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I'm cataloging open source electronics

I'm cataloging open source electronics

by zciwor·Apr 28, 2026·2 points·0 comments
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AI Analysis

●●●BangerNiche GemBig BrainDark Horse

Universal ECAD visualizer rendering KiCad and Altium files directly in the browser.

Strengths
  • •Solves the 'context gap' by letting engineers see how specific parts are used in real designs.
  • •The universal visualizer tackles the messy fragmentation of ECAD file formats head-on.
  • •Indexes GitHub specifically for hardware, filling a void where software search tools fail.
Weaknesses
  • •Relies entirely on the quality and completeness of open-source repos on GitHub.
  • •Browser-based rendering of complex multi-layer PCBs may face performance limits.
Category
Hardware
Target Audience

Electrical engineers and hardware hobbyists

Similar To

Octopart · SnapEDA · GitHub Search

Post Description

GitHub's search is a great resource for software development. Being able to search an obscure function implementation and see 100s of examples in code is immensely helpful.

I've been exploring how to make something similar for electronics. To be able to search for a part number and see 100s of subcircuits using that part in context would be just as helpful.

As GitHub has become a home for a lot of open source electronics, the challenge is two fold: (1) search git repos by part and (2) build a universal ECAD visualizer (most people just upload the design files).

Happy to hear how others might approach the visualizer problem. Representing schematics and layouts across ECAD formats is... messy.

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