To download spreadsheet and some other files with Chrome you may need to right click the link and select Save Link As.įREE ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT AND SMPS SIMULATION SOFTWARE Here you will find the lists of best (in my view) free electronic circuit simulators, power supply calculators, and other electrical engineering design tools available on the web. PI Expert Online can generate an isolated off-line power supply around Power Integrations' ICs with a complete transformer design. WEBENCH® is one of few free online tools that can generate entire schematic with BOM and will even provide PCB files, but it is limited to low-power DC-DC converters with TI's controllers.
Its full version covers main topologies (which you still need to choose), but the free demo includes only buck converter. RidleyWorks® (formerly POWER 4-5-6) provides step by step power train component design with emphasis on the feedback loop, large-signal simulation and magnetics. And it's vendor-independent and completely free. PowerEsim helps you choose a topology and calculate its main power train parts as well as magnetics. Online MPLAB® Analog Designer will generate schematics of DC-DC converters based on Microchip controllers, and will offer you to download the resulting MPLAB® Mindi™ schematic for simulation. Well, of course, since it is free, why would they provide third party models? Now, when Analog Devices bought LT, their library may also include macro-models of AD's regulators and amplifiers.īesides simulators, there are also programs that let you not only analyze but actually design the circuits too: you will input a specification and the program automatically generates solutions. The latter was developed by Linear Technologies and was probably the first complete SPICE freeware, although PWM controllers and most other parts in its library are only from Linear itself. The former is based on SIMetrix/SIMPLIS with proprietary Microchip models in addition to generic parts. If you want to simulate their circuits without buying a full package, you have several options: 1) Working demos (usually limited to small-size circuits with many functions disabled) 2) Open source programs (with little or no tech support) 3) Software provided by the component manufacturers (often useful only for the designs that use these manufacturers' parts) 4) Online tools provided by enthusiasts.Īmong free programs the most popular are MPLAB® Mindi™ and LTspice®. Unfortunately, commercial design and analysis packages are relatively expensive for hobbyists.įREE TECH eBOOKS AND WHITE PAPER DOWNLOADS A schematic capture allows you to draw the circuit diagrams with actual part numbers and automatically translate them into netlists. It is integrated with OrCad and includes schematic capture, extensive model libraries from various vendors, and waveform display and analysis functions. Large companies usually buy commercial software, such as PSpice®. Therefore, to get proper results in non-linear circuits you would need to learn the modeling and solve convergence problems. Failure to settle after a pre-determined number of iteration creates so-called no convergence error. You can specify initial conditions of some parts (like voltages of capacitors and currents of inductors) to help the analysis.
Such iterations continue until all the values stabilize. These currents are then used to recalculate the voltages.
The program initially "guesses" all node voltages and calculates all the currents. In SPICE, circuits are presented by so-called netlists. They can handle analog, logic and mixed-signal components. Most general-purpose simulation programs are based on various versions of SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuits Emphasis).
If you are looking for a simulator or a design software, this quick review may save you hours of research. There is a wide variety of available design tools, both general and vendor specific. On the other hand, it allows measurements of internal currents, voltages and power, that in many cases are virtually impossible to do on a bench.
Therefore as a matter of course, this technique can't entirely substitute breadboarding and prototyping.