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Hobbyist with no PCB experience ships working RP2350 e-ink board designed unsupervised by Claude Fable 5

September 12, 2026 at 22:46 EDT

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A developer with no prior printed-circuit-board experience used Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 to drive KiCad unsupervised for a couple of hours, then paid €130 for five assembled boards without reviewing the layout himself — and the boards worked.

September 2026 · Claude Fable 5

A first PCB — designed unsupervised

A hobbyist with no board-design experience let Claude Fable 5 drive KiCad for a couple of hours, then ordered five assembled RP2350 e-ink boards for €130. They worked.

€130

five assembled boards at JLCPCB

€26

cost per board (5 units)

initial DRC errors on the layout

4-layer

31.8 × 37.32 mm RP2350A board

Connections routed, same placement

Each block is 10 nets. Freerouting stalled; KiCadRoutingTools later finished every net.

Freerouting
2 min · 17 passes · 49 left open

118

KiCadRoutingTools
1.25 s · all nets · tried after order

From English prompt to USB enumerate

1 · PROMPT

RP2350, e-ink, four buttons, I2C, GPIO

→

2 · KICAD

Fable 5 unsupervised for a couple of hours

→

3 · FAB

Wrong packages fixed, then €130 for five boards

→

4 · BRING-UP

No 3.3 V short; laptop recognized the board

What worked

First-ever PCB from a plain-English spec. USB enumerate succeeded. Album, e-reader, notes, and stopwatch ran on the 1.54-inch panel.

What did not

65 DRC errors. SPI flash and e-ink transistor used the wrong packages. Back-side routing was messy. The designer felt little accomplishment.

Two rules, two wrong parts. No manual edits; every pre-fab problem went back to Fable 5.

FLASH

W25Q128JVS on SOP-8 pads → P25Q64SH

E-INK DRIVE

Boost transistor too small for its pads

CAUGHT BY

Manufacturer upload, not a self-check

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