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Show HN: VisCircuit – A Note-Taking Website for Electronics and Circuits (viscircuit.com)

120 points by darrenyaoyaoyao ↗ HN
Hi, everyone. I created a note-taking website for electronics and circuits where you can draw circuit diagrams and write text notes at the same time.

I am a Digital IC designer, and I self-study different types of analog and digital circuits a lot. However, I found a problem. Circuits have many different architectures and are hard to memorize due to numerous experiential tips. I want to document what I learn in my note app, but I found there is no method for me to easily draw circuit and block diagrams alongside text notes.

This issue has bothered me for a long time, from my master's school to my current working life. I decided to solve it, so I created a note-taking website specifically for electronics and circuits, called VisCircuit.

With VisCircuit, you can easily draw circuit diagrams, block diagrams, and write text notes simultaneously. I have already used it for two weeks and have noted down things I find hard to remember, such as SRAM, amplifier circuits, and PCB components of Arduino and Raspberry Pi. I found this tool really useful for memorizing knowledge about electronics and circuits.

Currently, I have opened VisCircuit for alpha testing, and I want to let some people use it and give me feedback. Feel free to try it, and I will really appreciate what you think about this project. Leave any suggestions for improvement. Thank you very much.

28 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 66.7 ms ] thread
jimmyswimmy
Website was not pleasant to use on mobile, I couldn't really see much, and the demo was definitely not mobile friendly. At least on a pixel 6.

I like the idea. I take it as an all in one lab notebook for electronics. You might consider adding in timing diagram tools, and an easy way to copy/paste scope shots or similar, but this seems useful.

Being clear about ownership of information posted to the site is pretty important. I'd hate to see my design data shared without permission or used to train your algorithm.

I've been wishing for years for a way to draw circuits as easily as I do on a whiteboard. Schematic capture doesn't have to be as miserable as experience as it is, but I don't have the time to make that till. Maybe you do.

I'll try to remember this for next time I'm at a computer, the Idea is pretty cool.

darrenyaoyaoyao
First, I pretty sorry that VisCircuit is unfriendly on mobile now. I currently focus on desktop web development and didn't spend too much time on mobile. For other feedbacks: 1. Timing diagram: It is a great advice! Thanks. Timing diagram is important for digital design. I wrote it down and plan to do in the future. 2. Data privacy: I totally agree, so I take data privacy at the first priority issue to make sure users data will be protected correctly. 3. I agree with you that the world needs a tool to draw circuits as easily as on a whiteboard. During my work, I always use PowerPoint to draw circuits, but it is not good enough. I will work hard to make VisCircuit an easy-to-use circuit diagram editor.

Thanks for your feedback! Welcome to try it at a computer.

analog31
I like it, and I wonder about two things. First is making it into a plug-in for Jupyter notebooks, which is presently my go-to note taking app.

Second is adding simulation.

darrenyaoyaoyao
Thanks for your feedback! 1. I wrote it down. I have plan to make my tool as plug-in for different text editor tool including VsCode or Obsidian. Now, I know someone want it on Jupyter notebooks. 2. Simulation is on my roadmap too. Even though, simulation is much hard than a note-taking tool, I will try it.

Thanks for your feedback!

analog31
I'm guessing VSCode is a good place to start. There's a lot of recent movement towards using VSCode as the preferred environment for working on Jupyter notebooks.
etimberg
Very cool project. Way back in the day I was on the team that built https://www.multisim.com/ so I've got some experience in EDA tool design.

A couple of things that I noticed at first:

1. Placing components is rather annoying. I tried to drag and drop but placing in the center of the view makes them hard to find 2. Automatic wire routing routed wires on top of symbols and component pins 3. Delete should be wired up to the delete key as well 4. By wiring pin to pin but overlapping wires it can appear that things are electrically connected when they're not if the routing places wires on top of each other

I liked how the delete cascades work. It usually takes a lot of patience to figure that logic out correctly

darrenyaoyaoyao
Thanks for your feedback! I think an EDA tool is much harder too implement.

1. Drag and drop is a really useful feature! Thanks for your advice. I use it everyday and not notice the annoying. 2. Automatic wire routing is a feature I try to improve in the future. 3. No problem. 4. Wire interconnection is an issue. I will think more about how to represent it.

Overall, thanks you very much. You feedback is really useful for me.

darrenyaoyaoyao
I already added drag and drop feature! Welcome to try it!
purple-leafy
That’s really cool! As an ex EE turned Software Eng this is something I’ll look back to when I start getting into electronics again :)
darrenyaoyaoyao
Thanks. I am an ex EE turned Software Eng too, but I switch back to EE again. That's the reason why I really want to solve the problem :)
i_don_t_know
This looks nice! A couple of things I've noticed:

1 - It's hard to wire things up. I keep missing the terminal and I'm getting the selection tool instead.

2 - Add values and units to components, for example, when you drop a resistor it'd be nice to be able to set it to 10 Ohm (and show the Omega symbol).

darrenyaoyaoyao
Thanks for your feedback.

1. Some people also complain that it's hard to wire things, and I will think about a solution. Thanks! 2. It is also an item on my TODO list. I have a text block on the whiteboard as an alternative. I put this on my TODO list because I am afraid the position of the unit label is hard to control. It may overlap with surrounding components, so I currently use a free position text block instead. I will think about this topic more.

Thanks for the feedback.

darrenyaoyaoyao
I already added label and value to the components! (Not unit yet, but you can type latex in value field to add Latin unit) Welcome to try it and feel free to give me feedback! Thanks!
[dead] oslis
[flagged]
Workaccount2
Overall looks good!

I would note that it would drive me mad that I cannot get a gate resistor on a mosfet to be perfectly inline with the gate. I think the mosfet symbol has to be slightly modified so all terminals click to the grid.

Seems the BJT has this issue too.

darrenyaoyaoyao
Hi! Do you mean the MOSFET and BJT cannot perfectly align with the background grid? I really want to solve your problem, but I cannot fully understand the issue you are facing. If it's not too much trouble, could you join our Discord and share a screenshot with me?

I really don't want to upset you. Here is the discord link: https://discord.com/invite/TfwZ3hH2D2 or you can email the screenshot to me: darren.huang@viscircuit.com

Thanks you very much

Workaccount2
https://ibb.co/PTrk9M9

I am running chrome on win10, 1920x1080 res

darrenyaoyaoyao
I fixed it. Thanks a lot! It only happens on the Demo page. Inside the circuit note, there is no such problem. I forgot to change the configuration on the Demo page. Anyway, there is no such problem now. Thanks a lot!
epiccoleman
That is really cool! I would have loved to have something like this back in college. (Not sure it would have prevented me from failing EE courses, lol, but maybe)
darrenyaoyaoyao
Electronics is a nightmare for every EE student, haha. It's the same for me too. I hope this tool can help more students and people understand electronics more easily.
JohnFen
Do you have any plans to release a non-web-based (or at least self-hosted) version of this? It looks useful enough that I could start to depend on it, but I don't want to grow to depend on something that is on the ephemeral web.
darrenyaoyaoyao
Yes! Currently, I have just made it work so that I can take notes. There are three stages in my timeline:

1. From now until 7/31, it is alpha testing. I will test its basic functions during this stage. 2. Beta testing will start on 8/1. I will keep improving the basic functions and also develop the desktop app version during this stage. 3. When version 1.0.0 is officially launched, I will publish the desktop app. This is my plan :)

abmmgb
That looks really cool very sleek! Sorry fi I mossed this but cna you export / download your notes?
darrenyaoyaoyao
Currently, I have a share function for notes. I plan to add a duplicate feature to let people copy others' notes into their accounts. Other export/download methods, including export to PDF, will be on the TODO list depending on users' feedback. Do you have any idea what kind of format is good for export/download?
ktallett
I have absolutely no use for it currently but I love the layout and design of this. Fantastic work!