3 ms·

I use them as a springboard for things I am really unfamiliar with. I'm self-learning electronics at the moment, and so I can ask it things like "what's a comm

I use them as a springboard for things I am really unfamiliar with. I'm self-learning electronics at the moment, and so I can ask it things like "what's a common and widely available cooperator." You will not find that answer on a search engine, I don't care how good your Google fu is. It's a weak jack of all trades: it knows a fair amount about the sum of human knowledge (which is objectively super-human), but can't go deep on any one thing, and still seriously lags behind humans in terms of reasoning. It's an assistant that all book smarts and no street smarts. Or maybe: it's a search engine for insanely specific things. Rote work, as well. Things like porting an enum from one programming language to another: past the source language into a comment and start it off with one or two lines in the target language. Dozens of tabs are surely faster than manual typing, copy paste, or figuring out vim movements/macros.

mettamage 2y ago
Your experience matches mine.
card_zero 2y ago
That's a mistake for "comparator", isn't it. You've allowed the AI to train you to use the wrong word through a shared delusion, haven't you. Edit: if anybody knows otherwise, show me some evidence, don't just downvote. If these things are widely used, why are they impossible to find by searching? Why doesn't this electronics site know about them: https://www.eeeguide.com/?s=cooperator https://www.eeeguide.com/?s=cooperator Why aren't they in any books when I did a full-text search on archive.org? Why doesn't Wikipedia know about them? Why aren't there threads about them on electronics forums? I found them (through an image search) in exactly one place: educational training boards made in India by Jainco, like this one: https://jaincolab.in/delta-modulation-and-demodulation https://jaincolab.in/delta-modulation-and-demodulation But this other one talks about a "ramp comparator" and then repeats the phrase but using "ramp cooperator" instead. https://www.jaincolab.com/firing-circuit-using-ramp-comparator-scheme https://www.jaincolab.com/firing-circuit-using-ramp-comparat... So I surmise it's an error and not a real thing.
- sitkack 2y ago
  > You will not find that answer on a search engine, I don't care how good your Google fu is. The answer staring the OP right in the face.
- zamalek 2y ago
  It's an autocorrect. I did mean comparator. Presumeably the second link you pasted ran into the same problem. > You've allowed the AI to train you to use the wrong word through a shared delusion, haven't you. What an awful interpretation, phrased in the most demeaning manner possible. No, I double check everything the AI suggests. That's basic competency with the things.
  - zamalek 2y ago
    Not that I would have had to, just ran a test: > Me: I'm trying to use a cooperator in my schematic, how do I hook it up? Also what's a suitable cooperator for 3.3v logic level? > Gemini: It sounds like you might be thinking of a comparator, not a "cooperator," in your schematic. Comparators are electronic circuits that compare two voltages [...] LM393: This is a low-power, dual comparator that can operate from a 3.3V supply. Its output can be directly connected to most 3.3V logic circuits.
    - card_zero 2y ago
      Oh. Then in fact you will find the answer in a search engine, incredibly easily. But I apologise for assuming you were involved in a mechanical folie à deux. (It could happen!)
brulard 2y ago
I ordered some electronic components / sensors from china, and as it took months to arrive, I forgot exactly what I ordered (I'm noob at this). Simply taking a picture and asking Claude what it was helped a lot. The numbers and letters printed on the components didn't yield relevant results on google.
Workaccount2 2y ago
Heads up as an EE who uses LLMs quite a bit; they cannot analyze circuits or build them. They might be able to help stitch together modules (like sensor boards plugged into microcontrollers) and definitely can write code to get things going, but they fall flat on their face hard for any kind of bare bones electronics design. Like 5% success rate and 95% totally incorrect hallucinations.
- esafak 2y ago
  The training data just isn't there yet, but I imagine they could use a circuit simulator for the verification involved in training the model, right?
  - Workaccount2 2y ago
    The problem is really that schematics are at the very heart of electronics design (and teaching/instruction), so to train a model you need a very powerful vision model to really unlock all the good training data. The models can also output code that can be turned into a schematic through an interpreter, but there is virtually zero training data for this because humans always use and work with schematics.
- zamalek 2y ago
  Yeah, even I found it doing some dubious things as a beginner. Still helpful for things like how to correctly use certain components, but the svg diagrams it provided were hilarious at times.

mettamage 2y ago

Your experience matches mine.

card_zero 2y ago

That's a mistake for "comparator", isn't it. You've allowed the AI to train you to use the wrong word through a shared delusion, haven't you. Edit: if anybody knows otherwise, show me some evidence, don't just downvote. If these things are widely used, why are they impossible to find by searching? Why doesn't this electronics site know about them: https://www.eeeguide.com/?s=cooperator https://www.eeeguide.com/?s=cooperator Why aren't they in any books when I did a full-text search on archive.org? Why doesn't Wikipedia know about them? Why aren't there threads about them on electronics forums? I found them (through an image search) in exactly one place: educational training boards made in India by Jainco, like this one: https://jaincolab.in/delta-modulation-and-demodulation https://jaincolab.in/delta-modulation-and-demodulation But this other one talks about a "ramp comparator" and then repeats the phrase but using "ramp cooperator" instead. https://www.jaincolab.com/firing-circuit-using-ramp-comparator-scheme https://www.jaincolab.com/firing-circuit-using-ramp-comparat... So I surmise it's an error and not a real thing.

sitkack 2y ago
> You will not find that answer on a search engine, I don't care how good your Google fu is. The answer staring the OP right in the face.
zamalek 2y ago
It's an autocorrect. I did mean comparator. Presumeably the second link you pasted ran into the same problem. > You've allowed the AI to train you to use the wrong word through a shared delusion, haven't you. What an awful interpretation, phrased in the most demeaning manner possible. No, I double check everything the AI suggests. That's basic competency with the things.
- zamalek 2y ago
  Not that I would have had to, just ran a test: > Me: I'm trying to use a cooperator in my schematic, how do I hook it up? Also what's a suitable cooperator for 3.3v logic level? > Gemini: It sounds like you might be thinking of a comparator, not a "cooperator," in your schematic. Comparators are electronic circuits that compare two voltages [...] LM393: This is a low-power, dual comparator that can operate from a 3.3V supply. Its output can be directly connected to most 3.3V logic circuits.
  - card_zero 2y ago
    Oh. Then in fact you will find the answer in a search engine, incredibly easily. But I apologise for assuming you were involved in a mechanical folie à deux. (It could happen!)

brulard 2y ago

I ordered some electronic components / sensors from china, and as it took months to arrive, I forgot exactly what I ordered (I'm noob at this). Simply taking a picture and asking Claude what it was helped a lot. The numbers and letters printed on the components didn't yield relevant results on google.

Workaccount2 2y ago

Heads up as an EE who uses LLMs quite a bit; they cannot analyze circuits or build them. They might be able to help stitch together modules (like sensor boards plugged into microcontrollers) and definitely can write code to get things going, but they fall flat on their face hard for any kind of bare bones electronics design. Like 5% success rate and 95% totally incorrect hallucinations.

esafak 2y ago
The training data just isn't there yet, but I imagine they could use a circuit simulator for the verification involved in training the model, right?
- Workaccount2 2y ago
  The problem is really that schematics are at the very heart of electronics design (and teaching/instruction), so to train a model you need a very powerful vision model to really unlock all the good training data. The models can also output code that can be turned into a schematic through an interpreter, but there is virtually zero training data for this because humans always use and work with schematics.
zamalek 2y ago
Yeah, even I found it doing some dubious things as a beginner. Still helpful for things like how to correctly use certain components, but the svg diagrams it provided were hilarious at times.