Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware

(withdiode.com)

187 points | by rossant 3 days ago

17 comments

  • dgxyz 2 hours ago
    I appreciated that smoke comes out of the battery if you short it :)

    Edit: I am ex EE. I will note that it's horrible using this view. It is marginally more horrible than using breadboards in reality. Schematics exist because reality tends to suck or have inconsistencies. For example TO-99 packages come in different pin orders, so 2N3904 has the opposite order to a BC547. Also breadboards tend not to have full length bus bars depending on vendors. At least though in this form it's an ideal representation though which doesn't have parasitic capacitors, inductors, dodgy contacts and no ground plane all over it.

    It is good fun though :)

  • KeplerBoy 2 hours 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).

    • asystole 4 minutes ago
      So we're just using "vibe coded" as a generic insult now for project we don't like?
    • icedrift 34 minutes ago
      On 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.
    • colesantiago 23 minutes ago
      This is actually very cool and predates vibe coding, please stop gatekeeping.
      • KeplerBoy 5 minutes ago
        I'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.

    • globular-toast 1 hour ago
      Got 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.
  • seanthemon 2 hours ago
    A more mature version of this is "CRUMB" found on steam, it costs money but it's got a lot of great features.
  • svennidal 4 hours ago
    Looks great, but pretty difficult to work with. Would be nice to be able to switch to top view to see more clearly where you're plugging things.
    • svennidal 1 hour ago
      Looks great, but pretty difficult to work with. Would be nice to be able to switch to top view to see more clearly where you're plugging things.

      Edit: Clicking the background and dragging it actually gave me the top view I was looking for. Thank you goodcanadian. That said, I still think this application is a better skillset demo than a practical tool to use.

    • goodcanadian 3 hours ago
      You can click the background and drag to rotate the view
      • lnenad 3 hours ago
        It's still clunky though. It's a great, cool thing that OP built but just not very practical.
  • 1e1a 54 minutes ago
    I feel like the fade-in animation when starting/stopping the simulation takes too long. Also, I think it would be helpful if the currently connected row was highlighted when dragging a pin.
  • 00zer00 16 minutes ago
    Nice, reminds me of https://wokwi.com/ .
  • wasmainiac 1 hour ago
    This was done before, years ago, but in 2D. I forget what it was called. It was like an LT Spice clone with better UX.
  • fileyfood500 1 hour ago
    Interesting if there could be automated circuit designs through it
  • fercircularbuf 3 hours ago
    This is really terrific!!!
  • PunchyHamster 3 hours ago
    the 3D look is cool but makes it harder to put stuff together
  • zkmon 3 hours ago
    Super cool. Wonder if we can input the circuit as code.
    • eqvinox 2 hours ago
      > Wonder if we can input the circuit as code.

      SPICE. You're describing SPICE. :)

    • bandrami 2 hours ago
      There used to be some really good web-based SPICE interpreters but I can't find them now. This was before javascript ate everything, so you would enter the netlist, click a button, and get a GIF or the current at a specified terminal or whatever
      • eqvinox 2 hours ago
        Well, SPICE is still around in its zillion forks and dialects…

        AIUI the best frontend is kicad, though I never really tried that, I just wrote the text files by hand.

  • bandrami 2 hours ago
    OK the smoke was really funny
  • sschueller 53 minutes ago
    Lol, it simulates magic smoke as well.
  • NooneAtAll3 4 hours ago
    lacks exception catching for when webgl is disabled
  • dorongrinstein 3 days ago
    wow. looks amazing
  • shakna 3 hours ago
    Holy requests, batman.

    ... Why so many requests for a static asset?

    • lm28469 1 hour ago
      Because it's yet another slopware of course
      • folli 48 minutes ago
        Please don't. The project is around since at least 2022.
  • lm28469 1 hour ago
    [flagged]
    • post-it 55 minutes ago
      Hey man, I've seen you posting salty comments a lot recently. Are you sure you're getting a positive experience out of this forum? I spend a lot of time online and when I start posting the way you do, I find that a day or two of minimizing screen time does wonders.
      • lm28469 53 minutes ago
        It's very positive don't worry about me, if you need a safe space echo chamber feel free to ignore me!
    • yusucan 1 hour ago
      dude this thing is older than vibecoding. https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=withdiode.com
      • folli 50 minutes ago
        Spending years on a cool project, and than some dude posts such a comment...
        • Keyframe 44 minutes ago
          must be real tiresome to wake up like that spitting venom