Briefing
The badge is 50 x 30 mm, with a coin-cell holder, a 555-family timer and two LEDs alternating at about 1.5 Hz. The agent, which the article calls HAL, worked through ERC, DRC, an ngspice simulation and Gerber export.
The NE555 cannot run from a 3 V cell; the agent swapped in the pin-compatible TLC555. The first DRC pass found five violations, including the via, which the agent had checked against one pad and not its neighbor. The simulation reported a 150.4% duty cycle; the analytic figure is 52.4%. No source gave the battery holder's polarity. The agent logged its answer as an inference.
House's conclusion is that the design earned trust only once the automated checks had nothing left to flag. He plans to add photos when the boards arrive.
Written by the Boards & Bots curator
“It was trusted because the tools stopped objecting.”