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SPICE simulation → oscilloscope → verification with Claude Code

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I built MCP servers for my oscilloscope and SPICE simulator so Claude Code can close the loop between simulation and real hardware.

HN · launched Apr 17, 2026 · 121 upvotes (top 9%) · 0 views

Niche: model context protocol tools · 465 launches, 13 in the last 7 days ▼ -24% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Manufacturing
  • Dev tools
  • Developer
  • AI feature
  • Hobby / open-source project

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More like this: all 465 launches in model context protocol tools →

Could you build this?

Partial Creating standard Model Context Protocol (MCP) server wrappers is easy, but integrating physical hardware lab instrumentation (LeCroy oscilloscopes) and electrical simulation requires specialized electronics domain knowledge.

What it would actually take: The solution combines Python-based MCP servers using PyVISA/SCPI commands over USB/Ethernet to control test equipment, alongside wrappers around SPICE engines (like ngspice or PySpice). The difficult parts include automated signal processing (synchronizing physical oscilloscope traces with simulated time-domain waveforms) and hardware-in-the-loop validation logic. This requires domain expertise in analog electronics, hardware instrumentation protocols (VISA/SCPI), and signal processing.

Discussion

20 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: FPAA (Field-Programmable Analog Arrays), Gemini, Local LLMs

Concerns raised: Claude Desktop has hardcoded 60-second tool call timeout with no config option, LLMs hallucinate without external verification/ground truth, LLMs lack understanding of circuit physics and topology, Claude getting more expensive and worse quality recently, LLMs struggle with long-running tools (e.g., 50-page PDF extraction)

Feature requests: Local LLM integration instead of cloud service, Configurable timeout for long-running tool calls, Better circuit topology understanding (AST-like representation for SPICE), Ability to handle SPICE convergence failures gracefully

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 256 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #30 of 257 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 156 days after the earliest competitor.

Related data

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