================================ CircuitMaker 2.5 Schematic Capture and Simulation Demo Version for Windows 3.1 ================================ What is CircuitMaker? ===================== CircuitMaker is a powerful, yet easy to use, schematic capture and circuit simulation program. CircuitMaker's user-friendly interface allows you to quickly and easily draw, modify and combine analog and digital circuit diagrams. Its powerful built-in digital and analog simulation capability can save you time and money by allowing you to check your designs before you build them. CircuitMaker's many unique features help relieve the frustration encountered by circuit designers and encourage creativity and exploration. The DEMO version of CircuitMaker has the following limitations: - Files cannot be saved. - Circuits and waveforms cannot be printed. - Macro devices can be created but cannot be saved. - A limited number of devices can be selected from the library. - New analog simulations cannot be run. To see how the analog simulation works load a circuit which already has simulation data. Circuits which have simulation data already generated are: 555.CIR, BANDPASS.CIR, ANALOG.CIR and DIFFAMP.CIR. System Requirements =================== - IBM or compatible computer running Windows 3.1 or greater - 7MB or more of free disk space - VGA (or higher) resolution video card and monitor (color preferred) - Optionally, any Windows compatible printer Drawing a Schematic =================== To draw a circuit diagram, you simply use the mouse to select devices from the library and to connect wires between the devices. Features such as Auto Routing and SmartWires simplify the task of drawing any circuit. Editing features such as rubberband move of wires and devices, cut, copy and paste, the ability to rotate and mirror devices, and the ability to spread the circuit out over several pages, further simplify the circuit drawing process. To begin, go to the File menu and open the file labeled "SCHEMA.CIR". A simple, partially drawn schematic will appear on your screen. Click and drag a Logic Display from the L2 (Library 2) pulldown menu. Place the display above and to the right of the inverter. Select the Wiring Tool (Alt. W) from the Toolbar and center it on the output pin of the Logic Switch. Click and HOLD the left mouse button, then drag the wire to the input pin of the inverter and release the mouse button to connect the wire. A round pin dot will appear at each end of the wire to confirm the connection. You don't need to be exact when aligning the wire to the pin. CircuitMaker has a feature called "SmartWires" which automatically adjusts the wire, connecting it to the input pin. When the cursor gets close to the pin, a small rectangle is displayed, highlighting the pin. The wire will snap to the point highlighted by the rectangle. The size of the rectangle is user programmable in the Preferences dialog box. Wires can be moved around with the Arrow Tool after they have been placed in the circuit. Position the wiring cursor over the output pin of the inverter. Click and HOLD the mouse button, then drag the end of the wire to the pin of the Logic Display and release the mouse button. Manual routing of wires is also available. To route wires manually, Select the Wire Tool, then click and RELEASE the mouse button to start the wire. Drag the mouse in the direction you want to go (horizontal or vertical). An extended wiring cursor is displayed to help you precisely align wires with other wire, devices, etc. Click once to turn the wire 90 degrees. Double-click to end the wire or single-click on a device pin or wire. Editing Features ================ CircuitMaker has a feature known as a "rubberband move". This allows the user to move a device or wire, while still maintaining full circuit connectivity. To accomplish this, select the Arrow Tool (Alt. A) from the Toolbar. Select the display or any other device in the sample circuit, drag it to a new location and drop it. From the Toolbar select the Delete Tool (Alt. D). Place the tip of the Delete Tool on a device or wire and click. The Delete Tool enables you to quickly delete unwanted wires, devices and text. To undelete, type Ctrl+Z. CircuitMaker allows you to place multi-line, fully stylized text anywhere in the schematic. To place text, click on the Text Tool (Alt. T) in the Toolbar, move the cursor to the desired location and click to create a text field. These are the basics of drawing a schematic within the CircuitMaker environment. With CircuitMaker, drawing schematics can be fast, flexible and fun. Digital Simulation ================== One of the most powerful features of CircuitMaker is its ability to simulate your design. This enables you to detect and correct design errors prior to investing time and money in the construction of actual hardware prototypes. Digital simulation is completely live, meaning the circuit responds immediately to changes from input stimulus and the operation of the circuit is shown on the screen as it happens. Circuit- Maker also features several animated digital devices which can be used to make interesting real-life circuits. Animated devices include a window which opens and closes and a race car and rocket which move across the screen. Look at the file CIRCUITS.TXT for a description of the animated circuits included with the demo. Go to the File menu and open the CircuitMaker file labeled "SIM.CIR". On your screen you will observe three simple circuits. They are designed to introduce you to the simulation features of CircuitMaker. To start a simulation, click on the Run button in the Toolbar. To stop a simulation, click on the Stop Sign that replaced the Run button in the Toolbar. To reset the circuit to the starting state, click on the Reset button in the Toolbar. Start the simulation by clicking on the Run button (or F10) in the Toolbar. Toggle the position of the switch in the sample circuit by clicking on it. Operation of the circuit can be observed in four ways: 1. Select the Probe Tool (Alt. P) from the Toolbar and touch the tip of it on any wire. The triangle indicator in the Probe tool indicates the respective high or low state of the wire being probed. If no triangle appears, this indicates an unknown state. A wire can be probed while the simulation is running or after it has stopped. The tip of the Probe Tool can be used as a pointer to toggle the position of a switch. When clicked on a wire, it will toggle the state of the wire. 2. Circuit operation can be observed by connecting any of a variety of displays and then monitoring the conditions shown on them. Observe the displays in the simulation circuit. 3. Enable the "Trace" feature by clicking on the Trace button (F11) in the Toolbar. The state of every wire in the circuit is shown simultaneously as the simulation runs. In this mode wires at a logic one are shown as red, wires at a logic zero as blue, and wires at an unknown or tri-state as green. 4. Any number of logic scope probes (found in L2, "SCOPE") can be connected at any point in the circuit, thus causing the timing diagrams for those nodes to be shown in a separate Waveforms window. To observe the timing diagrams, click on the Waveforms button (Ctrl. W) in the Toolbar. A separate Waveforms window will appear. Stop the simulation by clicking on the Stop Sign (or F10) that replaced the Run button in the Toolbar. CircuitMaker gives the user the option of setting breakpoints. To accomplish this, click once on the A1 breakpoint rectangle at the left of the Waveforms window. Click twice on the A2 breakpoint rectangle. By leaving the A3 breakpoint rectangle unaltered it will have no effect on the breakpoint. Reset the simulation by clicking on the Reset button in the Toolbar (or Ctrl. Q). Then click the Run button (or F10) to start the simulation. The simulation will halt at the specified breakpoint. The right edge of the Waveforms window is the point where the actual breakpoint is registered. Click several times on the Step button (or F9) in the Toolbar to advance the Waveforms one tick at a time. As you do this you will notice that the circuit did stop when the specified condition occurred. Its Expandable! =============== CircuitMaker is expandable because it enables you to create your own completely functional devices and nonfunctional device symbols. You can either design your own package for a macro or choose one that CircuitMaker provides. In addition, macros can be recalled from the library, expanded, edited and resaved at any time. With the Arrow Tool (Alt. A), select the device on your screen labeled Macro. Select the "Expand Macro" command in the Macros menu. Your screen will be cleared and the macro will be expanded revealing its internal circuitry. Select the device labeled Macro 2 and expand this macro. As you can see, CircuitMaker allows you to create nested macros. Analog Simulation ================= This section provides a brief introduction to CircuitMaker's analog simulation capabilities. It demonstrates creating a simple amplifier circuit, setting up the analyses, and running the simulation. Creating the Circuit -------------------- To begin, we will create a simple 10X amplifier circuit using a UA741 Op Amp. In this configuration, voltage gain = RF/RI. 1. Select "New" from the File menu. An "Untitled" circuit window will be opened. 2. Select Analog simulation mode. The transistor icon should be visible in the Toolbar, not the AND gate icon. If the AND gate icon is displayed on the button, click on the button. 3. Disable the "Auto Designation" option in the Options menu (so there is no checkmark by it). This allows us to specify our own designation for each device (e.g., Vcc, U1, RF, etc.) RF 100k ------/\/\/---------- | | Vin | Vcc | -100m/100mV | +12V | ---------- RI | |\ o | | | 10k | | \| U1 | | SINE |--/\/\/--*-----|- \ UA741 | | WAVE | | >------* | |---------*-----|+ / | | 10.kHz | | | /| \ RL ---------- | |/ o / 25k --- -12V \ /// Vee | --- /// 4. Draw the circuit as shown (don't worry about the values), using the following devices: from the L1 menu: 1 Signal Gen (Vin on the schematic), 2 +V devices (Vcc and Vee) and 2 Grounds (every node in an analog circuit must have a DC path to ground). From the L7 menu: 3 Resistors (RI, RF and RL). From the L8 menu: 1 Op-Amp5 (U1). Devices can be rotated in 90 degree increments by selecting the device with the mouse and clicking on the "Rotate 90" button in the Toolbar (it's the button that looks like a right angle with a curved arrow). Use this method to rotate the -12V supply and RL. Use the Wire Tool (+) to wire the circuit together. Use the Arrow Tool to drag devices and wires around to make the circuit look nice. 5. Select the Arrow Tool from the Toolbar and double-click on the Op Amp. Select UA741 from the list of available subcircuits (it's near the bottom of the list) and click on the Select button. Click on the "Netlist..." button. Set the Designation field to "U1" and visible. Click on the "Ok" button, then the "Exit" button. 6. Double-click on the TOP +V device. Set the Label-Value field to "+12V" and visible. Set the Designation field to "Vcc" and visible. Set the Device field to NOT visible. Click on the "Ok" button. 7. Double-click on the BOTTOM +V device. Set the Label-Value field to "-12V" and visible. Set the Designation field to "Vee" and visible. Set the Device field to NOT visible. Click on the "Ok" button. Click and drag the labels so they are positioned as shown on the schematic. 8. Double-click on each resistor to change both its Label-Value and its Designation and make them visible. Set them up as follows (refer to the circuit diagram): Resistor Label-Value Designation Input 10k RI Feedback 100k RF Load 25k RL 9. Double-click on the Signal Generator. Set the Peak Amplitude to 0.1V and the frequency to 10kHz. Click on the "Wave..." button. Enable the "Source" checkbox for AC Analysis. Set Magnitude to -0.1V and Phase to 0. Click on the "OK" button. The Signal Generator can now be used as a reference for the AC analysis. Click on the "Netlist..." button. Set the Designation field to "Vin" and visible. Note that the Label-Value field contains -1/1V which represents the minimum and maximum voltage swings BEFORE you double-clicked on the Signal Generator. Click on the "OK" button. Again, click on the "OK" button to Exit. SETTING UP THE ANALYSES ----------------------- Once the circuit has been created, we will set up the analyses. When we run the simulation, the results will be based on the setup conditions provided here. 1. Select "Analog Analyses..." from the Options menu. 2. Click on the "Default Setup" button for default transient analysis setups. This will provide simulation for 5 cycles of the input signal with 200 data points. For best reliability, "Max Step" should be the same size as "Step Time". 3. Click on the "Value Window" button and select DC. This sets the initial display mode of the Value window to DC. Transient Analysis must be enabled in order to obtain AC or DC values. Operating Point must be enabled in order to use the Value window. 4. Enable the DC Analysis. Set it up as follows: Source Name Start Stop Step Primary Vin -1.5V -.7V 0.01V Secondary Vcc 10V 14V 1V This setup will allow us to sweep the voltage of Vin over the specified range at each of 5 different Vcc levels. 5. Enable the AC Analysis. Set it up as follows: Start Frequency Stop Frequency Test Points Sweep 1 Hz 1MegHz 100 Linear This setup will allow us to plot the frequency response of the circuit. 6. Click on the "Ok" button to save the settings. You have just completed everything required to prepare your own circuit for analog simulation. However, the demo version of CircuitMaker does not allow you to save this circuit or run a new simulation. In the next section you will examine the simulation data of an existing circuit. RUNNING THE SIMULATION ---------------------- When you run the simulation, an icon will be displayed at the bottom of your screen indicating when the Berkeley SPICE3 program is executing. The amount of time it takes to finish is based on the analyses that are enabled and their setup values, the complexity of the circuit, and the speed of your computer. Since the SPICE simulator has been disabled in the demo version of CircuitMaker, you can only examine the simulation data of the circuits provided. 1. Select the "Open" command from the "File" menu. Open the file "ANALOG.CIR". This is the same as the circuit you just created. 2. Click on the "Run" button in the Toolbar (the running man) to display the analysis windows. 3. Select the "Fit Circuit to Window" command (press F4) to make the entire circuit visible. 4. Click on the Value window to select it (it's in the upper left hand corner of the screen). Click on any wire in the circuit (except a wire connected to ground) with the Probe Tool. The DC voltage at that node will be displayed in the Value window. SPICE data is not collected for the Ground node in the circuit; it is always at zero volts. 5. Click on the "pin" of the +12V power supply (click above the pin dot, very close to the circle or you may get the wire instead). The DC current through that supply will be displayed in the Value window (if you clicked too near the wire, the voltage for this node will be shown instead of the current). Current can also be measured this way on the Signal Generator and also on the Resistors (current measured through the resistors with the Probe Tool cannot be plotted in the graphics windows). Note: SPICE sees the current flowing INTO the positive node of a power supply, Multimeter or Signal Generator as positive current. 6. Double-click inside the Value window and change the setting to AC RMS. Click on the "OK" button. Now when you click in the circuit the AC voltage or current will be displayed. 7. Click in the Transient Analysis window to select it, then click on the wire connected to the output of the Signal Generator with the Probe Tool. A green waveform will be displayed in the Transient Analysis window, similar to what would be seen on an oscilloscope. 8. Hold down the SHIFT key and click on wire connected to the output of the Op Amp. A second (yellow) waveform will be displayed in the Transient Analysis window. A quick comparison of the two waveforms will confirm that the amplitude at the output of the amplifier is much greater than the amplitude at the input. 9. Click on the 'a' cursor at the far right of the Transient Analysis window (the one that points to the left) and drag it to the top peak of the input waveform (the green one). Click on the 'b' cursor and drag it to the top peak of the output waveform (the yellow one). The actual peak voltages are displayed at top of the graph as 'Ya' and 'Yb'. As you can see from the 'Ya' and 'Yb' values, the peak voltage at the output of the amplifier is 10 times the peak voltage at the input of the amplifier. The difference between the two Y cursors is shown as 'a-b'. 10. Click on the 'b' cursor at the top of the Transient Analysis graph and drag it to the top peak of the first cycle of the output waveform. Click on the 'a' cursor and drag it to the top peak of the second cycle of the output waveform. The period (period = 1/frequency) of the signal is shown as the difference between the two X cursors as 'a-b'. 11. Click and drag a selection rectangle around a portion of the waveforms in the Transient Analysis window. The view will zoom in on the portion of the waveform selected. To restore the original view, click on the Reset button (the right button) in the upper left hand corner of the window. 12. Click on the DC Analysis window to select it, then click on any wire in the circuit. A DC analysis waveform will be displayed in the window, similar to what would be seen on a curve tracer. The cursors can be used to get measurements from the waveforms. 13. Click on the AC Analysis window to select it, then click on the wire at the output of the Op Amp. An AC analysis waveform will be displayed in the window. Click on the Setup button (the left button) in the upper left-hand corner of the AC Analysis window. Select "Log" scale for the X Grid, select Decibels for the Y Axis and enable the "Show Wave Grid" checkbox. Click on the "OK" button. The waveform will now show the response of the circuit over the specified frequency. The cursors can be used to get measurements from the waveforms. 14. Click on the Stop button in the Toolbar to stop the simulation and return to editing mode. Thank you for your time ======================= We have highlighted only a few of CircuitMaker's features. We hope you will take some additional time to explore and test this powerful software. We hope you have enjoyed your CircuitMaker experience. Don't miss these exciting features in CircuitMaker! =================================================== QUICK AND EASY SCHEMATIC CAPTURE -cut, copy and paste of selected items -undo support -90 degree device rotation -device mirroring -repeat placement of a device -fully integrated auto/manual wire routing -SmartWires for quick wiring connections -easy to draw and edit bus wires -cut and extend bus and regular wires -analog and digital device libraries -user-defined devices and symbols -complete macro device capability -rubberbanding of wires and devices -complete annotation of devices -multi-page layout and page connectors -fully stylized multi-line text -zoom in or out on an area or item in user definable steps -fit circuit to window function -user-selectable colors -user-definable grid and page size -export circuit drawings and waveforms -supports selectable printers and plotters -adjustable print scaling -generate parts lists POWERFUL DIGITAL SIMULATOR -fully interactive -built-in logic probe -Trace feature -single-step simulation mode -set breakpoints -extensive device libraries included -animated devices: car, rocket, window, stepper motor ACCURATE ANALOG SIMULATIONS BASED ON BERKELEY SPICE3 -includes SPICE model and subcircuit libraries -import your existing SPICE libraries -export SPICE3 compatible netlists -multifunction signal generators -multimeters -unlimited number of instruments -full screen analog waveform analysis -create fully functional analog macros and SPICE subcircuits -zoom in on selected area of a waveform -measurement cursors AND MORE! -unlimited experimenting -extensive context sensitive on-line help -comprehensive User Manual -site licensing available Ordering Information ==================== The complete version of CircuitMaker is just $299. We accept VISA, MasterCard or American Express. Call us at the phone number listed below by 4PM Mountain Time and we will ship your order the same day. See for yourself why students, hobbyists and professionals around the globe are using CircuitMaker. Registered User Support ======================= We offer our registered users free, unlimited technical phone support from experienced engineers. Registered users also receive substantially discounted upgrades. The quality of our support is second to none! CircuitMaker is a registered trademark of MicroCode Engineering. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. MicroCode Engineering 1943 North 205 West Orem UT 84057 USA To order, call toll free: (800)419-4242 in the USA or call: (801)226-4470 FAX: (801)226-6532