[nospice]

Both Gemini and ChatGPT have a pretty comically wrong knowledge of op-amps. They usually recommend outdated chips and are confused about circuit topologies. I was looking at this last week and it hasn't changed. I asked them to suggest and evaluate microphone circuits and they were just bad. I would really, really recommend reading some human-written text if you're learning about that.

I can't think of any reason why you'd want to use Schottky diodes to protect op-amp inputs. They have high leakage currents and poor surge capabilities. Most op-amps have internal protection diodes, and if you need some extra ESD or overvoltage protection, a Schottky diode probably isn't the way.

I'm not taking an anti-LLM view here. I think they are useful in some fields and are getting better. But in this particular instance, there's a breadth of excellent learning resources and the one you've chosen isn't good.

[MisterTea]

> I can't think of any reason why you'd want to use Schottky diodes to protect op-amp inputs

My first guess would be the fast switching time of the Schottky makes them appear useful for responding to transient events.

[rcxdude]

They also have a low forward voltage and an actual current rating, so it can be easier to trust that they will clamp a voltage within range indefinitely.

[rcxdude]

Probably because most of the training data includes it. A huge amount of hobbyist electronics writing on the internet has advice that hasn't been updated since the '70s.

[JKCalhoun]

Thanks, I have read a lot of human-written text (and actual books from the day) in addition to the LLM feedback. Again though, had I ignored LLMs altogether I would have barely progressed in the past two months. I think. They seem to act as an "idea board" of sorts—sends me out then looking for others to validate (or not) what they're spouting.

"Schottky diodes to protect op-amp inputs…" Not op-amp inputs, ADC inputs (which may well come from an op-amp output though—I am playing with analog computing after all).

[marcosdumay]

Those ADC probably also have protection diodes, take a look at the datasheet because you may be better with other options, and very likely can use diodes with a larger band gap if you really need bulky protection.