August 8, 2024

PCB Design Tutorial: AI Pendant

Ryan, an electronics engineer holding an AI pin he created using Flux with the help of Copilot.

AI pins are transforming how we interact with technology—offering personalized, hands-free, and context-aware assistance that fits seamlessly into our daily lives. Imagine having an AI-powered device that anticipates your needs, responds to your voice commands, and integrates effortlessly with your routine. What if you could design your own AI pin quickly and easily? With Flux, you can.

Flux's mission is to make hardware design accessible and efficient for everyone. Our powerful AI Copilot acts as your personal design assistant, streamlining the process and allowing you to create sophisticated hardware in a fraction of the time. In this blog, we'll show you how to leverage Flux to design your own AI pin in just a few hours.

Design an AI Pin with Flux: A Step-by-Step Guide

Designing an AI pin would normally take months, but in this project, we did it in hours. In our step-by-step guide, you'll see how Flux can accelerate your design process and bring your AI pin project to life.

Step 1: Choose a Template

Without Flux, a project would need to start from scratch. With Flux, you can kickstart your project by selecting a ready-made template from Flux’s extensive library. These templates provide a solid foundation, allowing you to focus on customizing and refining your design rather than starting from scratch.

Step 2: Architecture Design with Copilot

Next, use Copilot to generate and refine block diagrams. Instead of brainstorming with a team, which you might not have access to, you can use Copilot's conversational interface to ask questions, request changes, and iteratively improve your design until it perfectly suits your project needs.

Step 3: Research and Integrate Components

No more sifting through Mouser or Digi-Key, researching hundreds of components, reading through datasheets one by one. With Copilot's help, find and integrate the best components for your design. Copilot assists in researching part numbers (MPNs) and suggesting optimal components, ensuring your AI pin is built with the best available parts.

Step 4: Generate Netlists and Configure Components

Once parts are selected, it’s time to wire up your schematic. Normally this would require comparing datasheets one by one to figure out interconnections. With Flux, Copilot does all of the heavy lifting for you. Automate netlist generation and component configuration with Copilot’s assistance by having it tell you which pins connect where and even watching it wire up components for you. This step simplifies the intricate process of connecting different parts of your design, allowing you to focus on innovation rather than manual configuration.

Step 5: Design Reviews and Final Layout

Working alone but need another set of eyes to review your project? With AI guidance, you can perform thorough design reviews and finalize your layout. Copilot helps you compare your design to datasheets and common practices, ensuring accuracy and reliability. It also extracts the necessary equations to check your calculations, giving you confidence in your design.

Tutorial and Project Link

Ready to get started? Watch our tutorial video for a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough of the design process. Then, open the example project and follow along to create your own AI pin. You'll see firsthand how Flux and Copilot make hardware design faster, easier, and more fun.

Call to Action

Experience the future of hardware design today. Sign up for Flux, open the project, and start designing your own AI pin. Discover how AI can transform your design process, unlock the power of Copilot, and achieve rapid results.

Join the revolution of AI pins — sign up for Flux and start creating now!

Profile avatar of the blog author

Lance Cassidy

Lance is Co-Founder & CDO of Flux, a hardware design platform that's revolutionizing how teams create and iterate on circuits. Find him on Flux @lwcassid

Go 10x faster from idea to PCB
Work with Flux like an engineering intern—automating the grunt work, learning your standards, explaining its decisions, and checking in for feedback at key moments.
Illustration of sub-layout. Several groups of parts and traces hover above a layout.
Design PCBs with AI
Introducing a new way to work: Give Flux a job and it plans, explains, and executes workflows inside a full browser-based eCAD you can edit anytime.
Screenshot of the Flux app showing a PCB in 3D mode with collaborative cursors, a comment thread pinned on the canvas, and live pricing and availability for a part on the board.
Design PCBs with AI
Introducing a new way to work: Give Flux a job and it plans, explains, and executes workflows inside a full browser-based eCAD you can edit anytime.
Screenshot of the Flux app showing a PCB in 3D mode with collaborative cursors, a comment thread pinned on the canvas, and live pricing and availability for a part on the board.
Design PCBs with AI
Introducing a new way to work: Give Flux a job and it plans, explains, and executes workflows inside a full browser-based eCAD you can edit anytime.
Screenshot of the Flux app showing a PCB in 3D mode with collaborative cursors, a comment thread pinned on the canvas, and live pricing and availability for a part on the board.

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