skill

Breakout Board Creator

Unreviewed

by Kyle Bergstedt

Generate breakout board designs for any electronic component — place the chip at center,

Overview Files Versions Dependencies Discussions Activity
skill / molecule-breakout-board-creator
!

Not installable via adompkg

This skill has no published release. adompkg install kyle/molecule-breakout-board-creator will not work until a maintainer publishes a tarball with install.sh and uninstall.sh.

See the publishing docs for the package.json schema and tarball layout required to ship this skill.

name: molecule-breakout-board-creator
description: Create breakout board designs for electronic components (ICs, modules, sensors).
Auto-generates a breakout PCB that exposes all chip pins to header rows with proper decoupling.
Use when user asks to "create a breakout board", "breakout for STM32", "make a dev board",
"generate breakout PCB", or "breakout layout for [component]".

Molecule Breakout Board Creator

Generate breakout board designs for any electronic component — place the chip at center,
route all pins to edge headers, add power decoupling, and output as an Adom molecule
with symbol, footprint, 3D model, and interactive viewer.

When to Use

  • User asks to create a breakout board for any IC, module, or sensor
  • User wants a dev board layout for a specific component
  • A wiki component page needs its breakout board section populated
  • User asks to "break out" a chip or expose its pins

Prerequisites

Before creating a breakout board, ensure the target component has:

  1. A symbol — created via symbol-creator skill, or look up in wiki
  2. A footprint — created via footprint-creator skill, or look up in wiki
  3. Pin information — from datasheet, JLCPCB, or existing symbol metadata

If any are missing, create them first using the respective skills.

Workflow

Step 1: Gather Component Info

Collect the target component's specifications:

  • Component name and manufacturer
  • Package type and pin count
  • Pin names, functions, and electrical types (from symbol metadata or datasheet)
  • Power pins (VCC/VDD, GND) and their voltage levels

Check for existing data:

# Check wiki for existing symbol/footprint
wiki_search({ query: "STM32F103C8T6" })

# Check if symbol already exists
ls /home/adom/project/project-content/schematics/symbols/STM32F103C8T6/

# Check JLCPCB for component data
jlcpcb_search({ query: "STM32F103C8T6" })

Step 2: Design the Breakout Layout

Generate a breakout specification based on the component:

Board sizing rules:

  • Width = max(component_width + 20mm, pin_rows * pitch + 10mm)
  • Height = max(component_height + 30mm, pin_columns * pitch + 10mm)
  • Minimum board size: 30mm x 30mm
  • Round up to nearest 2mm increment

Pin placement rules:

  • IC/module placed at board center
  • All pins routed straight out to 2.54mm-pitch header rows on board edges
  • Left-side IC pins → left header row
  • Right-side IC pins → right header row
  • Top/bottom IC pins → distributed to nearest edge
  • Power pins (VCC, GND) duplicated to all 4 corners for easy access

Decoupling capacitor rules:

  • One 100nF ceramic cap per VCC/VDD pin, placed within 3mm
  • One 10uF bulk cap per power rail, near board edge
  • GND via near each decoupling cap

Step 3: Generate Breakout Specification JSON

Create a breakout spec file:

{
  "name": "STM32F103C8T6_Breakout",
  "version": "v1",
  "component": {
    "name": "STM32F103C8T6",
    "manufacturer": "STMicroelectronics",
    "package": "LQFP-48",
    "pinCount": 48
  },
  "board": {
    "width_mm": 50,
    "height_mm": 60,
    "cornerRadius_mm": 1,
    "mountingHoles": true,
    "headerPitch_mm": 2.54
  },
  "powerRails": [
    { "name": "3V3", "voltage": 3.3, "pins": ["VDD_1", "VDD_2", "VDD_3", "VDDA"] },
    { "name": "GND", "voltage": 0, "pins": ["VSS_1", "VSS_2", "VSS_3", "VSSA"] }
  ],
  "decoupling": [
    { "value": "100nF", "package": "0402", "perPin": true, "rails": ["3V3"] },
    { "value": "10uF", "package": "0805", "perRail": true, "rails": ["3V3"] }
  ],
  "pinMapping": [
    { "icPin": "PA0", "function": "GPIO/ADC", "side": "left", "row": 0 },
    { "icPin": "PA1", "function": "GPIO/ADC", "side": "left", "row": 1 }
  ]
}

Step 4: Generate Output Files

Create the molecule directory structure:

/home/adom/project/molecules/adom/COMPONENT_Breakout/
  metadata.json
  v1/
    COMPONENT_Breakout_symbol.json    # Board-level symbol (all header pins)
    COMPONENT_Breakout_footprint.json # PCB footprint with pads
    COMPONENT_Breakout.kicad_pcb      # KiCad PCB file (if KiCad CLI available)
    breakout-spec.json                # The specification from Step 3
    images/
      top.png                         # Board top render
      bottom.png                      # Board bottom render
    optimized/
      model.glb                       # 3D model for viewer

Symbol JSON — follows the scaffold symbol pattern:

{
  "symbolName": "STM32F103C8T6_Breakout",
  "pins": [
    {
      "name": "PA0",
      "edge": "left",
      "position": [0, 0, 0],
      "orientation": "left",
      "originalPadDetails": {
        "finalName": "PA0",
        "holeType": "medium",
        "holeSubtype": "contact",
        "drill": 1.0
      }
    }
  ]
}

Footprint JSON — follows the scaffold footprint pattern:

{
  "boardName": "STM32F103C8T6_Breakout",
  "boardDimensions": { "width": 50, "height": 60 },
  "machinePins": [
    { "name": "MH1", "packageName": "MOUNTING_HOLE", "drillDiameter": 3.2, "position": {"x": 3, "y": 3} },
    { "name": "MH2", "packageName": "MOUNTING_HOLE", "drillDiameter": 3.2, "position": {"x": 47, "y": 3} },
    { "name": "MH3", "packageName": "MOUNTING_HOLE", "drillDiameter": 3.2, "position": {"x": 3, "y": 57} },
    { "name": "MH4", "packageName": "MOUNTING_HOLE", "drillDiameter": 3.2, "position": {"x": 47, "y": 57} }
  ],
  "contacts": [
    { "name": "PA0", "elementName": "J1-1", "packageName": "HEADER_2P54", "drillDiameter": 1.0, "position": {"x": 2.54, "y": 10} }
  ]
}

Step 5: Generate Interactive Viewer

Create a 2D interactive HTML viewer (self-contained, no external deps):

  • Board outline with rounded corners
  • IC package silhouette at center
  • Header pin rows on edges with labels
  • Color-coded by signal type:
    • Power (VCC): #f85149 (red)
    • Ground: #3fb950 (green)
    • GPIO: #58a6ff (blue)
    • Analog: #d29922 (gold)
    • Communication (SPI/I2C/UART): #bc8cff (purple)
    • Other: #8b949e (gray)
  • Pan and zoom via mouse
  • Hover shows pin name, function, and IC pin mapping
  • Dark theme matching Hydrogen (#0d1117 background)

Step 6: Display in Gallia Viewer

# Display 3D model (if available)
gv_3d_display({ glb_path: "/path/to/model.glb", title: "STM32F103 Breakout" })

# Display 2D viewer
gv_display_file({ path: "/path/to/breakout-2d.html", title: "STM32F103 Breakout - 2D" })

Step 7: Update Wiki (if wiki service running)

# Add or update the breakout section on the component's wiki page
wiki_edit_page({
  type: "component",
  slug: "stm32f103c8t6",
  field: "content",
  content: "... updated content with breakout board section ..."
})

Signal Type Classification

Classify each pin for color coding:

Signal Type Color Examples
Power Red #f85149 VCC, VDD, VBAT
Ground Green #3fb950 GND, VSS, AGND
GPIO Blue #58a6ff PA0, PB1, GPIO4
Analog Gold #d29922 ADC_IN, DAC_OUT
Communication Purple #bc8cff SPI_MOSI, I2C_SDA, UART_TX
Clock/Reset Cyan #00b8b0 XTAL, NRST, CLK
Debug Orange #f0883e SWDIO, SWCLK, JTAG
NC/Reserved Gray #8b949e NC, RESERVED

Board Design Templates

Small IC (< 20 pins, QFN/SSOP/SOT)

  • Board: 30mm x 40mm
  • Single row headers on left and right
  • 2 mounting holes (diagonal corners)

Medium IC (20-64 pins, LQFP/QFP)

  • Board: 50mm x 60mm
  • Dual row headers on left and right
  • 4 mounting holes (all corners)

Large IC (64+ pins, BGA/LQFP-100+)

  • Board: 70mm x 80mm
  • Quad row headers on all 4 sides
  • 4 mounting holes + additional mid-edge holes

Module (ESP32, etc.)

  • Board: module_width + 15mm x module_height + 30mm
  • Headers match module pin spacing
  • Antenna keepout zone marked
  • USB/programming header at board edge

Example: Complete STM32F103 Breakout

User: Create a breakout board for the STM32F103C8T6

Steps:
1. Look up STM32F103C8T6 — 48-pin LQFP, Cortex-M3
2. Get pin data from existing symbol or datasheet
3. Use "Medium IC" template: 50x60mm board
4. Map 48 pins to left/right headers (24 per side)
5. Add 4x 100nF caps (3 VDD + 1 VDDA)
6. Add 1x 10uF bulk cap
7. Add 8MHz crystal + 2x 20pF load caps (optional)
8. Add SWD debug header (4-pin: SWDIO, SWCLK, GND, 3V3)
9. Generate symbol, footprint, 3D model, 2D viewer
10. Display in Gallia Viewer
11. Save as molecule: /home/adom/project/molecules/adom/STM32F103C8T6_Breakout/