Which is the simplest spice software to test an active filter under Ubuntu?

[Milo]

Hi all,

I'd like to test a LP-HP active filter, before building it.

I am new to Spice. I had a look at LT Spice from LT and Filter Pro from TI. I have to say if I have to spend days to learn how they work, it is better I take my soldering iron and I start to build the filter in real! ....or is there really a very simple software able to do the job?

Note I'm working under Ubuntu and, even if it is possible to use Wine with Windows software, my feeling is to work with programs made expressely for Linux.

Many thanks in advance

Milo

 

[Rundmaus]

LTSpice works nicely with Wine/Ubuntu (tested under Ubuntu 10.04, Wine 1.2.2).

Rundmaus

 

[rif]

I have zero experience with this software, but it may meet your needs. It's browser based so should work in Linux.

www.circuitlab.com

 

[Andrew Eckhardt]

Install wine and LTspice and try drafting in the circuit. Don't spend a lot of time in a jam without asking for help, and you probably wont end up spending more than an hour or two. You'd spend that much on just this one circuit in hardware, while the simulator will keep paying off for future projects.

 

[Cornelis Spronk]

LTspice works great under wine with Ubuntu 12.04.

 

[Cornelis Spronk]

Using Google, I have found a number of fairly decent tutorials for LTspice. If you have not used a simulator before, these tutorials are really helpful to get you started.

 

[Cornelis Spronk]

The simplest circuit simulation is the one that you are most used to. Having a good tutorial to get yourself going is the best way to go.

It work really well to get the tutorial on a spare portable computer sitting beside the one you are using spice on. It saves a lot of switching screens.

 

[davidsrsb]

LTSpice has always been designed to be stable and well behaved under Wine.
Simetrix do a native Linux version that has worked well for me, but the free version has the same transistor number limits as Windows

 

[godfrey]

Simetrix do a native Linux version that has worked well for me, but the free version has the same transistor number limits as Windows

Any idea what the limits actually are? IIRC, the documentation is a bit vague.

I've never had a problem with realistic circuits - only hit the component limit once, fooling around trying to model FIR filters the hard way, with dozens and dozens of analogue delay lines.

 

[davidsrsb]

That sounds more like a memory limit somewhere. The free version is limited in the number of diode junctions, so transistors count more than a diode

 

[Milo]

Hi, thank you all very much. I used CircuitLab, as suggested from rif, since I wanted only to know if the filter schematics was able to work and if I could see the cut-off frequency. Now I can say it works and I was able to see and to change its cut-off frequency. Anyway, as suggested from Cornelis Spronk and others, I think I'll try to discover LTspice enough soon.

Thank you again

Milo

 

[ingenieus]

Being a Linux nutter myself, I have tried some of the open source simulators but settled on LTspice in the end. One of the very few Windows programs that is worth setting up in Wine. Another one is FreePCB, and I can't think of any other!