Copperhead
Dev tools
pcb design tool
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
6 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 20 critical, out of 46 comments about the project. Thread score -0.24.
Idea: 4 for, 12 againstDesign: 0 for, 5 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 againstPricing: 0 for, 1 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Interest in AI-assisted hardware design
From 2 comments
it would propably help thousands of ppl ngl
krttherealest on HNWith AI enabled consumer hardware usecases going to explode this is something super relevant. At least 5 startups have pitched their wearables to me and they could definitely use…
anirudhojhaanil on HN
Objections
Website copy reads as AI-generated
From 2 comments
Might be a better website if it wasn't all clearly AI-copy. "Nothing commits without its gate."
fwip on HNI really want to like this but the AI written copy is painful. "The problem, and who hurts". Me that's who, come on guys.
webprofusion on HN
Doubts LLMs can beat classical autorouters on routing and placement
From 2 comments
> The one thing I will say, is that my experience of hardware engineers is very gatekeepy. Stay away from Reddit and forums if you want to see where the open minded people are…
Aurornis on HNPlacement was NP-hard before LLMs and it still is. The real question is whether they beat classical autorouters on anything.
marcy_74 on HN
Existing KiCad-based AI tools already do this
From 2 comments
I used claude and gemini to edit/debug kicad schematics. And it was pretty good. What is the point of this agent?
tadasv on HNJust regular coding agents are really good with Skidl schematics and can review layouts well. I'm not sure why you'd want a specialised environment for this.
edg5000 on HN
Login UI inputs not accepting typed text on desktop Chrome
From 1 comment
This is probably not the primary way people use the tool, but if I log in (desktop, Chrome on macOS), click "Start a board" on the sidebar, and go to click any of the inputs, I…
jimberlage on HN
Requests
Fully assembled boards ordered from the design output
From 1 comment
Can I take the output of this and get a fully assembled board mailed to me? Thats my dream...
tylergetsay on HN
Clarity on value versus local tools
From 1 comment
User just couldn't care less. Do it have extra feature? Speed? Ease of use?
j16sdiz on HN
Questions
How it compares to Astra and KiCad
From 1 comment
Has anyone had experience with Copperhead vs Astra and kicad? Looking for a similar tool soon
danielmorozoff on HN
Whether it runs circuit simulation
From 1 comment
Is it doing any circuit simulation or anything?
TechSquidTV on HN
Why use a hosted version
From 1 comment
Why would somebody ever use a hosted version? I see "One-click gerber, DXF/STEP, render and BOM export" and "Altium support beyond KiCad" in cloud plans, dunno if they are…
aitchnyu on HN
Alternatives named
Astra
From 2 comments
Has anyone had experience with Copperhead vs Astra and kicad? Looking for a similar tool soon
danielmorozoff on HNInterested in the evaluations of anyone actually using this. I tested over the weekend and Astra can - create and modify schematics from instructions - place components and route…
avsteele on HN
KiCad
From 2 comments
Has anyone had experience with Copperhead vs Astra and kicad? Looking for a similar tool soon
danielmorozoff on HNI used claude and gemini to edit/debug kicad schematics. And it was pretty good. What is the point of this agent?
tadasv on HN
Flux.ai
From 1 comment
The space is definitely heating up. Flux.ai being the incumbent Silixon based out of the UK have been showing demos Quilter and DeepPCB for layout The recent OpenAI demo... I…
mikeayles on HN
Quilter and DeepPCB
From 1 comment
The space is definitely heating up. Flux.ai being the incumbent Silixon based out of the UK have been showing demos Quilter and DeepPCB for layout The recent OpenAI demo... I…
mikeayles on HN
tscircuit
From 1 comment
Many of the new agentic electronic design tools are KiCad-based, which is fine, but for people creating new EDA tools I'd encourage them to take a look at tscircuit (open-source,…
seveibar on HN