5 ms·
Not a fan. The standard schematic abstraction is great and actually helps us parse circuits. Don't add unnecessary complexity just because AIs are good at vibe
by KeplerBoy 8mo ago
Not a fan. The standard schematic abstraction is great and actually helps us parse circuits.
Don't add unnecessary complexity just because AIs are good at vibecoding threejs demos (edit: even if this particular demo seems to predate vibecoding and was likely used for training instead of being the product of inference).
- globular-toast 8mo agoGot to agree. This is kind of pointless. Breadboards exist to make it easier to build physical circuits. I would also argue there is paedagogical value in actually playing with a physical breadboard. Having to physically orient things in 3D space is a small price you pay for building a physical prototype. This is all the downsides with none of the upsides.
- icedrift 8mo agoOn the contrary, when I was in high school we had one class dedicated to digital electronics and it revolved around breadboard circuitry. You only had 30 minutes/day to tinker with the physical hardware then it had to be disassembled for the next class. Simulations like this are more approachable then schematics and would have been great for tinkering outside of class.
- throwaway290 8mo agoWhen I was a small child it was cool to play with circuitry (dad did some electronics) but as soon as I encountered components of different shape (a capacitor that looks like a resistor) it stopped making sense to me. thinking in schematics early is key
- colesantiago 8mo agoThis is actually very cool and predates vibe coding, please stop gatekeeping.
- KeplerBoy 8mo agoI'll grant you the vibecoding comment. That was uncalled for and unjustified. From an EE perspective I still see limited value in having a 3D breadboard. Having a standardized schematic language is really nice. Everybody knows how resistors, capacitors and transistors look like in a schematic, whereas they are all just little cuboids with varying number of pads in their smd packages. I recommend multisim blue for learning btw. Nevertheless, a cool project and I should be more positive when commenting.
- JKCalhoun 8mo agoIs there a good free circuit simulator (that use a schematic as interface, I assume)? I somewhat agree with you in general though—if the web UX is a breadboard… maybe just get a breadboard? At the same time, while physical parts are generally cheap enough, power supplies, multimeters, an oscilloscope… that part of the hobby can add up. Sometimes too I am waiting a week or two for a part to arrive from Mouser, it is nice to be able to mock up a circuit online.
- asynchronous13 8mo agoThere are tons of free sim tools. 'Spice' (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) was a very early commercial sim. So many of the free ones use some variant of spice in their name. LTSpice, Qspice, etc. Kicad is an excellent free schematic capture and simulation software.
- JKCalhoun 8mo agoThanks. (And KiCad I am very familiar with already. I love that app.)
- buescher 8mo ago
- asystole 8mo agoSo we're just using "vibe coded" as a generic insult now for project we don't like?
- KeplerBoy 8mo agoWell, it somehow gives off vibecoded vibes, even though it's not. Make of that what you want, but that's expressed in quite a few comments here. Maybe it's just the extremely clean and generic presentation on the website without any links to the author / team / twitter.
- dwringer 8mo agoFor me there seems to be a listing of configurable settings or something but it only pops up for a single frame after I right-click-drag a component - this seems like a broken mouse interaction.
- IshKebab 8mo agoI don't think the vibecoding jab is warranted, but I agree this is a pretty terrible UI for electronic circuits. Schematic capture exists for a reason! It's not even difficult for beginners to understand if you have a decent UX (which for some reason seems to elude 90% of PCB software).