I've got an OLD copy of Electronic Workbench that jams up Windows 7 every time I use it. Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit simulator that is somewhat similar to EWB that doesn't cob up the OS? Yeah, I know SPICE does everything but it is a royal pain in the ass to use and doesn't let me do quick and dirty simulations that don't have to be down to the gnat's eyebrow. Suggestions? Jim
Electronic Workbench Update
Started by ●July 10, 2012
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
RST Engineering wrote:> I've got an OLD copy of Electronic Workbench that jams up Windows 7 > every time I use it. ...No surprise there. IMHO the last-known-good OS from MS is XP. Which is why I am sticking to that. Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit> simulator that is somewhat similar to EWB that doesn't cob up the OS? > > Yeah, I know SPICE does everything but it is a royal pain in the ass > to use and doesn't let me do quick and dirty simulations that don't > have to be down to the gnat's eyebrow. > > Suggestions? >LTSpice. Take the plunge, I did over 20 years ago. Before that I used ECA224 which is (AFAIR) the predecessor of EWB. SPICE makes things so much easier. For example, if you get stuck you can post the whole thing here, someone could take a look, massage it a bit, and post a corrected version back. With EWB you'd be on your own. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:30:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:>RST Engineering wrote: >> I've got an OLD copy of Electronic Workbench that jams up Windows 7 >> every time I use it. ... > > >No surprise there. IMHO the last-known-good OS from MS is XP. Which is >why I am sticking to that. > > > Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit >> simulator that is somewhat similar to EWB that doesn't cob up the OS? >> >> Yeah, I know SPICE does everything but it is a royal pain in the ass >> to use and doesn't let me do quick and dirty simulations that don't >> have to be down to the gnat's eyebrow. >> >> Suggestions? >> > >LTSpice. Take the plunge, I did over 20 years ago. Before that I used >ECA224 which is (AFAIR) the predecessor of EWB. SPICE makes things so >much easier. For example, if you get stuck you can post the whole thing >here, someone could take a look, massage it a bit, and post a corrected >version back. With EWB you'd be on your own.Ditto what Joerg recommends. However, if you're on Win7 Pro you do have the option of running its Virtual XP mode which I've found does the job for some older programs. I've also seen recommendations for VirtualBox and a "real" XP installation from disks. Either approach could let you keep your old work while moving to a newer app. -- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:30:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:>No surprise there. IMHO the last-known-good OS from MS is XP. Which is >why I am sticking to that.Ugh. Limited to 32-bit.
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:30:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:>RST Engineering wrote: >> I've got an OLD copy of Electronic Workbench that jams up Windows 7 >> every time I use it. ... > > >No surprise there. IMHO the last-known-good OS from MS is XP. Which is >why I am sticking to that. > > > Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit >> simulator that is somewhat similar to EWB that doesn't cob up the OS? >> >> Yeah, I know SPICE does everything but it is a royal pain in the ass >> to use and doesn't let me do quick and dirty simulations that don't >> have to be down to the gnat's eyebrow. >> >> Suggestions? >> > >LTSpice. Take the plunge, I did over 20 years ago. Before that I used >ECA224 which is (AFAIR) the predecessor of EWB. SPICE makes things so >much easier. For example, if you get stuck you can post the whole thing >here, someone could take a look, massage it a bit, and post a corrected >version back. With EWB you'd be on your own.ECA (Tatum Labs?) was really good. It was fast and always converged. And you could easily parameterize any component, like make a capacitor value depend on some voltage, current, time, anything. EWB, on the other hand, was expensive and buggy and the people were, in my opinion, unethical. They sold their simulator with "lifetime upgrades" and then changed the name to weasel out. LT Spice is the way to go. -- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com http://www.highlandtechnology.com Precision electronic instrumentation Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators Custom laser drivers and controllers Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links VME thermocouple, LVDT, synchro acquisition and simulation
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
On Jul 10, 12:56=A0pm, RST Engineering <jwei...@gmail.com> wrote:> I've got an OLD copy of Electronic Workbench that jams up Windows 7 > every time I use it. =A0Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit > simulator that is somewhat similar to EWB that doesn't cob up the OS? > > Yeah, I know SPICE does everything but it is a royal pain in the ass > to use and doesn't let me do quick and dirty simulations that don't > have to be down to the gnat's eyebrow. > > Suggestions? > > JimI'll third Joergs suggestion that you go for LTspice. I used EWB and made the switch to LTspice a year or two ago. It's not that hard, and as quick as EWB once you're up to speed. As a side benefit you can post your schematic on SED if you do get stuck. (Also plenty of help here when you run into the inevitable 'bump' on the learning curve.) George H.
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:47:12 -0400, Rich Webb <bbew.ar@mapson.nozirev.ten> wrote:> >Ditto what Joerg recommends. However, if you're on Win7 Pro you do have >the option of running its Virtual XP mode which I've found does the job >for some older programs. I've also seen recommendations for VirtualBox >and a "real" XP installation from disks. Either approach could let you >keep your old work while moving to a newer app.VMware is another option. Those options will even allow you to run 16-bit stuff from before 1990-- I have an assembler from 1986 that runs fine under 64-bit Win 7.. it's about old enough to be a grandpa. VMWare runs rather snappily even on a netbook-like computer (mobile core 2 duo). You can even install DOS 6.22 if you really want. Just for laughs I'm going to have to load up DOS and run Z80MU (it doesn't run under XP-32- gives a stack overflow. Z80 CPM emulation running under DOS in turn under a 64-bit modern O/S. Glorious. Three hundred years ago you could have been burned at the stake for running such code.
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
Spehro Pefhany wrote:> On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:30:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> > wrote: >> No surprise there. IMHO the last-known-good OS from MS is XP. Which is >> why I am sticking to that. > > Ugh. Limited to 32-bit. >But runs _all_ my old stuff. Which is important to me since some SW is from sources where support ended in the early 90's, author have passed away, companies are non-existent. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
John Larkin wrote:> On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:30:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> > wrote: > >> RST Engineering wrote: >>> I've got an OLD copy of Electronic Workbench that jams up Windows 7 >>> every time I use it. ... >> >> No surprise there. IMHO the last-known-good OS from MS is XP. Which is >> why I am sticking to that. >> >> >> Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit >>> simulator that is somewhat similar to EWB that doesn't cob up the OS? >>> >>> Yeah, I know SPICE does everything but it is a royal pain in the ass >>> to use and doesn't let me do quick and dirty simulations that don't >>> have to be down to the gnat's eyebrow. >>> >>> Suggestions? >>> >> LTSpice. Take the plunge, I did over 20 years ago. Before that I used >> ECA224 which is (AFAIR) the predecessor of EWB. SPICE makes things so >> much easier. For example, if you get stuck you can post the whole thing >> here, someone could take a look, massage it a bit, and post a corrected >> version back. With EWB you'd be on your own. > > ECA (Tatum Labs?) was really good. It was fast and always converged. > And you could easily parameterize any component, like make a capacitor > value depend on some voltage, current, time, anything. >That is no problem in LTSpice either. I just had a gizmo here with a resistor where the value depended on a node voltage. Which depended on a voltage source. Which depended on a formula in its value line. You can even make stuff dance to the tunes of Led Zeppelin.> EWB, on the other hand, was expensive and buggy and the people were, > in my opinion, unethical. They sold their simulator with "lifetime > upgrades" and then changed the name to weasel out. > > LT Spice is the way to go. >Oh yeah, sure is. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply by ●July 10, 20122012-07-10
On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:56:00 -0700, RST Engineering <jweir43@gmail.com> wrote:>I've got an OLD copy of Electronic Workbench that jams up Windows 7 >every time I use it. Is there a (preferably free or cheap) circuit >simulator that is somewhat similar to EWB that doesn't cob up the OS?Run it in a VM, ya dope.>Yeah, I know SPICE does everything but it is a royal pain in the ass >to use and doesn't let me do quick and dirty simulations that don't >have to be down to the gnat's eyebrow.Run it in a VM. Either from within Windows or under Linux. Hell, at that point you could run the Linux version.> >Suggestions?Virtual Machine.
