A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003 • Hacker News Board

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#141

Post by alar44 » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 3:29 AM UTC

analog31 wrote: post #87

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #30

Schematics are for understanding what a circuit does. Breadboards are for prototyping small low-speed circuits. Veroboard is for prototyping larger medium-speed circuits. Gerbers & a PCB are for production and for prototyping large or high-speed circuits. If the tool could automatically make a 3D breadboard view from a schematic, it'd be pretty neat for beginners. If the tool warned you when the normal parasitic capa…

This is a tangent, but having worked with digital circuits for 40 years, the improvements in chips have made circuit construction -- even breadboarding -- vastly more forgiving than ever before. I've run 10 MHz clocks on breadboards and 100 MHz SPI bus on 2 layer boards that were not designed with extreme care. And, it's a fast precision ADC that's meeting its datasheet specs on that board. No doubt the parasitics an…

I've been doing multi chip stuff with 16MHz Atmels with no issues just using a de-coupleing cap on the Vins. Did it not used to be that easy?

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#142

Post by paleogizmo » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 3:32 AM UTC

For a nice, polished, non-skeuomorphic circuit simulator, see iCircuit [1], which provides native MacOS and iOS clients (based on the Falstad JS circuit simulator mentioned elsewhere in this thread, if I recall correctly). It differs from most SPICE-based simulators in that there is no edit or run mode - the circuit is always simulating in transient mode so updates happen in real time.

[1] https://icircuitapp.com/

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#143

Post by Animats » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 3:39 AM UTC

chongli wrote: post #90

ilyt wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have ever used LTSpice you'd know, the "old" looking layout is not really a problem but the arcane way anything is done, different from every app I ever used.

I just started using LTSpice a few days ago. It's pretty arcane for sure but at least it's consistent. The tool is really not that complicated at all. Its value seems to be in its simulation capabilities as well as its selection of standard components. It does crash here and there, though, but I haven't lost any work yet.

Well, yes. LTSpice is not for schematic capture. It's for simulation. If you have to do power supply design, LTSpice lets you almost get it right before you order parts.

Here's one of mine.[1] I built that, and it works pretty much the same as the simulation does. Except for the depletion-mode FET current limiter. The resistor that sets the current limit had to be adjusted after building to get the same current limit as the simulation.

LTSpice doesn't help with layout. I had to follow the layout instructions in the switcher control data sheet to get it to work. Some of those paths have to be very short.

[1] https://github.com/John-Nagle/ttyloopdriver/tree/master/circ...

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#144

Post by synack » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 3:58 AM UTC

repiret wrote: post #137

analog31 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blew my mind that the microcontroller I'm now using has a 1000+ page datasheet.

I recently came across a reference manual for an SoC that came in at over 24,000 pages - a new personal record. The tools for working with such large PDFs generally suck.

Evince on Linux is by far the best program I've found for reading large PDFs. It's worth the trouble to setup a VM or WSL just to run Evince if you're not natively on Linux.

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#145

Post by thewileyone » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 4:08 AM UTC

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #30

Schematics are for understanding what a circuit does. Breadboards are for prototyping small low-speed circuits. Veroboard is for prototyping larger medium-speed circuits. Gerbers & a PCB are for production and for prototyping large or high-speed circuits. If the tool could automatically make a 3D breadboard view from a schematic, it'd be pretty neat for beginners. If the tool warned you when the normal parasitic capa…

"parasitic capacitance" ... I shudder recalling the nights wasted in the analog lab due to this.

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#146

Post by vonnegut » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 4:09 AM UTC

I am looking for something similar to this for a Raspberry Pi and Python. To allow students to work with the circuits/electronics without having to buy the hardware. Raspis are expensive now because of the microprocessor shortage.

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#147

Post by orthecreedence » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 4:10 AM UTC

I just prototyped a circuit using this: http://www.falstad.com/circuit/circuitjs.html?startCircuit=o...

I didn't find it to be ancient at all, and when I put it on a breadboard it worked exactly as the simulator ran it. Very helpful.

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#148

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 4:20 AM UTC

phlipski wrote: post #130

Teknoman117 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's been a funny thing for me. I'm not an electrical engineer, at all. My electrical knowledge is an introductory electromagnetics course I had to take in college that I've mostly forgotten, reading/watching EEVblog, other internet sources, playing around with cheap and/or old parts, reading whatever I can find, etc. I've made some retrocomputing boards ( 4 layer boards can be had for very cheap these days (JLCPCB…

"Want to do PCIe? Join PCIe SIG. Want to do USB? Join USB-IF..." As someone who works for a large silicon vendor I can tell you that even with access to those industry groups the documentation still sucks!!!! I look at the amazing documentation available surrounding various software initiatives (OpenCV, machine learning, linux drivers, programming languages, etc...) with envy. It's all right there and out in the open…

[deleted]

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#149

Post by your_challenger » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 4:35 AM UTC

Is it so hard to buy an Arduino and a bunch of electronics components today? The simulation and its "3D" models seem finicky. And a lot les intuitive.

A 2D simulator + an actual hardware would have taught me a lot more for lot less time.

Re: A circuit simulator that doesn't look like it was made in 2003

#150

Post by puffoflogic » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 4:37 AM UTC

repiret wrote: post #137

analog31 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blew my mind that the microcontroller I'm now using has a 1000+ page datasheet.

I recently came across a reference manual for an SoC that came in at over 24,000 pages - a new personal record. The tools for working with such large PDFs generally suck.

Preview.app used to be very good for large pdfs, back in what I suddenly realize must be considered "the early days" of OS X, maybe 8 years ago.

Now? Eh, Firefox. If that doesn't work, well, find an old Mac which hasn't been "upgraded" I guess.