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Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

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Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#51

Post by mox111 »

ubavic wrote: post #29
etimberg wrote: post #7

Many years ago I helped write https://www.multisim.com It's a full SPICE based simulator done entirely clientside

Cool, thank you for sharing. I am interested in simulators, especially in simulators of analogue circuits. Do you have any recommendations on where to start reading about algorithms that lie at the core of simulators? Also, how was the experience developing such product with JS?

The source code has the following comment:

For information about the theory behind this, see Electronic Circuit & System Simulation Methods by Pillage

Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#52

Post by flaviut »

farkanoid wrote: post #49
etimberg wrote: post #7

Many years ago I helped write https://www.multisim.com It's a full SPICE based simulator done entirely clientside

https://www.ni.com/en-au/shop/electronic-test-instrumentatio... It looks nice but Jesus... $1550AUD a year for the designer edition?

Library curation is a massive amount of work. Pretty much the reason I end up using falstad instead of a SPICE is because I end up spending all day tracking down and debugging issues with simulation models.

Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#53

Post by etimberg »

farkanoid wrote: post #49
etimberg wrote: post #7

Many years ago I helped write https://www.multisim.com It's a full SPICE based simulator done entirely clientside

https://www.ni.com/en-au/shop/electronic-test-instrumentatio... It looks nice but Jesus... $1550AUD a year for the designer edition?

Yeah, these kinds of tools aren't cheap. I know really high end stuff can be > $100,000 per seat per year

Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#54

Post by petespeed »

alphabetter wrote: post #39
alphabetter wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Paul did the original as a Java Applet. I did the port to run in the x-compile to allow it to run in the browser. After that we cooperated on it for a while. I stepped back a few years ago to focus on other things, but he's kept up with improvements. Kudos.

I posted that rather quickly, so a bit more information for those who are interested (inspired by some of the comments on the thread). I found Paul's sim by chance and really liked it because it was the first electronics sim that I had seen that was properly interactive and visual in its approach. I thought it was a great tool for building intuition about circuits. However, at a certain point it became clear that Jav…

Thank you.

For person trying to learn circuit theory and logic design, would you recommend a resource that can be followed along?

Also, any recommendation for kids? I think this area can be explored by kids in the same way programming.

Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#55

Post by hollandays »

genmud wrote: post #50
hollandays wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, the next step is to figure out a good way to combine something like gnu octave with nice modern GUIs. Old tools were inaccessible to use because there's nothing to look at with a text-based tool, and inaccessible for engineers to develop because programming was so arcane. Look at Berkeley spice written in C. It's a lot of old-school parsing and implementing matrix methods. The new stuff that's more acc…

> I don't know what the answer is, but it's not Python. We already have python, and yet, there isn't an explosion of collaboration to make great tools for the physical sciences and engineering. It's too much of a compromise for both sides. I would argue that python is actually ideally suited as a solution for many if not most things, just because there isn't large adoption in a subgenre of engineering, doesn't mean i…

Are any of those examples successful open-source projects with both the computation and the GUI written in Python? I don't know of anything in any field like that.

I think you misunderstood me. The choice of tools for front and backend have to be independent. The only really successful projects implemented in one language are all in C++, and that's difficult for everyone to approach.

Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#56

Post by atoav »

ubavic wrote: post #29
etimberg wrote: post #7

Many years ago I helped write https://www.multisim.com It's a full SPICE based simulator done entirely clientside

Cool, thank you for sharing. I am interested in simulators, especially in simulators of analogue circuits. Do you have any recommendations on where to start reading about algorithms that lie at the core of simulators? Also, how was the experience developing such product with JS?

I have been using the falstad sim for years in the developement of analog synthesizer stuff. There are some circuits that work in practise that do not work in practise (e.g. relaxation oscillators with a schmitt-trigger inverter). The model oscillates, but it is not really controlable.

Outside of that most simpler stuff (e.g. analog math using opamps, discrete stuff) works perfectly fine. I love it for education and quick "sanity check" simulations.

Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#57

Post by atoav »

amelius wrote: post #18

Circuit simulators are awesome, but they never go the next step such that they work with actual purchasable components. The user always has to read datasheets and translate everything into spice parameters. Also, they typically don't allow the user to specify maximum power for every component and check that the voltages and currents are within safe limits.

It depends on the circuits. Some are highly dependent on certain characteristics of the part that might differ between different series of the actual part.

With time you gain the experience to know which circuits are problematic and which are easy-going.

Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#59

Post by ggeorgovassilis »

umvi wrote: post #23
ggeorgovassilis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoters must read first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flop_(electronics)

Yeah, I got the joke. I was (and still am) tempted to downvote though because puns and pun chains are low effort and reddit-esque. "What you posted didn't register at first", "I'll have to think about that for a bit", "Why can't we post flip flop puns? This community is too gated ", etc.

Thanks for all the electronic puns :)

Re: Circuit.js – Electronic circuit simulator on the web

#60

Post by ggeorgovassilis »

SN74H74N wrote: post #22
ggeorgovassilis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoters must read first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flop_(electronics)

So you are saying they should have ended the post with JK?

I'm not even sure what it is I am saying. Maybe I'm advocating for a more laissez faire internet, the responsible use of censoring powers, or maybe it's a silent cry to get me banned from HN...

edit: I didn't get the "JK". You got me there. Well played.

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