[HN Gopher] Atopile - Design circuit boards with code
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Atopile - Design circuit boards with code
Author : poly2it
Score : 80 points
Date : 2025-07-13 08:05 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (atopile.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (atopile.io)
| yodon wrote:
| If the important thing is "with code" then show me the code.
|
| I gave up hunting through your website because I never managed to
| find an example of what the code for a real circuit looks like.
| That should be front and center on the first page.
| kitd wrote:
| You must have given up pretty quick."ato Language" in the left-
| hand navigator under "Essentials" is pretty obvious.
|
| https://atopile.io/atopile/essentials/1-the-ato-language
| yodon wrote:
| That's a language definition not an example of what a real
| circuit looks like in code.
| gus_massa wrote:
| Where is an example like a " _Full Bridge Rectifier_ "?
| themgt wrote:
| This project looked like an interesting example of what was
| possible: https://github.com/atopile/spin-servo-drive
|
| https://github.com/atopile/cell-sim/ also quite interessting.
| ted_dunning wrote:
| How about this?
|
| https://packages.atopile.io/packages/atopile/ti-lv284x/relea...
| AdamH12113 wrote:
| That example puts silkscreen reference designators on
| component pads, which is... not great.
| sleepytimetea wrote:
| I agree - we need a large example not the toy examples of
| NeoPixels chained together. Also, in the Github module library,
| I found only ESP32-C3 modules but the hobbyists use ESP8266 and
| ESP32 and ESP12-E as well as STM dev modules...I suppose its
| one of those things where contributors will help populate the
| library but I don't see instructions on how to build all the
| artifacts I see in the library - there are atleast 12 artifacts
| for each module...
| tomhow wrote:
| Previously:
|
| _Show HN: Atopile - Design circuit boards with code_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39263854 - Feb 2024 (292
| comments)
| amelius wrote:
| My reaction to the first comment would be that for more
| flexibility you could write a Python script to generate the
| .ato netlist.
| ted_dunning wrote:
| Sure.
|
| But that flexibility means that you lose a lot of common
| constraints that are actually desirable.
| eigen wrote:
| title says design circuit boards, but it looks to just be netlist
| generation which is used as input to an external layout tool.
| step 5 is to use kicad to do lay out.
|
| https://atopile.io/atopile/quickstart#a-typical-workflow
|
| A typical workflow
|
| 1. Sketch your circuit on paper.
|
| 2. Search https://packages.atopile.io and GitHub for pre-existing
| modules you need, and use ato install to install them.
|
| 3. Design a module and do its calculations using ato code.
|
| 4. Run ato build to compile your project, choose components to
| suit your design, and update your layout (PCB) file.
|
| 5. Use KiCAD to lay out any changes
|
| 6. Repeat steps 3-5 until you're happy with your design.
|
| 7. When you're done with your design, push your changes to your
| repo.
|
| 8. CI will automatically build and test your project, and
| generate the manufacturing files you need to order your PCBs.
|
| 9. Take these manufacturing files to your PCB manufacturer to get
| your PCBAs.
| amelius wrote:
| It still makes sense though. In many cases, especially in
| digital design, circuits look like islands of isolated
| components where the labels are actually defining the
| connections between them.
| imtringued wrote:
| I would agree if manufacturers bothered to provide machine
| readable data sheets [0]. If you have to read the data sheet
| and manually write your component definitions, then this
| won't be much faster than doing it with a GUI.
|
| [0] To be fair I'm not a professional electrical engineer,
| maybe there are expensive databases that I don't have access
| to. I personally always thought that EDA tools have a natural
| business opportunity where they give you the razor for free
| (the EDA software) and sell you the razor blades (e.g. part
| libraries).
| amelius wrote:
| For some more context, here is a typical example:
|
| https://dl.espressif.com/dl/schematics/esp32_devkitc_v4-sch
| ....
| delfinom wrote:
| Most semiconductor vendors have now outsourced library
| creations (for free to end users) to services like
| UltraLibrarian where you pick what you want and download.
|
| The quality however is meh.
|
| Libraries are a very touchy subject. Most of the time,
| outsiders to the field just want "plug and play".
|
| Professionals in the field? Holy fucking hell can we get
| neurotic. In a large company you may have more than one
| person dedicated just to managing libraries and drawing
| them to your standards instead of letting the internet do
| it. And there's a whole list of reasons why one may do it
| vs. not do so. (Schematics are a form of design expression
| and as such there are many standards and thoughts on
| optimal forms of expression, including dependency on the
| particular sub-industry you are)
|
| No different than software engineers having their favorite
| programming language, markup language, config file
| language, code style guidelines, deployment workflows, etc.
| iamflimflam1 wrote:
| I'm did some vibe hardware design using atopile recently - it's
| surprisingly good. https://youtu.be/UQCpDarEoBc
| IshKebab wrote:
| So, as noted by yodon you have to go a long way through the
| website to figure out what this actually is:
|
| https://atopile.io/atopile/essentials/1-the-ato-language
|
| So the idea is you basically do all of your connections (the
| netlist) in code. That actually seems like a reasonable idea to
| me, especially for digital electronics.
|
| _However_ , I would say that schematic capture is only a small
| minority of the work of most circuit design. Probably 90% is
| creating components and layout/routing.
|
| > If you want to layout or route PCBs you will need to install
| KiCAD.
|
| I couldn't really figure out what the deal is with components.
| They have a website with a few packages on it
| (https://packages.atopile.io/) and they say:
|
| > Check first-party packages for a list designed and used
| internally at atopile. Discussion planning to open this up
| publicly These are built, known to work and come with a
| functioning layout too.
|
| Ah also I didn't realise this is actually a startup. Makes sense
| given how much effort seems to have gone into that website!
| noncoml wrote:
| Sounds awesome. Would love to see a video demonstration of it
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