I've got an OLD copy of Electronic Workbench that jams up Windows 7 every time I use it. Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit simulator that is somewhat similar to EWB that doesn't cob up the OS?
Yeah, I know SPICE does everything but it is a royal pain in the ass to use and doesn't let me do quick and dirty simulations that don't have to be down to the gnat's eyebrow.
Suggestions?
Jim
No surprise there. IMHO the last-known-good OS from MS is XP. Which is why I am sticking to that.
Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit
LTSpice. Take the plunge, I did over 20 years ago. Before that I used ECA224 which is (AFAIR) the predecessor of EWB. SPICE makes things so much easier. For example, if you get stuck you can post the whole thing here, someone could take a look, massage it a bit, and post a corrected version back. With EWB you'd be on your own.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Ditto what Joerg recommends. However, if you're on Win7 Pro you do have the option of running its Virtual XP mode which I've found does the job for some older programs. I've also seen recommendations for VirtualBox and a "real" XP installation from disks. Either approach could let you keep your old work while moving to a newer app.
-- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
Ugh. Limited to 32-bit.
ECA (Tatum Labs?) was really good. It was fast and always converged. And you could easily parameterize any component, like make a capacitor value depend on some voltage, current, time, anything.
EWB, on the other hand, was expensive and buggy and the people were, in my opinion, unethical. They sold their simulator with "lifetime upgrades" and then changed the name to weasel out.
LT Spice is the way to go.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com http://www.highlandtechnology.com Precision electronic instrumentation Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators Custom laser drivers and controllers Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links VME thermocouple, LVDT, synchro acquisition and simulation
I'll third Joergs suggestion that you go for LTspice. I used EWB and made the switch to LTspice a year or two ago. It's not that hard, and as quick as EWB once you're up to speed. As a side benefit you can post your schematic on SED if you do get stuck. (Also plenty of help here when you run into the inevitable 'bump' on the learning curve.)
George H.
VMware is another option. Those options will even allow you to run
16-bit stuff from before 1990-- I have an assembler from 1986 that runs fine under 64-bit Win 7.. it's about old enough to be a grandpa. VMWare runs rather snappily even on a netbook-like computer (mobile core 2 duo). You can even install DOS 6.22 if you really want.Just for laughs I'm going to have to load up DOS and run Z80MU (it doesn't run under XP-32- gives a stack overflow. Z80 CPM emulation running under DOS in turn under a 64-bit modern O/S. Glorious. Three hundred years ago you could have been burned at the stake for running such code.
But runs _all_ my old stuff. Which is important to me since some SW is from sources where support ended in the early 90's, author have passed away, companies are non-existent.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
That is no problem in LTSpice either. I just had a gizmo here with a resistor where the value depended on a node voltage. Which depended on a voltage source. Which depended on a formula in its value line. You can even make stuff dance to the tunes of Led Zeppelin.
Oh yeah, sure is.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Run it in a VM, ya dope.
Run it in a VM. Either from within Windows or under Linux. Hell, at that point you could run the Linux version.
Virtual Machine.
It would be interesting as to why WB is causing that problem in the first place?
I am not defending W7 however, It's very possible there is something happening in W7 that is causing that app to be put on hold, like a process priority setting for that app.
Some apps do not meter very well and could get in a dead lock, which isn't really a locked up app but one that got caught up in a unpredictable timing snag. The change on the OS also can make scheduling items behave differently.. If there is some kind of kink in the way the software was written when processing multiple threads? Then I think the only recourse would be to play with the APP settings from W7.
If memory serves me, W7 has a capability setting you may want to play with for WB. Also, work bench could be attempting to access some hardware that may have gotten ported over from an old machine or OS?
Jamie
I have several copies of XP-Pro 64 bit. Not a lot of SW for that variant though.
YMMV
?-)
I perhaps should have been more specific as to my application.
I have exactly 60 minutes the first day of class (which is coming up a week from this coming Monday) to get 24 freshman students up to speed on the simulation program. If I had a whole semester to teach Spice, that would be an entirely different matter.
But it isn't the case. After that first hour, we are off to the races and the kids need to have at LEAST a nodding acquaintance with the software. AND some of the student machines (and the instructor station) are running XP and some of them are running Win7. To boot, ALL the student machines are loaded up with Deep Freeze which removes ANYTHING that the students load onto their machines during class. Don't ask me to take DF off; I fought IT all the way to mahogany row and got shot down.
So, let me try again. Anybody got a suggestion for a simple, cheap, easy to learn simulation program that doesn't need to be accurate to a RCH, but a simple first-cut freshman oriented program that is an INTRODUCTION to simulation.
THanks,
Jim
LTSpice is pretty much the only game in town if you want something free that isn't too difficult to use. I've run it under Windows XP and now run it under Windows 7. Stuff that I ran under Windows XP still seems to run under Windows 7.
-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
I'm going to stay with LTspice. You can set up some simple circits for the kids to probe. (square wave into R/C's or something like that.) Then they can muck about changing amplitudes, frequencies, adding more R/C's. Have you tried it?
George H.
There's Falstad's circuit program online. Java applet. Schematic capture and basic simulation. Crude, but works for resistors and LEDs. Sometimes works for diodes, transistors and op-amps; simple simulators like these are real easy to freak out. (As unstable as SPICE is, it makes one wonder that anything works at all, and that SPICE works as well as it does, when it does!)
There's also another online environment but I forget what it's called.
Tim
-- Deep Friar: a very philosophical monk. Website:
You have my sympathy. Herding cats and freshmen is difficult.
Try one of these. I haven't tried them, but they appear to be something like what you want. I included some that only cover some aspects of electronics, as it may be easier to divide and conquer with a component simulator, instead of trying to teach with a duz-it-all application. If these don't play, I still would suggest you use LTSpice despite the learning curve:
(Java) (Java)
(Flash) (Java) (Flash)
(digital only) (digital only)
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
LT Spice. 60 minutes should be enough to get people running sims of simple R-L-C-transistor-opamp circuits, assuming they understand some about electricity.
I can Spice a simple circuit, and get DC voltages and waveforms, in a couple of minutes. I often use it for stuff like voltage dividers, instead of a calculator.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com http://www.highlandtechnology.com Precision electronic instrumentation Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators Custom laser drivers and controllers Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links VME thermocouple, LVDT, synchro acquisition and simulation
What if the student's don't install it? can you get the admin to install it?
ltspice is free of DRM (unless you count some of the bundled models) installs fast and is relatively easy to use. the only thing I've seen EWB do that ltspice doesn't is realtime simulation, with Ltspice the only user input is the 'run' button.
else one of those java thingies, but they seem easy to crash.
-- ?? 100% natural --- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to news@netfront.net
Since you have to teach what is available (really, get them to install LTSpice if you can), start with how to input a circuit. If EW has a graphical interface teach the kids just enough to use it and save to student provided medium (hope for a flash stick). That is about all = there is time for.
There is an XP mode download for Win7, get IT to install that on the Win7 machines. It should help the the win7 machines.
?-(
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