I found the library, though as long as I get the right footprint, then I am happy. Already making some progress with KiCAD now, so I will likely post an updated pic eventually

Just learning curve stuff. Given some more poking around, I'll figure stuff out enough to do what I want. My initial difficulty was getting the TA7642 IC in, since that's not a usual component. But I got that figured now at least

This is like v1 of my design, so I'm cheaping out. I'm sure there's a better way to lay this out, but I just want some boards to mess with.

It then listens on AM frequencies (best with an AM loop antenna). When a lightning strike is detected, it causes a voltage drop in the output signal. With decent antenna, you get detection range for the general max range of an AM radio station, so 70km I think (more at night).

If ya wanna know how it does its thing, it's basically a circuit featuring a TA7642, taking in a PWM 3.3V signal to then output a tunable voltage to the IC's operating voltage. This also allows tuning the sensitivity/gain of the circuit.

All AI has done in the engineering space is shown who is a productivity junkie, and made it a lot more visible. The tech industry hasn't been in a healthy state in a LONG time

Shipping features is how you a promotion. Not your promotion though, just your manager's.

I've written about this, and really for software engineers (myself included) are addicted to being productive. AI is basically a very tempting way to get that dopamine hit for completing tasks/solving problems even faster. A lot of engineers are productivity junkies.

"We must write software faster!" Do we though? Do we actually need to? I have yet to see how faster dev work will yield a better world somehow, other than being yet another way to burn out more engineers who think they can sustain that "10x output" with AI.