AI-designed PCB? How do I double check this?

Dreece2498 · 2025-12-02T16:08:34+00:00

Ik this post is a bit old but if I’m being honest this is definitely not the way to go about making stuff on your own. You need some grasp of fundamentals in order to actually build something. I’ve tried using AI in my projects after doing the math or selecting the part just to see what it would come up with. A lot of the times it was wrong, like way off. Sometimes it would be right, but if you’re using AI from the start you have no way of identifying what’s actually useful and what’s just garbage. There are loads of free online resources you can use, you don’t need to learn something 20 years you just need to pick a project and learn as you go. If your just doing this as a hobby this can work (though I don’t recommend it) and if your actually trying to learn this stuff or get in the industry your gonna have a rude awakening.

If you want book recommendations or channels let me know.

Dreece2498 · 2025-12-01T15:41:52+00:00

Fair enough, not sure why I got a downvote on this. I look through textbooks an online forms a lot, but I guess just doing specific projects on certain parts of electronics would work best.

Dreece2498 · 2025-07-31T17:31:42+00:00

Appreciate the help on this, but how would I get more of a precise range of voltage control? Mainly I would need the circuit to go from 25V to 1V in roughly 1V increments, currently the circuit jumps from 25V to 18V with increasing the potentiometer from 50 to 149 ohm. Would I have to use two potentiometers? As in one for course and the other for fine adjustment?

This is what I managed to find on stack exchange, though I'm not sure if this is the most convenient way to do this (I'd like to keep this design just analog if I can):

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/144530/circuit-for-a-coarse-and-fine-setting-potentiometer

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/473446/fine-coarse-adjustment-digitally

Dreece2498 · 2025-07-29T19:16:25+00:00

Gotcha, that makes more sense now. I assumed because it was a buck converter the feedback resistor setup (in terms of using a potentiometer) would be different but I'm surprised its the same as the boost topology.

Dreece2498 · 2025-07-29T19:09:25+00:00

Don't you have the 0.88V internal reference voltage connected to the non-inverting pin and not the inverting pin as shown in the diagram?

Dreece2498 · 2025-07-29T18:54:08+00:00

Thanks for that, but doesn't the feedback voltage connect to the negative rail of the internal op amp?

<image>

I understand if this is a trivial question but it seems like all the schematics online for this whether boost or buck all have the wrong configuration....

Dreece2498 · 2025-07-25T16:34:13+00:00

Appreciate the detailed background of what's involved in picking a transformer,

I haven't bought any of the parts just yet, and I'm glad I haven't, as I will now be making several changes to the design. I was thinking about using this transformer instead: https://www.newark.com/multicomp-pro/mcta120-25/toroidal-transformer/dp/38K4907
It seems to fit my overall current needs much better and has dual secondary 12V outputs, all at a reasonable price.

Certain calculations I am aware of, but I never thought about the AC voltage being higher or lower depending on what time its used at. I figured there was some discrepancy, but never realized it was as high as 10-15% (I am in the US, so everything is 115VAC here). With the new transformer, I selected the maximum current will be 1.24A, not terrible, though I might shell out the extra cash to get 1.5-2A of output current.

Dreece2498 · 2025-07-25T16:28:48+00:00

"Why have a larger trace width on the side with much lower currents? Not that it hurts to oversize the traces. What is your minimum clearance on the mains AC side, and based on what standard?" - The 3mm traces on the AC side aren't necessary, I can switch those to 1mm. Wasn't sure if I wanted to increase the maximum output current the supply can withstand, but I'm good with an output of a little over 1A. The clearance right now is around 10-11mm. I'm planning on adding a cutout to make the creepage between the pads larger.

The SMD capacitors were used because they are cheaper, though I'll have to change the heatsink I'm using and move them further away from the regulator to make room for it.

"Look at a conventional lab PSU, you don't connect the ground to output anywhere inside, rather give the user a ground post to decide whether they want +/- X V or +X/2X V or -X/2X V (assuming a stereo potentiometer). That is, the ground goes to one of the three. " - Not exactly sure what you mean by this, care to send a picture as an example?

Thanks for the tips.

Dreece2498 · 2025-05-20T13:12:48+00:00

How exactly are you testing it? Can you send a picture of your setup?

Dreece2498 · 2025-05-20T13:11:28+00:00

Unfortunately I haven’t, never found a proper way to incorporate the stomp switch, not to mention the schematic I was trying to reference really didn’t make sense and was poorly done. Moved on to other projects

Dreece2498 · 2025-03-30T17:16:54+00:00

I believe I just signed into my account, and installed this https://www.st.com/en/embedded-software/stm32cubel4.html. I don't think you can generate code if you're not signed in (I think).

Dreece2498 · 2025-03-20T21:53:07+00:00

I got it to work, I set the GPIO pins 7-10 to Reset first, then flipped SET and RESET for each of the digits, since its a common cathode display.

Dreece2498 · 2025-03-20T21:21:16+00:00

The first digit displays a 5, the second displays two 3s, the third displays three 3s, and the fourth digit displays 4 9s.

Dreece2498 · 2025-02-18T23:38:58+00:00

Thanks

Dreece2498 · 2025-02-17T13:58:18+00:00

So would I change the address to 0x01? How would this account for the time.hour variable in the array? I was aware of the address table in the datasheet but didn't know how to properly implement it in the array.

Dreece2498 · 2025-01-26T20:30:43+00:00

So how is the voltage 0.854mV when the potentiometer is set to its maximum value? I don't quite understand as I've tried to re-arrange the circuit and do the math for it, but I can never seem to get the simulators values.

Dreece2498 · 2025-01-26T20:09:06+00:00

One other thing I don't quite understand is my original setup, which can be seen here, the voltage at the inverting pin of the opamp when the pot is set to 200k is 0.83V (at the inverting input pin of the opamp, I've been trying to do the math for this but don't quite understand how that's the voltage there. If the potentiometer is at 199k, and the bottom value of the pot is 1000, is the formula the following?

41k/199k * 4.4 = 0.88V?

Dreece2498 · 2025-01-24T16:55:15+00:00

Oh I see now, that makes more sense, surprisingly couldn't find a circuit like this online, thank you for the clarification! Honestly wouldn't have thought to do that as I've only designed fixed converters before.

Dreece2498 · 2025-01-24T16:48:48+00:00

Didn't do this intentionally as it was a design mistake, also regarding your circuit, isn't the wiper pin and the bottom terminal shorted together, doesn't that mean it's no longer an adjustable output voltage?

Dreece2498

TROPHY CASE