Desk of Ladyada – Designing More Protos & Trying Out Codex

Live from the Desk of Ladyada

We're back to designing more prototypes to get the product pump primed! Having lots of boards to work with means we can reliably get one or two shipping each week. To that end, here are some upcoming chips we've made breakouts for: SLB9670VQ20FW785 (TPM chip): https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/infineon-technologies/SLB9670VQ20FW785XTMA1/11697680 INA237 (Power monitoring): https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/INA237AIDGSR/14004323 INA238 (High-speed current/voltage sensor): https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/INA238AQDGSRQ1/14641449 STSPIN220 (Stepper motor driver): https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmicroelectronics/STSPIN220/6137574 LM73100 (Hot-swap controller): https://www.digikey.com/short/hfnzpwjq SC16IS74x (UART to I²C/SPI bridge): https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nxp-usa-inc/SC16IS740IPW-128/1301043 We also tested out Codex as an alternative to Claude for code generation. One benefit is the option to select specific models. We tried o3 (which struggled) and o4-mini (which did okay), but Claude still leads for now. Protos are pumping! We're designing breakouts for new chips + testing Codex vs Claude. Also: help us find a WM8960 replacement and maybe... should bring back the DIGG button kit?