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AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

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Re: AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

#41

Post by Scene_Cast2 »

nullified wrote: post #34
Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #8

How do I add a voltage other than a 9V battery? What are the current alternatives to this? I'm looking to build an LED driver (possible IC candidates are Linear LT3477, TI TPS63020 and some other TI / Linear chips). I'd kill for a software that would simulate any chips (or even just a crude approximation of them).

LTspice [0] is an excellent (and might I add free) SPICE simulator. Linear includes proper models of the majority of their chip lineup, including LED drivers. Their power supply IC models are also excellent. You can simulate a full LED driver circuit and a whole lot more with LTspice. TI also has a similar SPICE simulator [1], but it's not nearly as good, and its simulations are much slower and a bit more unreliable.…

Thanks, that helps a lot! Giving it a shot right now.

How long should it take to make a high-power (3A+ @ 3V, buck-boost IC) LED driver, very approximately?

Re: AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

#42

Post by voltagex_ »

ris wrote: post #22
voltagex_ wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can look at it as a kind of validation of the community - there's commercial interest in it. Also, just because someone starts on this app, doesn't mean they won't move on to something else later.

Well, I agree if you s/validation/co-opting/ No, it doesn't necessarily mean they won't move on to something else later, but they're now living in a universe where it will always be Autodesk's job to make that harder or less obvious to them. By any means available.

I'm not sure keeping hobbyists locked to a particular platform is that useful to Autodesk, especially considering the prices they charge for higher level software.

If it wasn't Autodesk doing this, would you have the same reaction? What about Makerbot's move away from open-source?

Re: AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

#43

Post by rev087 »

ris wrote: post #20
zachrose wrote: post #15

Is this based on Fritzing (fritzing.org)?

Nope, just a non-free clone with a marketing budget. I must say I'm not sure how to feel watching the maker and hacker culture I love so much having its open heart slowly ripped out.

One could argue that Autodesk's killer feature here is simulation; afaik, Fritzing doesn't have that feature.

Re: AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

#45

Post by nkurz »

gcb0 wrote: post #27

> it allows you to learn electronics using a virtual Arduino board and breadboard without blowing up capacitors or burning yourself with solder on your work table. With autodesk prices, i can probably buy enough caps and pay someone to solder for me.

All of their current 123D software is free for all: http://www.123dapp.com/create

And I recently was impressed to learn that they offer free licenses for most of their professional software (including Autocad) to school teachers, university faculty, and degree seeking students.

Qualifications: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=12311...

Software: http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=download_center

Re: AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

#46

Post by computator »

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #37
moron4hire wrote: post #28

I think there is a lot of value to blowing up your Arduino for reals. When you blow up a couple of Arduinos, you'll tend to force yourself to learn very quickly why it is happening and how to avoid it. What is so bad about "blowing up a capacitor" or "burning yourself with a soldering iron"? Capacitors are a few cents, each. Buy them in bulk and never worry about needing one again. Soldering iron burns are easy to av…

There are so many people that underestimated the potential success for Arduino, and the rPi. Also, experienced hardware folks tend to forget how unforgiving hardware can be to non-hardware folks, and beginners; a good example of which was posted here the other day. http://www.jwz.org/curtain/

> so many people that underestimated the potential success for Arduino, and the rPi

I like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi very much, but they are not the pioneers of this idea.

There have been a whole bunch of electronic prototyping systems aimed at hobbyists in the decade before Arduino and Raspberry Pi hit it big.

Just to name a few: Parallax Basic Stamp, the Micromint PicStic and Domino, X-10, MIT Media Lab's Programmable Bricks, Gumstix, Phidgets, Teensy USB Development Board, littleBits, LEGO Mindstorms, Bug Labs.

I was cheering for several of the above, and they met with various degrees of success. It seemed obvious to me that they should become enormously popular, as big as the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi, but they didn't. There were probably dozens more that folded up and disappeared.

What I'm trying to say is that it took a lot of iterations of design, business model, functionality, and being at the right time before a couple companies found just the right formula to make it really big.

Re: AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

#47

Post by enobrev »

Reminds me of an old idea I had a couple years back. I assume it's a silly idea driven primarily by my own ignorance of these tools and EE in general, but it seemed fun.

The idea was to start out with some software similar to this. Something visually impressive to keep it interesting for beginners, but technically sound to make it useful to those who know what they're doing. It would be open source, internet connected, easily accessible and most importantly simple to create and share ideas.

From there, let people make some interesting things for school, work, play, whatever, ideally sharing said creations and try to raise a community around the tools and creations.

The next stage would be to add a 3D rendering component which would allow people to create "machines" that could be run by their virtual electronics. Something like virtual fabrication. The ideal being to grow those interfaces and try to lead the community towards building virtual robots (that are technically feasible).

The eventual goal would be to build a virtual world on top of all of the above tools. Something like MechWarrior, but with engineers and industrial designers building virtual mechs from the smallest components to the large mechanical fabrication and then getting into all out war against one-another, adding to the mix less technical players to partake in the human elements of combat (generals, soldiers, medics, scavengers for destroyed mechs, etc).

Probably ridiculous, and if all went well I assume it would take years of work and planning, but it seemed like a fun idea to ponder.

Re: AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

#48

Post by pserwylo »

moron4hire wrote: post #28

I think there is a lot of value to blowing up your Arduino for reals. When you blow up a couple of Arduinos, you'll tend to force yourself to learn very quickly why it is happening and how to avoid it. What is so bad about "blowing up a capacitor" or "burning yourself with a soldering iron"? Capacitors are a few cents, each. Buy them in bulk and never worry about needing one again. Soldering iron burns are easy to av…

As somebody who is learning electronics using Arduino right now, I almost agree with you.

WARNING: The first time I accidentally forgot to put a resistor in front of an LED and sent 50mA to one which was rated at 20mA, I expected it to fizzle and cut out like a regular incandescent light bulb does in my house.

When it literally exploded and the plastic covering went flying through the room, I was very very glad it didn't hit me in the eye, or I'd probably have done some fairly serious damage.

Re: AutoDesk Releases An Electronics Simulator Called 123D Circuits

#50

Post by Bjorkbat »

mrcharles wrote: post #10

I'd kill for an app like this that would help teach you electronics at the same time. I've wanted to start doing some robotics stuff, but haven't found much in terms of useful learning resources outside of just buying a full university textbook and hoping for the best.

Funny you should mention that, I've been slowly working on this idea for a circuit-sim that basically teaches you electronics, to be eventually complemented with video-lectures which I keep putting off due to school and a hunger for other projects.

So yeah, the Autodesk news was kinda depressing, but really, that just means I'm going to focus more on the teaching end and in adding my own personal style to it through quirky graphical elements that harken back to the 8-bit era of yore. Autodesk can't sell a product with soul.

You can check it out if you want. Just to warn you though, my html abilities are a work-in-progress, so don't be surprised if you see some awful mistakes in there, or if it renders kinda funny if you have a small screen.

www.bighugebreadboard.com

I actually created it to teach myself electronics, so the biggest hurdle has been learning how various components work, and then adding them to the sim. Also, prior to this, my javascript knowledge was basically acquired through Codecademy.

I'm also putting some of the code on a Github repo, as in I plan to make it open-source. Alas, before I did that I cleaned up some prior amateur's mistakes without thinking of the bugs I would be opening up. I should have them fixed by tomorrow morning.

https://github.com/Bjorkbat/electricjs

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