Show HN: Spice simulation → oscilloscope → verification with Claude Code
49 points by _fizz_buzz_ 6 hours ago | 11 comments
I built MCP servers for my oscilloscope and SPICE simulator so Claude Code can close the loop between simulation and real hardware.
andrewklofas 52 minutes ago
Hit this exact wall six months back building Claude Code stuff for KiCad review[1]. First pass let Claude read .kicad_sch directly via grep/read. It happily invented pin numbers that didn't exist. Rewrote it with Python analyzers that spit out JSON, now Claude just reads the JSON, problem mostly went away.
replyCurious how spicelib-mcp handles models that aren't in the bundled library. Do you pass the .lib path as a tool arg, or does the server own a registry?
_fizz_buzz_ 7 minutes ago
Spicelib really just makes calls to the selected spice engine (in my case ngspice). In this setup spicelib‘s main job is to parse the raw spice data and have a unified interface regardless which spice engine is selected. But to answer the question: the path to the spice model must currently be set explicitly.
replyScene_Cast2 3 hours ago
I've found that having LLMs work with mermaid diagrams makes describing and modifying circuits less annoying.
replyArchit3ch 3 hours ago
Nice! Doing something similar with a Jumperless so that the model can reconfigure the circuit on the fly.
reply_fizz_buzz_ 3 hours ago
Oh, I remember seeing Jumperless a while ago, but completely forgot about. Combining this with something like Jumperless does sound interesting. What does your setup look like? Does Claude tell you: "try 1k resistor in parallel here"?
replyvomayank 6 hours ago
Very cool idea closing the loop between simulation and real hardware.
replyHave you found the MCP-driven workflow reliable enough for repeated testing cycles, or does it still need manual verification at key steps?
_fizz_buzz_ 5 hours ago
Claude can absolutely correct itself and change the source code on the MCU and adapt. However, it also does make mistakes, such as claiming it matched the simulation when it obviously didn't. Or it might make dubious decisions e.g. bit bang a pin instead of using the dedicated uart subsystem. So, I don't let it build completely by itself.
reply
None of the boards worked and I had to just do the project in codex. Opus seemed too busy congratulating itself to realize it produced gibberish.