For your team
For makers who’d rather skip the board
Plenty of maker projects start in a PCB tool out of habit — but the real goal is often just a device that senses something and reacts, not a custom board. Learning ECAD, ordering fabs, and debugging firmware is a lot of yak-shaving for a project that mostly needs to read a sensor and show a result. Sometimes you want the thing to exist this weekend, not after the next board order arrives.
When a PCB is overkill
A custom board is the right call when you need a specific form factor, a production run, or full control over components. But a lot of maker projects don’t — they need to sense, decide, and display or speak. For those, the board, the fab order, and the firmware are pure overhead between you and a working device.
How Palpable helps
Plug certified Qwiic modules into a Pi, describe the behavior in plain English or by voice, and PAL writes the TypeScript and runs it — locally, offline-capable, with OTA updates and automatic rollback. The code, plus REST/WebSocket APIs and a CLI, are all yours to read and extend, so you keep the tinkering without the bring-up.
What you’d build
A weather display, a motion-activated gadget, a sensor logger that talks to your home server — whatever you’d normally breadboard, running on a Pi within an evening. Change it by describing the change, and crack open the TypeScript whenever you want to go deeper.
Honest caveat
If designing the board is the point — you love ECAD, you need a custom layout, or you’re building for manufacture — keep using KiCad, Flux, or EAGLE; Palpable doesn’t design PCBs. It’s for the projects where the board was only ever a means to a working device.
When the project just needs to work, skip the board and have PAL run it on a Pi.
Questions
Does Palpable design PCBs?
No. It runs device behavior on a Pi with plug-and-play Qwiic modules, so most projects skip board design entirely. For a custom board, keep using your ECAD tool.
Can I still get into the code?
Yes. Scripts are TypeScript and every project exposes REST and WebSocket APIs plus a CLI — read it, extend it, integrate it however you like.
When should I design a board instead?
When you need a specific form factor, a production run, or full component control. For sense-and-react projects, the Pi-and-modules path is faster.
Make something you can hold.
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