Monday, November 12, 2007

PIC Development Studio

It is a program for development and simulation of software for the PIC16F84 microcontroller made by Microchip. With this program you can write the code, build it and test if it works in a few seconds. While debugging, you see the internal content of all registers.

PIC Development Studio is not just only a PIC16F84 simulator. You can simulate entire digital projects provided that the needed components are available. You connect the components together just as they would be in reality and start the simulation. There are included keyboards, simple displays, basic logic circuits, a tone generator and an oscilloscope probe. If these don't fulfil your needs, writing own components isn't difficult.


What's new
As of 2007 when Richard Keed decided to join the project has version 1.1 of the simulator been relased. This include a set of new components, including HD44780 compatible LCD. The PIC 16F84 component has also been updated with some bug fixes and the missing computed gotos feature has be implemented.

Getting PIC Development Studio
You can download the program free of charge. Java 5.0 or later, available at www.java.com, is required for PIC Development Studio. The program is released under the GPL license and can be freely distribute to others. Source code is available through the SVN repository at Sourceforge.net.

History
PIC Development Studio was started as hobby project by Andreas Doktar during his university studies. After one year's spare time effort was 1.0 release in spring 2002. Afterwards was development ceased until Richard Keed in 2007 decided to continue development the simulator


Source : http://picdev.sourceforge.net/webpage/

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Ansoft Softwares - Student Version

Ansoft offers student versions of three of their electromagnetic modeling codes that can be downloaded free of charge:

Ansoft Designer SV provides students and early-career professionals with an easy-to-use tool for applying basic circuit theories and techniques while developing their high-frequency engineering skills.

As a functional subset of Ansoft Designer, the commercially distributed design-management environment and circuit simulator for radio frequency (RF) and microwave hardware development, Ansoft Designer SV exposes engineers to the same design environment widely used in the high-performance electronic design industry.

Ansoft Designer SV contains a complete high-frequency linear circuit simulator, schematic and layout design entry, planar electromagnetic solver, design utilities, and post-processing, all integrated in a common environment. Users are able to create and simulate hierarchical circuit designs for RF and microwave applications, such as filters, small-signal amplifiers, matching networks, power splitters and combiners, couplers, and more. All Ansoft Designer SV projects are upward compatible to work with the commercial version of Ansoft Designer.

Successful high-frequency electronic design is tightly related to physical design and component parasitic behavior. With the addition of a subset of the planar EM capability available in the commercial version of Ansoft Designer, this student version provides a sample of Ansoft's industry-leading electromagnetic solver technology. The planar EM solver lets users generate S-, Y-, and Z-parameters for 2D structures with unlimited stack-up layers (Ansoft Designer SV restricted to under 300 triangles/unknowns).

Ansoft Designer SV allows the simulation of S-, Y-, and Z-parameters, group delay, noise figure, and stability circles of RF and microwave circuits. Utilities include real-time tuning, filter and TRL synthesis, and Smith Tool matching. Post-processing includes rectangular plots, Smith Charts, polar plots, and data tables. Additionally, Ansoft Designer SV comes with a set of real-world examples.

Ansoft offers the Maxwell SV to help engineering students visualize electromagnetic fields and broaden their understanding of electromagnetic physics. The Maxwell SV is a subset of Ansoft's commercially distributed Maxwell 2D. Students can perform AC/DC electromagnetic and electrostatic-field simulation without limitation.

This freely distributed software is intended for electrical engineering students studying topics relating to the design of electromagnetic components, such as sensors, actuators, motors, and transformers.

Simplorer v7 SV is a full-featured version of Ansoft's commercially distributed Simplorer with a limit only on the size of problems that can be solved. Simplorer is sophisticated multi-technology system simulation software widely used by automotive, aerospace, and power electronics systems designers. Simplorer SV is ideal for engineering students studying topics in power electronics, drive technology, electromagnetic actuators and electric machine design, controls, transportation technology, micro machining, mechatronics, and sensor systems. Ansoft offers Simplorer SV to foster and encourage the development of engineering skills throughout the multi-technology systems design community.

Simplorer SV supports the IEEE industry standard VHDL-AMS, a powerful multi-domain, analog, digital, and mixed-signal modeling language for the design of various complex technical systems. Simplorer SV also includes examples specifically designed for topics commonly studied at the junior, senior, and graduate levels.

PExprt™ SV provides students and early-career professionals with an easy-to-use tool for magnetic component design and modeling. PExprt SV allows students to learn important design techniques and skills that are relevant to the power electronics industry.

PExprt SV is a limited version of PExprt, the commercially distributed software for the design and modeling of magnetic components such as inductors, planar transformers and integrated magnetics used in power-electronics applications.

(source: http://www.ansoft.com/)

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Kicad:GPL PCB Suite


Kicad is an open source (GPL) software for the creation of electronic schematic diagrams and printed circuit board artwork.

Designed and written by Jean-Pierre Charras, a researcher at LIS (Laboratoire des Images et des Signaux) and a teacher in IUT de Saint Martin d'Hères.(France), in the field of electrical engineering and image processing.
Kicad is a set of four softwares and a project manager:

  • Eeschema :Schematic entry.
  • Pcbnew :Board editor.
  • Gerbview :GERBER viewer (photoplotter documents).
  • Cvpcb :footprint selector for components used in the circuit design.
  • Kicad: project manager.

With the project manager, Kicad, you can choose or create a project and launch Eeschema, Pcbnew, etc. This electronic workbench is free of charges and is open source (GPL). It is useful for everybody working in electronic design (schematic diagrams and Printed Board up to 16 layers).

This software (using WXWIDGETS) is MULTI-PLATFORM. It is running under LINUX and Windows (XP or 2000), for which updates are regularly provided. Currently, the precompiled version of Linux has been tested using Mandrake 9.2 or 10.0 (works with 10.1).
Sometime the softwares are also been tested under other O.S., especially FreeBSD and Solaris.

(Source: http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/)

Monday, September 24, 2007

EdSim51:The 8051 Simulator for Teachers and Students

Do you want to learn about microcontrollers and embedded systems? Are you studying the 8051 microcontroller? Do you want to test your code for communicating with peripherals without having to first build the hardware? Are you teaching an embedded systems course and would like your students to have access to a virtual 8051 training kit?

If the answer to any or all of the above is true, then you've come to the right place. The EdSim51 Simulator for the popular 8051 microcontroller is exactly the tool you need. And it's FREE!

A virtual 8051 is interfaced with virtual peripherals such as a keypad, motor, display, UART, etc. The student can write 8051 assembly code, step through the code and observe the effects each line has on the internal memory and the external peripherals.

The Virtual Peripherals:

  • Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC)
  • Comparator
  • UART
  • 4 Multiplexed 7-segment Displays
  • 4 X 3 Keypad
  • 8 LEDs
  • DC Motor
  • 8 Switches
  • Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC) - displayed on oscilloscope
Why EdSim51's Simulator and not some of the many other simulators that are available?
Many of the simulators for the 8051 that you will find are industry-standard. They are used by professional 8051-based embedded udent can learn how to scan a keypad, multiplex 7-segment displays, control a motor asystems designers. While they show the state of the registers, memory and the port pins while code is being debugged, they do not have graphical representations of peripherals that can be used interactively to communicate with the 8051. EdSim51 have filled that need. The stnd count its revolutions, etc.

Download EdSim51 here.

(Source: http://www.edsim51.com)

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Sonnet Lite

Sonnet Lite Version 11.53 is a free feature-limited version of Sonnet's professional Sonnet Suite, which provides EM analysis to hundreds of companies across the globe. Many major manufacturers of high-frequency components and boards depend on Sonnet to analyze their predominantly planar high-frequency designs from 1 MHz through several THz. You can download it right now - it's FREE!

Key Benefits of Sonnet Lite

  • Most accurate, reliable planar EM software in the world
  • Easy to learn with clear tutorials and online help
  • Fast and efficient
  • It's Free!
(Source: http://www.sonnetusa.com/products/lite/)

Friday, September 21, 2007

Scicos: Scilab's block diagram modeler/simulator

Scicos is a graphical dynamical system modeler and simulator toolbox included in the Scilab ® engineering and scientific computation software. With Scicos you can create block diagrams to model and simulate the dynamics of hybrid dynamical systems and compile your models into executable code. Scicos is used for signal processing, systems control, queuing systems, and to study physical and biological systems. New extensions allow generation of component based modeling of electrical and hydraulic circuits using the Modelica language.


With Scicos you can:
  • Graphically model, compile, and simulate dynamical systems
  • Combine continuous and discrete-time behaviors in the same model
  • Select model elements from Palettes of standard blocks
  • Program new blocks in C, Fortran, or Scilab Language
  • Run simulations in batch mode from Scilab environment
  • Generate C code from Scicos model using a Code Generator
  • Run simulations in real time with and real devices using Scicos-HIL
  • Generate hard real-time control executables with Scicos-RTAI and Scicos-FLEX
  • Simulate digital communications systems with Scicos-ModNum
  • Use implicit blocks developed in the Modelica language.
  • Discover new Scicos capability using additional toolboxes.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Scilab

A Free Scientific Software Package

Scilab is a scientific software package for numerical computations providing a powerful open computing environment for engineering and scientific applications.

Scilab is an open source software. Since 1994 it has been distributed freely along with the source code via the Internet. It is currently used in educational and industrial environments around the world. Scilab is now the responsibility of the Scilab Consortium, launched in May 2003. There are currently 25 members in Scilab Consortium.

Scilab includes hundreds of mathematical functions with the possibility to add interactively programs from various languages (C, C++, Fortran…). It has sophisticated data structures (including lists, polynomials, rational functions, linear systems...), an interpreter and a high level programming language.

Scilab has been designed to be an open system where the user can define new data types and operations on these data types by using overloading.

A number of toolboxes are available with the system:
  • 2-D and 3-D graphics, animation
  • Linear algebra, sparse matrices
  • Polynomials and rational functions
  • Interpolation, approximation
  • Simulation: ODE solver and DAE solver
  • Scicos: a hybrid dynamic systems modeler and simulator
  • Classic and robust control, LMI optimization
  • Differentiable and non-differentiable optimization
  • Signal processing
  • Metanet: graphs and networks
  • Parallel Scilab
  • Statistics
  • Interface with Computer Algebra: Maple package for Scilab code generation
  • Interface with Fortran, Tcl/Tk, C, C++, Java, LabVIEW
  • And a large number of contributions for various domains.
A large number of contributions can be downloaded from Scilab Web site. Scilab has been built using a number of external libraries.

Scilab works on most Unix systems (including GNU/Linux/Vista) and Windows (9X/2000/XP). It comes with source code, on-line help and English user manuals.

(Source: http://www.scilab.org)

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

NEC2C and XNEC2C

nec2c:
nec2c is a translation of the Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC2) from FORTRAN to C. Operationally nec2c differs from NEC2 by being a command line non-interactive program, taking as arguments the input file name and optionally the output file name. While translating NEC2 to C I also took the liberty of changing the output format somewhat, without realizing at the time that I was making it incompatible with visualizing software such as xnecview. Others, though, have taken nec2c and restored the output format while improving its functionality and speed, as well as building a C++ library based on nec2c.

Manual Read more details on-line or download nec2c's manual.

Since version 0.6, nec2c incorporates a fix for a bug that was inherited from the original NEC2 FORTRAN code. This has been kindly fixed by G. Burke and you can read more details about it here.

Package Download source package of nec2c.


xnec2c:
xnec2c is a GTK+ graphical interactive version of nec2c. It incorporates the nec2c core which it uses for reading input files and calculating output data, but it does not need and indeed does not produce an output file by default. Since xnec2c incorporates the nec2c core, it has access to all internal buffers, including structure data, frequency-related data (structure currents, input impedance, gain etc) and radiation pattern data (for the far field and near field). It therefore has the ability to graphically display user-requested data directly, as the frequency loop progresses or after input from the user. Graphs of frequency-related data and the current or charge distribution evolve as the frequency loop progresses, and radiation patterns (far and near field) are sequentially drawn for each frequency step. A new frequency can be entered by the user from spin buttons in the main or radiation pattern windows or by clicking on the graphs of frequency-related data. New output data are then computed and displayed in text and graphical form.

Manual Read more details on-line or download xnec2c's manual.

Package Download source package of xnec2c.

ExamplesExample Input Files: This directory has some example NEC2 input files that I used for testing xnec2c. They include some antenna designs of interest to radio amateurs as well as possibly to professional radio engineers (short verticals for low frequencies).


These are screen shots of xnec2c displaying structure currents or charges, frequency-related data and radiation patterns.
Click on the thumbnails for the full-sized images.

currents charges freq-plots radiation
Current distribution
in the structure
Charge density
in the structure
Frequency-related
data: Gain, VSWR, Zi
Radiation pattern:
transparent wire grid

Monday, September 10, 2007

gEDA Project

What is gEDA?

The gEDA project has produced and continues working on a full GPL'd suite of Electronic Design Automation tools. These tools are used for electrical circuit design, schematic capture, simulation, prototyping, and production. Currently, the gEDA project offers a mature suite of free software applications for electronics design, including schematic capture, attribute management, bill of materials (BOM) generation, netlisting into over 20 netlist formats, analog and digital simulation, and printed circuit board (PCB) layout.

The gEDA project was started because of the lack of free EDA tools for UNIX. The tools are being developed mainly on GNU/Linux machines, but considerable effort is being made to make sure that gEDA runs on other UNIX variants. For a complete list of freely available tools please be sure to visit Open Collector.

Tools that are part of gEDA/gaf (gschem and friends):

(Source: http://www.geda.seul.org)