Theme 1 – AI can generate simple PCB designs fast, but the output often needs human correction
- “AI is exceptionally good at RP2040/RP2350/ESP32‑based boards… the major mistakes that AI makes: 1) Improperly rotated connectors (backwards USB port) 2) Endless routing loops for complex boards 3) Really huge/unreadable single page schematics.” – seveibar
- “Even simple hobby designs were once out of reach, but now we can ‘YOLO it and build stuff fast without necessarily knowing about the details’… Without experience it's easy to pierce the veil of ‘simple circuitry’ by accident… I see many red flags (randomly placed ICs and decoupling, likely wrong length matching, …).” – Cyan488
Theme 2 – Cost and practical manufacturing considerations dominate the conversation
- “For five fully assembled boards I paid 130 Euros… I don't think the displays themselves are included in the 130 euros.” – Cyan488
- “I sent in a larger, slightly more complex board to JLCPCB… it was $175 for 5 boards with components and assembly. Shipping, tariffs (ouch), and sales taxes added another ~$100 or so.” – ac29
- “Production itself was ~$70, then $80 for shipping, taxes and fees (tarriffs?).” – sottol
Theme 3 – Skepticism about AI’s ability to handle complex/high‑speed designs and a call for better tooling/training data
- “The difference between both fields in AI capability is striking… they can hardly put that knowledge to work if instructed to generate a schematic or lay out a PCB.” – XRG
- “It’s the training data. Finished work isn’t training data because parts are sooooo different, but maybe if the finished designs were properly labeled into the training pipeline it might work?” – K0balt
- “We basically need to soup up all our collective design rule checks so that AI can work in corrective loops. It needs to check for things like ‘opamp schematic layout conventional’ and ‘trace width closely matches reference design for chip’.” – seveibar