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  • Author Author: ggabe
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LTSpice Simulation on Mac

ggabe

Just recently, LTSpice has become my new favorite EE tool. I use a Mac, and to my biggest surprise, the Mac version does not have the toolbar icon that I see in YouTube videos. As a result, I found myself looking at a window without knowing what to do next.

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I hesitated, unsure if I needed to go through the hassle of a full Windows installation to access the complete featured UI. However, I stumbled upon my second favorite EE tool - CrossOver from CodeWeavers. CrossOver, also known as Wine, offers a paid version with added UI enhancements and pre-made recipes. Within minutes, I had the Windows version of LTSpice up and running on my Mac, neatly contained within a native window, without requiring Windows installation or licensing. It's worth noting that LTSpice is readily available as a community-provided recipe in CrossOver, but you also have the option to provide your own installer.

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I also have other EE-related tools, such as TINA-TI, installed there, which provides a lightweight solution for the absence of Mac-compatible electrical engineering development tools. Unfortunately, the USB driver support for my beloved ANT-8 Logic Analyzer is still a challenge that I have yet to overcome. For now, I have to rely on Parallels and a full Windows installation to use ANT.

In the end, the simulation was successfully up and running. Here is a circuit that I will always remember, as it was one of the first I built many years ago:

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Are you interested in LTSpice simulation-related posts? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts. Please share your feedback in the comments section below. I'm always excited to explore LTSpice simulations and discuss related topics with fellow enthusiasts.

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  • Someone gave me a nudge the other day to give it a another try.

    I hadn't bothered playing with it since I switched to LinuxOS as it's a windowsOS based executable. However, for once, LTspice is one of those few applications that works with Wine. Now I'm getting into it.

    So, yes I am quite interested in learning more about LTSpice.

    In fact, I already have a question.

    To kickstart my journey, I started with a breadboard and set up a circuit where I measured the voltage across some capacitors with a 0-5V PWM input signal. I then set up the same/similar circuit on LTspice. As it's only a simulation tool I was not expecting the results to match and that turned out to be the case. So, after playing around a bit I was able to "calibrate" my LTspice to match the output of my oscilliscope by adding in a 25 ohm series resistance in the circuit. Yes a breadboard would have resistance, but I did not think it was that high.

    So I wondered, what sort of calibration does one have to do to make sure LTspice provides reasonably accurate real world results.

    And for those who are curious as to what I did.

    I basically started with a 100kHz square wave and measured this output on my oscilloscope. I then kept adding in small ceramic capacitors in parallel to watch how the oscilloscope output changed. I then replicated this very simple circuit in LTspice.

  • in reply to BigG

    Aren't you simply improving your circuit model, by accounting for the true output resistance of the PWM generator with your 25R, or am I misunderstanding your description?

  • in reply to jc2048

    Yes, I suppose I am improving my circuit model. I hadn't considered the PWM generator itself. The calibration question was a very generic question as there may be a range of simple steps to take to improve the default settings and of course there would be application specific steps to take depending on circuit and analytical requirements. Having designed other types of simulation models before, I know that this simple rule applies to all, namely rubbish in equates to rubbish out.

    Anyway, I'm still learning the ropes with LTspice and have only just discovered ".options" as another way to improve FFT simulation, for example.

    So far I am more than pleasantly surprised at what you can do with LTspice.

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  • in reply to jc2048

    Yes, I suppose I am improving my circuit model. I hadn't considered the PWM generator itself. The calibration question was a very generic question as there may be a range of simple steps to take to improve the default settings and of course there would be application specific steps to take depending on circuit and analytical requirements. Having designed other types of simulation models before, I know that this simple rule applies to all, namely rubbish in equates to rubbish out.

    Anyway, I'm still learning the ropes with LTspice and have only just discovered ".options" as another way to improve FFT simulation, for example.

    So far I am more than pleasantly surprised at what you can do with LTspice.

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