Design-Spice-Simulate

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The Art of Electronics covers the full range of subjects normally treated in electronics books, as well as a rich complement of important but neglected topics.

The Art of Electronics, by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill

The book covers many areas of circuit design, from basic DC voltage, current, and resistance, to active filters and oscillators, to digital electronics, including microprocessors and digital bus interfacing. It also includes discussions of such often-neglected areas as high-frequency, high-speed design techniques and low-power applications.

The Art of Electronics - Paul Horowitz Winfield Hill

Learning the Art of Electronics – A Hands-On Lab Course

This introduction to circuit design is unusual in several respects. First, it offers not just explanations, but a full course. Each of the twenty-five sessions begins with a discussion of a particular sort of circuit followed by the chance to try it out and see how it actually behaves.

The Art of Electronics – Paul Horowitz Winfield Hill

The book includes many example circuits. In addition to having examples of good circuits, it also has examples of bad ideas, with discussions of what makes the good designs good and the bad ones bad. It can be described as a cross between a textbook and reference manual, though without the chapter-end questions and exercises which are often found in textbooks.

Paul Horowitz is a Research Professor of Physics and of Electrical Engineering at Harvard University, where in 1974 he originated the Laboratory Electronics course from which emerged The Art of Electronics.

Winfield Hill is by inclination an electronics circuit-design guru. After dropping out of the Chemical Physics graduate program at Harvard University.

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Without Audiophiles and Ham-Radio enthusiasts, the field of Electronics would be Dreary and Gloomy.

From Schematic to Reality

Here is a nice page with refreshing illustrations, this page helps initiate a Electronics Newbie in the complex science of Schematic Reading.

Phantom Power and Microphone Interconnect Basics

 Phantom Power and Microphone Interconnect Basics

What’s that you say? You don’t know your AC from your DC’ Audio is considered an Alternating Current, a.k.a. “AC.” (So is 120-volt “wall” power.) But electronic circuits need Direct Current (DC) to turn them on, from batteries or power supplies.

The Electric Web Matrix

DIY Pages and Know-How for those who love vacuum tubes, computers, and hearing music in its pristine form. There is an Audio and Electronics section is for the DIY computer audiophile.

My Notes – Even though i had Electronics Junk in my lab, when i was at school. (I used to call it Nuts-n-Bolts) The first project i saw being built by a friend was a Guitar Pickup using Germanium Transistors/Diodes. This was my first semiconductor schematic reading. Get into electronics now with a Audio Project, or ….

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“These are some educational java applets I wrote to help visualize various concepts in math, physics, and engineering.” – Paul Falstad

Electronic Educational Applets – Paul Falstad

  • Math and Physics Applets – MyPhysicsLab – Physics Simulation with Java.
  • Index of Circuit Examples – Demonstrates various electronic circuits.
  • Digital Filters – Filters digital signals and plays the output on your speakers.
  • Acoustic Interference Applet – Audio interference between your speakers.
  • Waveguide Modes Applet – Electromagnetic waves in a waveguide.
  • Antenna Applet – Generates antenna radiation patterns.

Analog Circuit Simulator Applet – Demonstrates various electronic circuits.

“This java applet is an electronic circuit simulator.  When the applet starts up you will see an animated schematic of a simple LRC circuit. The green color indicates positive voltage.  The gray color indicates ground.  A red color indicates negative voltage.  The moving yellow dots indicate current.”

Derivative Works

iCircuit is the easy to use electronic circuit simulator and designer – the perfect tool for students, hobbyists, and engineers.

Its advanced simulation engine can handle both analog and digital circuits and features realtime always-on analysis. It is the perfect companion to students, hobbyists, and engineers.

Learn + Make + Teach Electronics at EveryCircuit

Electronics at EveryCircuit

Build any circuit, tap play button, and watch dynamic voltage, current, and charge animations. This gives you insight into circuit operation like no equation does. While simulation is running, adjust circuit parameters with analog knob, and the circuit responds to your actions in real time.

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Edison – provides a unique new environment for learning electricity and electronics. Teachers, students and electronics enthusiasts can use digitally scanned photorealistic components, a solderless breadboard, virtual instruments, sound and animation…….

DesignSoft - Learn with Edison Newton Tina

Select realistic batteries, resistors, diodes, LEDs, transistors, logic gates, flip-flops, and even microcontrollers & integrated circuits all easily available on the shelves of your multimedia lab. Drag them onto your “breadboard” and wire them together with your mouse. Your circuit begins working immediately so you can test and troubleshoot it with virtual instruments. In addition, Edison automatically prepares a standard schematic diagram and displays it simultaneously.

Tina – The Complete Electronics Lab

Powerful yet affordable software package for analyzing, designing and real time testing analog, digital, VHDL, MCU, and mixed electronic circuits and their PCB layouts. You can also analyze RF, communication, optoelectronic circuits, test & debug microcontroller applications.

A unique feature of TINA that you can bring your circuit to life with the optional USB controlled TINALab II hardware which turns your computer into a powerful, multifunction T&M instrument. Electrical engineers will find TINA an easy to use, high performance tool, while educators will welcome its unique features for the training environment.

DesignSoft – Learn with Edison Newton Tina

Newton – provides a completely new way of teaching and learning physics by exploring kinematics and dynamics in 3D. Build, manipulate or investigate real-life 3D physics experiments interactively, solve problems, and more.

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The Proteus Design Suite is wholly unique in offering the ability to co-simulate both high and low-level micro-controller code in the context of a mixed-mode SPICE circuit simulation. With this Virtual System Modelling facility, you can transform your product design cycle, reaping huge rewards in terms of reduced time to market and lower costs of development.

Labcenter Electronics – Proteus Design Suite

Co-simulation of microprocessor software within a mixed mode SPICE simulator.

  • Available for PIC, 8051, AVR, HC11, ARM7/LPC2000 and Basic Stamp processors
  • See your code interact with simulated hardware in real-time.
  • Interactive peripheral models for displays, keypads, etc.
  • Over 8000 analogue and digital device models.
  • Extensive single step and debugging facilities including system wide diagnostics.
  • Works with popular compilers and assemblers.

Labcenter Electronics - Proteus Design Suite

Proteus Virtual System Modelling (VSM) combines mixed mode SPICE circuit simulation, animated components and microprocessor models to facilitate co-simulation of complete microcontroller based designs. For the first time ever, it is possible to develop and test such designs before a physical prototype is constructed.

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The EAGLE Layout Editor is an easy to use, yet powerful tool for designing printed circuit boards (PCBs). EAGLE offers the three modules: Schematic-Editor, Layout Editor and Autorouter embedded on one single interface.

CadSoft EAGLE Layout Editor

EAGLE is easy to learn, easy to use and easy to buy. It runs on Linux, Mac and Windows and allows feature enhancement, such as simulation, 3D-visualization, data import and export and self defined commands, through User Language Programs (ULP’s) which are partly integrated in EAGLE

The name EAGLE is an acronym, which stands for .

Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor.

The program consists of three main modules, Layout Editor, Schematic Editor and Autorouter. These are embedded in a single user interface. Therefore there is no need for converting netlists between schematics and layouts.

CadSoft EAGLE Layout Editor

More Reading on Eagle ..

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Kicad is an open source (GPL) software for the creation of electronic schematic diagrams and printed circuit board artwork.

KiCad EDA Software Suite

Designed and written by Jean-Pierre Charras, a researcher at LIS (Laboratoire des Images et des Signaux) and a teacher in IUT de Saint Martin d’Hères.(France), in the field of electrical engineering and image processing.

KiCad Schematic

The electrical rules check (ERC) automatically verifies your schematic connections. It checks for output pin conflicts, missing drivers and unconnected pins.

KiCad comes bundled with a vast library of symbols, footprints, and matching 3D models. They are community maintained so they never stop improving.

Make professional PCB layouts with up to 32 copper layers. This modern tool will help you lay out your board faster. As you draw your track, it pushes forward traces that are in the way. If that is not possible, your track will be rerouted around obstacles.

KiCad PCB

KiCad consists of ..

  • kicad – the project manager
  • eeschema – the schematic editor.
  • cvpcb – the footprint selector for components used in the circuit design.
  • pcbnew – the PCB layout program.
  • gerbview – the Gerber (photoplotter documents) viewer.

Resources

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The Gate is a digital component that is used to compute an output for certain inputs, the inputs and outputs have two states high-1 and low- 0. Let us assume high is 5V and low is 0V (like in CMOS). On a high level the LED will light up and on a low level the LED is off. Now let us see what Logic means. digital-tutors – project page.

This page requires images and javascript to be enabled to try out the demo of the gates below.

Digital Logic Gates -xml code

Screenshot of Gadget

Digital Logic Gates

Gates are what make many of ICs, the two popular families are the 40xx CMOS and the 74xx TTL . Now 40xx come in 74HCT40xx flavors which approach the quality of an ideal gate. Entire circuits with Gates can also be also be burnt into PLDs, FPGAs and CPLDs just like you burn your CDROM. Gates can also be implemented in assembly language which a microcontroller like 8051 will understand and execute.

Hardware gate circuit will operate in real time, nano seconds delay will be there due to propagation delay, gate capacitance and FET switching times etc. Software or microcontroller gates code working will depend on both propagation delay and the CPU clock speed.

Gates can be combined to make combinational or sequential logic circuits. combinational circuits are a complex network of gates interconnected to evaluate a pattern of output for patterns of input. Sequential circuits use memory elements hence output patterns depend both on input patterns and the memory of history of events. An example of combinational logic circuit is a seven segment display decoder CD4511 and and example for a sequential logic circuit is CD4029 up-down counter.

The CD40xx CMOS family can work at even 3V-9V-12V DC and consume low power. The speed is not as fast as 74xx TTL family. It is good for simple portable battery powered circuits. The 74HCTxx series is good for low power and high speed but will work at 5V. When you have problems interfacing CMOS and TTL use 74HCTxx family.