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SPICE

autodeskguest

Hi everyone,

 

This is my first post to this group, so hope it is in the right place...

 

I am the only engineer at my work, and as a recent graduate (~1 year out

of uni), am relying on SPICE modeling quite bit to verify my designs. I

am wondering what solution most EAGLE users adopt? What integrates well

with the schematic editor?

 

I have been looking at OPUS SPICE:

 

http://www.fe.uni-lj.si/spice/welcome.html

 

which mentions using EAGLE as its capture front end:

 

http://www.fe.uni-lj.si/spice/schematic.html

 

I have also seen the eaglesp3-0.99e ULP for working with EAGLE and

SPICE, found here:

 

http://cadsoft.de/cgi-bin/download.pl?page=/home/cadsoft/html_public/download.htm.en&dir=eagle/userfiles/misc

 

As far as I can see so far, eaglesp3-0.99e will produce a generic,

standards compliant SPICE file for use with whichever SPICE backend is

available.

 

At the moment I am using demos of some commercial SPICE packages, and

LTSPICE/SwitcherCAD, though am running into issues with program limitations.

 

I am looking to use cross platform Linux/Windows tools for this, as I

mostly use Linux for my work at home. I was hoping LTSPICE would provide

  this (it runs under WINE), though it has produced some glaring

simulation errors for me.

 

I am also generally pretty new to EAGLE, having used Protel/Altium in my

last job. As far as I can tell, the appropriate way to use EAGLE for

SPICE would be to draw the schematic using a particular EAGLE library,

which corresponds to a SPICE model library. Then use a ULP to generate a

  SPICE netlist with simulation directives. Then simulate. Then iterate.

Is that how people are approaching this?

 

Cheers everyone,

 

Oliver

 

  • Ing. J.M. Rafetseder wrote:

    Maybe Beigebag can help?

    http://www.beigebag.com/

    r

     

     

    Hi, thanks for your reply.

     

    I have read mixed reports about B2 SPICE (perhaps I shouldn't pay too

    much attention), and I also think the free tools may be sufficient,

    though I would like to get some opinions from other users if possible.

     

    I have just had my department spend money on EAGLE, and I think they

    would not be too keen on buying more software in the short term. Also B2

    SPICE is Windows only, which is OK for me, but not ideal. It also has a

    more restrictive license than some of my other tools, which I think

    would probably prevent me from using it while working from home (I

    currently have an medical issue which has kept me from my office for a

    couple of weeks).

     

    I was thinking the EAGLE front end and ULP really just need to create a

    SPICE netlist and simulation directive. From there, I'm thinking that

    OPUS SPICE, or ngSPICE should provide almost equivalent functionality to

    products such as B2 SPICE.

     

    I would really appreciate any feedback from people doing SPICE

    simulations, as to what are the common issues, etc, and things to look

    out for. If anyone here is using B2 SPICE, does it provide everything

    you need from it? Are there any major bugs?

     

    There are a couple of reasons why I want to do this with EAGLE schematic

    capture:

    1) avoid overheads of using more schematic entry programs than necessary

    2) consistency in documentation format (I use my schematics as primary

    documents in my design folders)

     

    When I get back to my office, I will trial the B2 SPICE demo, and see

    how it goes.

     

    Thanks for any feedback which may be offered.

     

    Cheers,

     

    Oliver

     

  • oliver wrote:

    ...

    Thanks for any feedback which may be offered.

     

    Cheers,

     

    Oliver

     

     

     

    P.S. Sorry, I forgot to mention, I am using EAGLE 5.4.0 professional.

     

    -Oliver

     

  • oliver schrieb:

    As far as I can tell, the appropriate way to use EAGLE for

    SPICE would be to draw the schematic using a particular EAGLE library,

    which corresponds to a SPICE model library. Then use a ULP to generate a

    SPICE netlist with simulation directives. Then simulate. Then iterate.

    Is that how people are approaching this?

     

    No. I do not synchronize layout with simulation, as this would be too

    much effort. I see SPICE as a nice tool to trace my development process

    for later reference. Sometimes I also do verfication with it, but

    exploring little understood circuits is prone to error. Especially don't

    try optimization, except you have a clear concept of the solution.

     

    I spent some time on models for laser diodes with dynamic and thermal

    behaviour modelling. Also made some VDMOS models for devices where he

    manufacturer only supplied NMOS models. As a resume I would say that the

    models used in a simulation determine about success. Manufacturer

    suppied models are overly complicated frequently.

     

    As the versions are concerned I have used PSPICE, B2SPICE and LTSPICE.

    Found LTSPICE sufficient and practical for my purposes.

     

    Regards

    Richard