Desk of Ladyada โ LLMs Make EagleCAD Footprints, Daycare Edition ๐ผ๐ฆ https://youtu.be/ZsReTBDdyHI
This week at the Desk of Ladyada, we're back to hardwareโฆ with a baby in a bouncer and an LLM on the clock. The VCNL4010 proximity sensor has been discontinued, so we need to move to the VCNL4030. That means a new EagleCAD library file, and we're testing whether Claude Code (Opus, high effort) can generate one straight from the datasheet.
Historically weโve had to create a footprint for each device we use - and one of our gripes is how annoying it is to convert when manufacturers spec edge-to-edge pad dimensions instead of center-to-center pitch, which is what every CAD tool actually uses. In our experiment, Claude Code handled the math, got the pad sizes (0.65 x 0.75mm) and pitch (1.05mm) correct on the footprint, arranged logical pin grouping on the schematic and matched pin-to-pad correctly.. It even matched our drawing style by learning from existing Adafruit library files in the repo. The whole run took about 4 minutes and 45 seconds.Nota bene: it's not perfect! Our first pass had schem label overlaps and an unnecessary exposed center pad (Gemini Deep Think was actually smarter about skipping that pad).
We also tried having Claude Code design a full QT Py terminal BFF boardโฆ it worked-ish but needed enough back-and-forth that doing it by hand would've been faster. Footprint generation is ready for integration into our workflow - maybe weโll kick it off while we review the datasheet - but, full board layout isn't quite there yet.
Other things on the desk: we're setting up OpenClaw to subscribe to every chip manufacturer newsletter and generate daily reports on new components worth stocking. New protos include the TMF8806 time-of-flight sensor from AMS (up to 10 meters, and possibly simpler drivers than ST's VL53 series) and a PMW3901 optical flow sensor often used in drone navigation.
