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mikeayles

396karma·75submissions·November 25, 2025
about
I build complex technical tools, from automated hardware development pipelines to raycasting engines in CAD software.

The DOOM on Engineering Tools Series:

OpenSCAD-DOOM: Raycasting in a parametric CAD language, now playable in browser. (The Register)

KiDoom: DOOM rendered on PCB traces. #1 on HN. (The Register, Hackaday)

ScopeDoom: Vector rendering on an oscilloscope via audio DAC. #1 on HN. (The Register, Hackaday)

The Serious Work:

Phaestus: Compiler for physical products. Generates schematics, PCBs, enclosures, and firmware from natural language.

Bitwise-MCP: MCP server for embedded systems. Indexes 1000+ page reference manuals with hybrid keyword/semantic search.

TOKN: Token-Optimised KiCad Notation. A compact encoding format that reduces schematic token count by 92%, enabling LLM circuit generation. Includes benchmark suite comparing model performance on hardware tasks.

Engine Simulator: Thermodynamic diesel engine model at 0.1° crank resolution, vanilla JS in browser.

I specialise in solving "impossible" technical problems and shipping validated products.

mike@mikeayles.com | mikeayles.com

recent activity (75 total)
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https://mikeayles.com Mainly electronics, kicad and other nonsense
7mo ago·view thread
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For AI designed schematics, you need to check out flux.ai (and quilter for layout), I don't have anything to do with this, i'm a little jealous tbh, but having used it, it's not for me …
7mo ago·view thread
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Yep, exactly. I'll do another blog when I have a little more to show, but the concept is, everything is on a grid of 12.7mm squares, where there is a common bus running through north-south. The b…
7mo ago·view thread
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I think we are targeting different ends of the market, but I'm trying to do a full product development pipeline end to end. PCB, enclosure, peripherals, firmware. https://github.com&#x…
7mo ago·view thread
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Most washing machines use a wax motor to lock the door, it heats up wax to cause it to expand when it melts, which drives a pin. They're fairly failsafe as if you kill power, they will open no ma…
7mo ago·view thread
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Well thanks for that rabbit hole. I was hoping the dingus was the actual term, but sadly not. For anyone needing some pub quiz trivia, a lower case g has the top half which is called the bowl, the bit…
7mo ago·view thread
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Have you checked out circuitsnips and kicanvas?
8mo ago·view thread
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I'm currently working on something that lets you describe a hardware product in plain English and get actual manufacturable files out — PCB, enclosure, firmware, the lot. Very early days still. W…
8mo ago·view thread
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Thanks very much. ScopeDOOM definitely has potential, I need to work on the occlusion logic to clean up the display, whilst it's not particularly visible on the demo, I did actually use distance …
8mo ago·view thread
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This isn't using the KiCad socket API, although it probably would have been cleaner. It's a bog standard Plugin that should work for v6+. I'd be keen to have a look at your s-expr libra…
8mo ago·view thread
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Author here: I pulled inspiration from this port to a vectrex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuVnoqFF3II , there is a wayback machine link to the authors writeup credited in my write…
8mo ago·view thread
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What an honour, thanks
8mo ago·view thread
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So the reason everything is on one net is so kicad doesn't need to calculate a ratsnest/air wires. As for the drawing, we pulled the vectors as a list from the C, and used a painters algo an…
8mo ago·view thread
362 pts
Show HN: KiDoom – Running DOOM on PCB Traces(mikeayles.com)
8mo ago·49 comments