LLMs are jet fuel for Electrical Engineers

I’ve been a hardware engineer for my whole career. My job has always been to put tiny computers in things. The end product has been different, but my role has been more or less centered on PCB design and testing.

Software was always someone else's job. I could write code, and often did for one off scripts or test fixtures - but shipping production code has usually been someone else's responsibility. That division of labor was 100% a factor of how much time took me to do it. I didn't have enough hours in the day to both write code, and build electronics.

That limitation forced me to get very good at learning how to ask software engineers for what I want, in the most specific way I could. Datasheet references, source code hints, and "it should work this way" suggestions were all ways to get a SWE to our shared goal faster.

Turns out, a decade of practicing this was excellent training for using an LLM.

Correspondingly, frontier LLMs have been a game changer for my productivity.

I used to rely on software engineers for things like:

• peripheral configuration changes

• Developing new drivers for Linux or bare metal systems

• Modifying Linux kernel settings or configuration overlays

• Adjusting application code for new peripheral interactions

• Writing test stand software for hardware test rigs

These are all things that LLMs excel at.

All of the driver customizations I wanted to write are mine to reach out and execute.

All of the dumb little webpage and app ideas I've had, I can crank out prototypes for in minutes.

All the test equipment crap I wanted to automate, but never had time to, I can get Claude or Codex to do for me. (And I'm not the only one. I've loved seeing Reddit posts like this pop up over the last few months.)

Some examples of what I’ve been able to crank out in minutes or hours with Claude, or Codex:

• quickly making scripts to power cycle a device under test with a network power strip, and checking for expected console output via UART and ssh

• Building labelmaking software, so I can scan PCB QR codes and have a thermal printer spit out product labels

• Saving off oscilloscope captures from a networked scope, and generating mask tests

• Making a very basic static page game, to help me get better at calculating RC filter cutoff points using mental math

For someone whose whole career arc has been slinging code, this must be a terrifying time to be alive.

For me, it's like being offered career superpowers for the low, low price of $20 per month.