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Schematics and Circuit Simulation In the Browser
compumike writes "CircuitLab today released a browser-based schematic editor and circuit simulator for the online electronics community. SPICE-like device models and mixed-mode simulation support allows engineers and hobbyists to tackle a wide range of board-level design problems. While most EDA software is Windows-only, CircuitLab is 100% web-based, Windows/Mac/Linux cross-platform, and requires no installation or plug-ins. Instead of today's typical forum posts with static screenshots from different desktop tools, the online electronics community can now use CircuitLab to share useful URLs (as well as PNGs and PDFs) which link directly to interactive, editable, runnable schematics. In just a few clicks, another designer can open that circuit, make a change, simulate it, and post the new version back to the community."
... good memories, back in '94 when I used that software... now everything seems (is?) easier.
I used the command-based spice. When Workbench arrived, with GUI, was something really impressive.
I had to check the page source to see how they had managed to launch a Flash application without being caught by my FlashBlock plugin. Applications like this are another nail in Adobe's coffin.
Great idea, but if i cant have it local, then no thanks. I don't want to rely on something that is being hosted by another party.
They lose interest, poof there goes my work.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What OS and Safari version? I tried OS X 10.6.8 and Safari Version 5.1.2 (6534.52.7) and it worked quite happily.
I think it is important to mention Paul Falstad's Java circuit simulator that has been around for years and has probably influenced this project. http://www.falstad.com/circuit/
Its pretty cool, although limited.
I checked it out and there's a pretty limited selection of BJTs, etc. Well I poked around and it turns out you can do something pretty cool with just a couple parts, with any luck here's a differential amp, assuming this link works:
https://www.circuitlab.com/circuit/fby849/bjt-cascoded-active-load-differential-amplifier-with-cmfb/
My guess is they'll soon be releasing a "paid" version where I can use thousands of (official?) transistor models not just 10 or so. That would be pretty awesome.
Also if they know what they're doing they'll partner with a short run PCB house. Some PCB houses give away PCB CAD software, these guys have a jump ahead of them... Maybe they already have, I have not explored the entire site. Imagine doing the schematic, the spice run, the pcb layout, and order some boards (and parts?) from the same browser window... that would be cool. Heck partner with those "virtual front panel" guys too.
If you double click on a component you can change the parameters, I think I could design a nifty little MMIC active constant current biasing circuit by hacking a rectifier model into a psuedo-mmic model (basically crank the forward V drop to 3 volts or so, depending on device, and a couple other things especially device capacitance). I wonder if I can push it into oscillation? (Note, you try to design ckts that don't do that... at least if they're theoretically amplifiers) Or get it to ring into a negative voltage at the amp input by doing stupid inductor tricks (this is why you don't use MMICs at HF freqs, aside from oscillation and usually intentional device gain rolloff)
I'd like to see the ability to handle temperature swings. My parts are milspec individually, but does my overall design work over a whole milspec temp range?
I suppose if I'm asking for the moon, could I have something like Ansoft for waveguide foolishness in my browser window?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
This capability has been around for a while with Upverter. Good to see some competition, though.
http://upverter.com/
From FAQ:
"Can I export my CircuitLab schematics out to another tool?
Not at this time."
This could be an awesome tool if it were easy to create (and share!) new parts, and get a netlist out, so we could import it into layout in Eagle, Kicad, gEDA PCB, Altium, whatever floats your boat. But since all the circuits I create go into layout and get turned into boards, this doesn't provide me much that existing tools don't already provide.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
This doesn't have to be a serious design tool. The real benefit is going to be to the DIY and hobby community, because tools like this are going to reduce the amount of shitty hand-drawn schematics uploaded to web forums, typically done in Paint or scrawled on notebook paper and then imaged with a cell phone. I've been looking for a quick way to bang out a schematic for a while now.
My thoughts:
The drawing is great and the interface does a good job of being easy enough to start without having to read directions.
They only have a selection of 8 NPN transistors, and you HAVE to choose one...there is no way to place a generic transistor and label it yourself. Even if you modify the parameters, you still have to have it labeled with one of the parts choices they provide. WTF? There is also no darlington transistor symbol.
Also, if you choose coil, you have to have it labeled with the inductance value in H, and you can't have it show a resistance value. This is stupid for motor coils, where you care about resistance at least as much as inductance.
So, force less shit down my throat, assume less about what I want to tell my audience, and it will be perfect.
The browser is the new GUI. This is a good thing.
Instead of the dozen-or-so windows/widgets/mechanism systems we have now, we have one canvas with one interface managed by a standards community and improved over time.
To take a simple example, pick any of the windows systems (Tk, Gnome, Microsoft API) and consider how difficult it is to display text on the screen, including placement, size, font, color, and so on.
Now consider that same operation using the DOM model in Javascript: it's a simple English-like interface where you describe in a couple of words what you want to happen. Easy.
Add to this the fact that browsers work the same across all systems, the markup works largely the same across all browsers, and the interface documentation is available to anyone for free, and you've got a winning combination.
Wikipedia lists 14 free/OSS schematic capture programs. Almost universally, they are good in some aspects and fall short in others. For example: "Good graphics but lousy component library interface, but the library support will have to wait 'cause there's a ton of things we need which are more important". (Makes it 'kind of hard to use.)
With a universal canvas, people can get on board with ONE system so that everyone can pull the rope in the same direction. The fractured landscape of programs can be replaced by a single interface where people use their expertise to improve the system in the area in which they have expertise.
This should happen more often. There's a ton of competing GUI applications out there which could be consolidated into a single browser-implemented version, taking the best parts of each.
I hope to see many more of these in the future.
Good morrow, sir. Might I recommend that you attempt loading the page in question with somewhat of a more heterosexual browser? I am not stating that Safari's orientation affects its abilities, but one never knows, does one?
I used to have an electronics kit as a kid. Simple stuff, but fascinating. Though I didn't go into an electrical engineering field (comp sci instead), I am still interested in tinkering around.
On a side note, does anyone know how a switch placed into a circuit can be tested and used in CircuitLab?
Good luck getting the chip out of broadcom without an order for a billion units. (assuming you are equipped to deal with BGA packages in the first place).
Sent from my PDP-11
Chromium Browser (basis for Google Chrome) and Safari use the same WebKit HTML renderer but very different JavaScript virtual machines (V8 and Nitro respectively). All they're telling you is that the simulator has been extensively tested with Gecko+JaegerMonkey and WebKit+V8, not WebKit+Nitro.
The guys who create audio sims (preamps, effects, etc) are always looking for more tools.
They use LTSpice.