Simulation

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Circuit simulation can be used to try out circuit configurations before (instead of) buying components and soldering.

Contents

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Advantages

It can be free (or you can pay for a simulator)

You can iterate rapidly

Waveforms can be observed at many nodes simultaneously without instrumentation inaccuracy or the test gear affecting the circuit

Most manufacturers make simulation models (usually Spice) available for their semiconductors.

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Disadvantages

It follows the "garbage in garbage out" principle, it is only as good as the models you feed in.

Leave important parasitics out and you will waste time investigating a topology that can never be realised.

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List of free Spice type simulators and where to get them

  • Simetrix - Free cut-down version of the commercial product is limited to 150 nodes, scripting is disabled, but all else is fully working - Save, print, import 3rd party models - comes with extensive libraries of common parts, and circuit examples. Download from http://www.catena.uk.com
  • SwitcherCAD/LtSpice - Spice version, dedicated to Linear Technologies' switch mode power supply chips. It includes hard-coded models for their switcher components which speeds up simulation. Can be used as a conventional Spice simulator, from http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/switchercad.jsp
  • PSpice - watch this space
  • Proteus Lite - Shareware version of Proteus schematic capture and ProSPICE mixed mode simulator with great support for digital circuits and microcontrollers. The unregistered software is severely restricted. http://www.proteuslite.com/
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Other simulators

  • PC-ECAP - Will calculate and plot: gain, phase, group delay, impedance, VSWR and return loss. This versatile program can also calculate your circuit's transient response, using one of eight waveforms. Shareware DOS program that requires DOSBox to run on Windows Vista. Download from http://www.cdquickcache.com/pcecap.htm
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