“With Electronics Workbench, you can create circuit schematics that look just the same as those you’re already familiar with on paper—plus you can flip the power switch so the schematic behaves like a real circuit. With other electronics simulators, you may have to type in SPICE node lists as text files—an abstract representation of a circuit beyond the capabilities of all but advanced electronics engineers.” —(Electronics Workbench User’s guide—version 4, page 7) This introduction comes from the operating manual for a circuit simulation program called Electronics Workbench. Using a graphic interface, it allows the user to draw a circuit schematic and then have the computer analyze that circuit, displaying the results in graphic form. It is a very valuable analysis tool, but it has its shortcomings. For one, it and other graphic programs like it tend to be unreliable when analyzing complex circuits, as the translation from picture to computer code is not quite the exact science we would want it to be (yet).
Secondly, due to its graphics requirements, it tends to need a significant amount of computational “horsepower” to run, and a computer operating system that supports graphics. Thirdly, these graphic programs can be costly. However, underneath the graphics skin of Electronics Workbench lies a robust (and free!) program called SPICE, which analyzes a circuit based on a text-file description of the circuit’s components and connections. What the user pays for with Electronics Workbench and other graphic circuit analysis programs is the convenient “point and click” interface, while SPICE does the actual mathematical analysis. By itself, SPICE does not require a graphic interface and demands little in system resources. It is also very reliable. The makers of Electronic Workbench would like you to think that using SPICE in its native text mode is a task suited for rocket scientists, but I’m writing this to prove them wrong.
SPICE is fairly easy to use for simple circuits, and its non-graphic interface actually lends itself toward the analysis of circuits that can be difficult to draw. I think it was the programming expert Donald Knuth who quipped, “What you see is all you get” when it comes to computer applications. Graphics may look more attractive, but abstracted interfaces (text) are actually more efficient. This document is not intended to be an exhaustive tutorial on how to use SPICE. I’m merely trying to show the interested user how to apply it to the analysis of simple circuits, as an alternative to proprietary ($$$) and buggy programs. Once you learn the basics, there are other tutorials better suited to take you further. Using SPICE—a program originally intended to develop integrated circuits—to analyze some of the really simple circuits showcased here may seem a bit like cutting butter with a chain saw, but it works! Windows vista updates.
Free Circuit Simulation Programs
All options and examples have been tested on SPICE version 2g6 on both MS-DOS and Linux operating systems. As far as I know, I’m not using features specific to version 2g6, so these simple functions should work on most versions of SPICE.
Circuit Simulation Software
Introduction This section will focus on some popular circuit simulators both and will include some tutorials. Until computers were available, circuit analysis was done by hand with pencil and paper, calculations were long and often prone to error. With a computer, results are available in seconds and printouts can be produced. Also, measurements which would be difficult or impossible to do on a real circuit can be made on a simulator. Many programs allow schematic capture and some even allow creation of a PCB layout.
You still have to design the circuit yourself, and results will only be as good as your initial circuit input. Most Simulation programs are based on the original 1970's program and some have additional features.
The original Spice2 program was wrote in fortran and contained models for transistors, FET's, diodes, resistors and capacitors and could perform AC and DC analysis, transient and time domain analysis. The later Spice3 version included models for MOSFET and added noise, distortion and pole-zero analysis, temperature sweeping, monte carlo and fourier analysis. Though not a simulator itself, Kicad is a very capable PCB drafting program and will also be featured in this section. Click the logos for the appropriate simulator page. Click the logos for the appropriate simulator page. 'TINA' stands for ( Toolkit for Interactive Network Analysis) and is made by from. It has schematic capture and can perform many analog and digital analyses.
LT Spice IV is a free spice 3 based simulator from. Originally called Switchercad this simulator was used in analyzing switched mode power supplies, but has the ability to work with transistors, FET's and IC's and has become an invaluable tool for circuit simulation and schematic drafting. To get a copy, visit this page on. The program can be run under both windows and linux.
Sadly Circuit Maker is no longer available but has now become. Circuit Maker was the first program I ever bought and there's still a large following and I hope you find something useful in this section. Though not a simulator in itself, is an open source schematic capture and PCB drafting program.
Designed and written by Jean-Pierre Charras, it runs on both windows and linux and features auto and manual, routing, output in gerber format and can generate beautiful rendered 3D graphics view of your PCB. The title (link) gives examples of Circuit simulations with Spice2, Spice3, Spice Opus and NGSpice.
Spice Opus is alive and well, just the link changed. An running on Spice Opus.
Without a license, NL5 operates as a Demo version. In the Demo version many features are not available, and the number of components in the schematic is limited (currently to 20). However, the Demo version allows simulation of old schematics with an unlimited number of components, although it does not allow any editing or saving of those schematics. While the Demo version is quite suitable for students and amateurs, professionals might consider obtaining one of the following full-function licenses: Free 30 day Trial License Provides full functionality on a single PC for 30 days. The license can be issued for a specific PC only once.
Use this license to explore NL5's possibilities. Electrical panel design tutorial. I 'd like to recommend a new free online electronic circuit design tool. There are several free EDA tools around and some excellent FOSS tools such as KiCad and gEDA but the reason I thought people might be interested in this one, is because it has a few twists to it.
Electronic Circuit Simulation Programs
I) it's web based so, with nothing except a bit of javascript to install, it can be used by Linux, Mac and Windows users and - if they have a big enough screen - Android and iOS users too; ii) work can be shared and - with a bit of agreement on who saves what, when via a 3rd party instant messaging service - it supports collaboration; iii) it has some pretty impressive import and export options such as importing Altium, Eagle and LTspice files and exporting spice netlists and svg, png and pdf files for documentation.