Opinions on PSIM or VisSim or the like - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MagicSmoker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2015, 12:22:01 pm
content: It seems inevitable that power electronics is moving ever more towards digital control and compensation (even when it doesn't provide any advantage a traditional analog controller). Up til now our software engineer has done a good job of translating my explanations of control loops and transfer functions into code, but we are bidding on a project to design a fault-tolerant, constant power arc/plasma power supply and I think that will be too much for the poor guy.So I am contemplating going to the dark side and using power electronics simulation software to generate the code (either C for a uC or HDL for a FPGA) that implements the switching strategy and control loop compensation, leaving the UI and supervisory functions to our software engineer.I haven't been terribly impressed with this type of software in the past, either because it tends to rely on ideal diodes, switches and transformers, and/or it has a ridiculously steep learning curve as a result of trying to maintain backwards compatibility over decades of software revisions, and, of course, because it is invariably very expensive.However, I am open to the possibility that modeling/simulation/code generation software has gotten better and would like some anecdotal, real-world commentary from the peanut gallery here before I sign up for demos that inevitably turn into the kind of high pressure sales presentation that would make a used car salesman blush.

author: MagicSmoker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 12, 2015, 05:17:20 pm
content: Clearly, this sub-forum is the red-headed stepchild of the bunch. Le sigh...

author: KaanMutlu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 29, 2015, 05:37:23 am
content: Hello MagicSmoker,I also try to find the most useful and suitable software for myself. I've been working as an analog design engineer for 2 years and instead of writing C code alone, it seems it is better to use a model-based structure like Vissim or using PSIM that allows us to make also simulations and let us use its modules specialized on some certain DSPs.Could you fine a good answer in 3 weeks (after posting this)? I still have question marks about which to chooseKaan

author: MagicSmoker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2015, 07:36:12 pm
content: Haven't made much progress on selecting a good simulation/code generation platform. VisSim mainly (only?) works with certain TI MCU/DSP but is about half the price of Matlab+Simulink (+other modules specific to power electronics and code generation) and seems pretty capable. PowerSim seems to assume ideal component behavior out of the box so requires quite a bit of fiddling before what it shows during a simulation looks anything like reality (similarly, I am not sure if its code generation module actually produces usable code), but it looks like it can handle more complex circuits (e.g. - more complex than a 3ph. motor inverter, which seems to be what most of these packages are optimized for).I haven't really looked into Matlab+Simulink (etc.) because it is so expensive.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2015, 08:33:29 pm
content: How about SIMPLIS?No idea if it's any good, but even in the worst case you'll still have a license for Simetrix.

author: MagicSmoker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2015, 01:07:19 pm
content: Quote from: Marco on November 07, 2015, 08:33:29 pmI very well could be wrong, but I think Simplis is only capable of generating HDL output, not C code. Thanks for the reply, though - I had all but given up on this thread!

author: MagicSmoker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2015, 01:59:23 pm
content: Quote from: AcHmed99 on November 08, 2015, 02:10:38 amInteresting suggestion. It looks a bit rudimentary right now but something to keep an eye on.Quote from: AcHmed99 on November 08, 2015, 02:10:38 amWhile it is true that a digital control loop (in hardware or software) will never outperform an analog one, there are all kinds of things you can do with a software-defined SMPS implementation that are either impossible or impractical with hardware alone. For example: minimum pulse width (on or off) plus randomized pulse skipping to extend effective PWM control range; FIR filters which are guaranteed stable and express functions with no analog equivalent; coordination and synchronization of multiphase converters; precise firing of auxiliary switches in quasi-resonant converters; guaranteeing overlap of main switches in current-fed converters; it is easy to add more protection functions, change all sorts of parameters from control loop to switching frequency later on; etc.