Chip Hippo in the Browser

Chip Hippo also runs in a web browser, with nothing to install. It is the same app: the same desk, parts, simulation (both engines), examples, CPU monitor, chip designer and 3D view. Your work stays in the browser on your own computer, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Each Chip Hippo release comes out in both forms at once: the desktop app, and the web version at the same version number.

Which browser

Any current browser runs Chip Hippo. Chrome and Edge do the most:

Saving your work

The working copy is saved automatically, exactly as on the desktop. An untitled project lives in the browser and is there again next time you open Chip Hippo. Projects with unsaved changes are kept safe if the tab closes.

In Chrome and Edge, File ▸ Open… and Save As… use your computer's own file dialogs. A project you save is a real .chiphippo file, the same format the desktop app uses, so you can move projects between the two freely. The first time you save to a file in a session, the browser asks whether Chip Hippo may change it.

In Safari and Firefox a web page can't write to a file on your computer. Instead, Save As… asks for a name and keeps the project in the browser. File ▸ Open… lists every project kept there, and each has a Download button that gives you a copy as a .chiphippo file. Upload from Computer… brings a file in. Exports (a desktop, a KiCad or Digital export, a ROM image, a serial log, generated Arduino code) are downloaded. A KiCad export arrives as a single .zip.

Projects kept in the browser live in that browser's storage. Clearing your browsing data for the site deletes them, so download a copy of anything you want to keep.

Windows

The pin assignments, memory inspector, chip designer, CPU monitor, floated sliders, serial connection windows and this guide each open in a window of their own, as they do on the desktop. If your browser blocks them, Chip Hippo shows an Open Window button. Allow pop-ups for the site to skip that step.

Chip Hippo runs in one tab at a time. Opening it in a second tab shows a note until the first one closes.

Menus and shortcuts

There is no menu bar. Its commands are in the app itself:

• File: the toolbar's File group has New, Open (a right-click lists recent projects), Save and Save As. Bill of Materials is in the desk tools.
• Desktop: the tab strip's + and each tab's right-click menu.
• Settings: the gear at the top right.
• Help: the book beside the gear opens the Help menu: the User Guide, Support, Keyboard Shortcuts, Check for Updates and About.

The shortcuts all still work: Cmd/Ctrl+S, Cmd/Ctrl+Z, Cmd/Ctrl+,, Cmd/Ctrl+/ and the rest. A browser keeps a few for itself and never passes them to a page: Cmd/Ctrl+N, Cmd/Ctrl+W and Cmd/Ctrl+T. Use New in the toolbar's File group instead.

What is different

• The Arduino integration needs Chrome or Edge, which can reach a USB serial port. In Settings ▸ Serial I/O, click Add Device… and choose the board in the browser's own list. A board you have allowed stays allowed next time.
• The AI circuit builder calls the provider straight from your browser, with your own key. The key is kept in this browser's storage, not in an operating-system keychain, and anything that runs on the site could read it.
• Datasheets: Settings ▸ Data Sheets can point at a folder of PDFs on your computer (in Safari and Firefox, for that visit only). The Download button is not offered, because the manufacturers' sites don't allow a web page to fetch their PDFs.
• Updates arrive on their own. A new release is fetched in the background and Chip Hippo offers Restart to switch to it.
• Offline: after the first visit, Chip Hippo opens without a connection. The guide's pages and the datasheet pictures you have already looked at are available offline too.