[Free] Breadboard simulation tools - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: kalel
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2017, 08:57:04 am
content: I'm curious about breadboard simulation tools. There are great circuit simulations tools, even really simple ones to use like falstad. With breadboards being so frequently used, I don't see any downsides of a simulator for them either.I started searching for Breadboard simulation tools, and found some:Breadboard simulator (free and open source) :http://ds0.me/Video preview:https://streamable.com/doc8sYou can place and simulate components and change some parameters in real-time (e.g. turn potentiometers).It seems that once you place a component, you can't easily rotate or change its connections to the board without deleting it, and adding it again in the proper position (some components can be rotated, and components can be moved, but that's about all).I also tried something called VBB classic:http://www.virtualbreadboard.com/Home.htmBut the simulation part doesn't seem to work for me. It might be a bug, or you need to pay for it. In the arduino version, it clearly states that you need to pay for it when trying to press the button, but for the classic version it's just grayed out, and that note is not displayed.Any other (free) breadboard simulation tools out there?I would also like your opinion on whether or not such tools are useful or would be useful in case a really good one doesn't exist yet.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2017, 09:34:53 am
content: Unless they add in the parasitics of a common breadboard, including connector resistance, row capacitance and jump lead inductance. I see no real point for it, a schematic describes what connects to what, but but not how they are connected in general.Even for bread boarding, it helps to have a schematic to work from, as if you have an issue you can trace back the nodes that are likely to be causing you issues. having a layout of how it connects on a breadboard would help for physical implementation, but it wont add to the schematic form of simulation.Also be careful with falstads mosfets, they are intended for low power logic, you need to mess with them for anything more.

author: MosherIV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2017, 09:44:39 am
content: As Rerouter says, there is little point because breadboard/strip board is lousy for so many things.For general low frequency circuits it is OK, beyond 10MHz the stray capacitance makes it completely useless.Just use Spice or any other circuit simulator is it is low freq.

author: daveshah
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 07, 2017, 04:37:07 pm
content: HiI'm actually the author of the ds0.me simulator. It's really a fairly simple simulator for educational use, parasitic aren't modelled and I don't think it's something I'm considering adding.Let me know if you've got any queries, specific feature requests or bug reports!

author: kalel
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2017, 04:43:28 am
content: Quote from: daveshah on July 07, 2017, 04:37:07 pmThis really is a big place.I realize it's a simple tool and it's looking good, and there's not that much competition out there that I see (considering free, downloadable software at least).As for feature requests, unless it's possible and I couldn't find it, I think changes would be easier if you could change and move around the component's connection points (e.g. go back to the same mode as when placing a component -https://streamable.com/930t1, but instead of adding a new one, change the placement parameters of the existing one). Might be just a personal opinion, but it seems useful to me.As for other optional features, maybe diagonal placement, and changing the breadboard type? Those small (tiny comparing to large ones) breadboards without power pins also exist, and if you do the layout on the big board without properly considering the size of the small one, it might be difficult to do a 1:1 transfer to physical breadboard (for those circuits where such transfer is applicable, not considering those higher frequency cases where additional consideration is necessary). The last one is purely optional, as one could imagine that they are working on a smaller breadboard, if they count the number of points from the physical board, and then using only the same amount (but it's easy to go beyond that accidentally without visual guidelines, likely).