Spice simulation

a wine install takes a few minutes with packaged binaries or distro specific packages. it takes anywhere from 15min to an hour building from source code (installing wine itself). or LTSpice can be run on a VM with virtualbox running windows. i had some minor troubles with LTSpice running under wine a few years ago, but it was an error i made, but i found out in the process that LTSpice is built and tested to run under wine.
 
Last edited:
I'm running LTSpice under WINE. It is actually faster on WINE, for the number crunching at least. Simulation is faster, interface is slower. Strangely, I also found my old AMD computer ran LTSpice faster than my new Core 2 Duo (relatively new anyways...).

kees52,
You may try compatibility mode if Windows 7 is giving you trouble.
 
I'm looking for a bit of help with a Pspice .lib file from TI. It's an encrypted file and I get an error message of "Too few nodes:" then a long list of letters and numbers that is the first line after the ".subckt" text in the file. I think I built the asy correctly, numbering the nodes in the same order as shown in the ".subckt" line. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated. I've attached the .lib file with .txt appended.

Thanks

Ken
 

Attachments

  • TPS7A3001.LIB.txt
    4.4 KB · Views: 61
Here is the quickest way:

Add the subcircuit models as a simulator directive on the schematic. Then ctrl+right-click on the MOSFET symbol and edit the Prefix attribute to be capital X. Then write in the subcircuit name to be the Value attribute.

If you want to take the subcircuit text off the schematic, you can do two things:

1: right-click on the subcircuit text and select "invisible" from the menu. The text will reappear when the schematic is opened next.

2: copy the subcircuit into a .txt file and put it in the same directory as the schematic file. Use either a .inc or .lib directive on the schematic to import the .txt file. Now you can delete the subcircuit from the schematic as it will be redundant.

Hope this helps.
 
I am not doing it correctly. I am totally new at this. All the help files I have found are a bit vague assuming you know more.

I put the files, ECF10P20.txt and ECF10N20.txt in the lib\sub directory
I changed the prefix in the attribute box to X
Entered what I want the name to be, ECF10N20 in the Value line
Entered .subckt ecf10n20.txt in the spice model line
Closed the box

I then went to the edit pull down for spice directive and entered .include ecf10n20.txt
( same for the P)
Closed the box

Run the sim, and it says no such model.
 
Dead end until someone who has used Exicon models can help. It only has 3 "external" connections.
Second question, the transient analysis puts in a positive pulse. How do I get it to do a single pulse offset equally , 1 volt positive, one volt negative? There does not seem to be this option in the box where I set the width and rise time. Do I have to do them separately by reversing the voltage source polarity? Not eloquent.
 
Put the txt files in the same directory as the schematic and add ".inc ECF10P20.txt" to the schematic. Why are you using .subckt to add a library? You are not following my instructions.

EDIT: you are making this complex. I found when I tried to add the model txt file in the attribute editor, it never worked, or maybe there are a billion trivial things that can go wrong.
 
Last edited:
Getting totally lost here. I can't match the terms used in the models with terms on data sheets, values or about anything. Where can I look up this stuff? I can't match the numbers in the Exicon MOSFET models I found with any of the values on their data sheet. Even the numbers Bob has for simple zener diodes don't match close enough to a data sheet for me to guess the syntax.
 
The models are not equivalent to datasheet values. The models are a bunch of variables used in an algorithm to model the precise curves of the transistor. There is a whole science to this. Look in the LTSpice manual where it talks about the Gummel-Poon model, and you will have a better idea. It shows an equivalent schematic of the model and the model parameters.
 
Put the txt files in the same directory as the schematic and add ".inc ECF10P20.txt" to the schematic. Why are you using .subckt to add a library? You are not following my instructions.

EDIT: you are making this complex. I found when I tried to add the model txt file in the attribute editor, it never worked, or maybe there are a billion trivial things that can go wrong.

Because they are modeled that way. Each device is a separate .txt file

"instance has more terminals than the definition"
As a symbol in the circuit, I selected the nmos symbol. As you can see below, "1 2 3" sure looks like just three external terminals.

.SUBCKT ECF10N20 1 2 3
**********************************************
* Model Generated by PEDC *
*Copyright(c) Power Electronics Design Centre*
* All Rights Reserved *
* Power Electronics Design Centre *
* Dept of Elec & Electronic Engineering *
* University of Wales Swansea *
* Singleton Park *
* Swansea SA2 8PP *
* Tel : +44 (0)1792 295420 *
* Fax : +44 (0)1792 295686 *
* E-mail : pedc@swansea.ac.uk *
**********************************************
* Model generated on Dec 6 1999
* MODEL FORMAT: SPICE Level 1
* External Node Designations
* Node 1 -> Drain
* Node 2 -> Gate
* Node 3 -> Source
*
*
*
* O [1]
* |
* Z
* Z Rd
* Z
* D2 |
* Cdg0 | \|| [9]
* |-||--| >|O---O-----|
* | | /|| | |
* [2] Rg | ||---| Z ---
* 0--/\/\/\/\-O----|| M1 Z / \D1
* |[7] ||---| Z ---
* | | Z |
* | Cgs0 | |RDS |
* |-----||--O---O-----|
* | [8]
* |
* O
* |
* Z
* Z Rs
* Z
* |
* O [3]
M1 9 7 8 8 MM L=1 W=1
* Default values used in MM:
* The capacitances are added externally
* Other default values are:
* RS=0 RD=0 LD=0 CBD=0 CBS=0 CGBO=0
.MODEL MM NMOS LEVEL=1 IS=1e-32
+VTO=0.635 LAMBDA=0.11 KP=2.376
RS 8 3 0.427
D1 8 9 MD
.MODEL MD D IS=1.0e-32 N=50 BV=250
+CJO=1.0e-9 VJ=0.7 M=0.5
RDS 8 9 1e+06
RD 9 1 0.62
RG 2 7 80
* Gate Source capacitance Cgs0
CAP1 7 8 480e-12
*************************
* Gate Drain capacitance Cdg0
CAP 7 4 12.2e-12
*************************
* Gate Drain Capacitance Cdgj0
* Modelled as a diode
D2 4 9 MDD
.MODEL MDD D IS=1e-32 N=50
+CJO=75.4e-12 VJ=0.174 M=1
*************************
.ENDS ECF10N20