Circuit simulation software

[mikeb]

Are there any particular recommendations as regards circuit simulation software? I'm interested in simulating LFO circuits, and examining the output waveshapes and amplitudes thereof over time.

TIA

Mike

PS Preferably free or low cost!

[Johnny G]

I've got the student verison of a program called Circuit Maker.

its a little tricky to get the hang of initially but once you have it you can do some very useful stuff with it

only problem is that if your doing LFO output waves which you may want to check over maybe a two secondrange then your gonna be doing alot of sitting about. its fine for stuff that can be moddled over a few micro seconds but i had to wait about half an hour for it to do 100 milli seconds while itwas working out a DC to DC convertor

i dunno if other programs can do longer time periods quicker but for free its pretty good

[spongebob]

Here are a few, my favorite is LTSpice (free):
http://www.duncanamps.com/spicesim.html

[mikeb]

Thanks ... ok, I downloaded the student version, and have a basic tri/sqr LFO setup, but can't for the life of me work out how to get it to simulate this circuit. It wants me to enter a changing value for the V+ supply, or so it seems, and then it's not obvious how to make it 'go' over time. I have run a sim and can examine the voltage output at various points but .....  :?

Mike

[cd]

I highly recommend Multisim (AKA Electronics Workbench).  Relatively simple to use, lots of different pats, easy to edit with, links to a PCB program, etc.  If you look hard enough you can download a copy off of Usenet (that's all I'll say on that matter).

[ExpAnonColin]

Mac, anyone?  

-Colin

[niftydog]

Mac, anyone?  

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!

Ah dude, I've been there, and it ain't looking good.    I use my G4 for graphics, multimedia and web, and an beat up old 300Mhz laptop for electronic engineers stuff.

But hey, prove me wrong!  Just be sure and post the link for me!  

Back to the subject at hand;

Microcap is also fairly good, better for digital stuff, can be rather confusing as it is not intuitive.

Protel is f*#king awesome, but spastically expensive. (ah it's good to work for the government I tells ya!) You can get a demo version, not sure of it's capabilitys though.

Multisim is highly regarded, although I never actually used it myself.

[ExpAnonColin]

Designworks, does that do SPICE stuff?

-Colin

[cd]

Mac, anyone?  

-Colin

That's a tough one.  I use an ancient version of Electronics Workbench (5.0 I think... from 93 or 94) in Virtual PC 6.0 (Win98 disk image), it's a tad slow but works OK.  I haven't found anything else that's Mac native worth using  There's MacSpice but it's nowhere near as easy to use as EWB in VPC.

[puretube]

hi Mikeb across the world: I think I understand your point:
though I would have access to Protel,
that one is just too much for me.

So in order to get into the party, I bought a cheap 22$ basic beginner`s electronic design, calculation and simulation-software
("E1" from www.conrad.de), which doesn`t have PCB stuff,
but a beginner`s Spice program (MvSim8.0 or similar...),
with a whole bunch of lectures, examples and explanations.

You can take just one of their projects, and easily turn them into
your own design, and all of those neccessary settings which no-one
understands in the beginning, are already there.

If it weren`t in German language, I`d strictly recommend that one to you.

The number of components & nodes is restricted in that version,
but enough for serious evaluations.

I can reconfirm all of the basic  amp circuits from Aspen Pittman`s
"Tube Amp Book", in the way that they are currently being published with FETs in place of tubes...

[mikeb]

Puretube - I used to know a reasonable amount of conversational German ( I had a crazy Bavarian teacher at high school who was very inspirational!) but certainly not enough any more for technical stuff. I've actually got an old copy of 'real' Protel99SE, but without the simulation module - so far the LTSpice recommended above seems to be good, just gotta find the time to sit down and read the help and instructions and so on. Thanks!

To everyone else also, thanks again for the feedback and info. It is *much* appreciated.

Mike