... you're stuck too.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> Il giorno lun 27 lug 2026 alle ore 09:57 Adam (synthDIY) <synthdiy at adambaby.com> ha scritto:
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> On 27 Jul 2026, at 17:41, Sean Ellis via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> TBH, quite scary how knowledge is pretty useless now as long as you have access to LLMs.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> Ah HA! That's EXACTLY what "they" want you to think.....
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> ;- )
> >> >>>> A
> >> >>>> ________________________________________________________
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