Spicy Schematics Go-Live!
Spicy Schematics went live not so long ago, and with great success! Spicy now has
over 10,000 users and is available for iPad on the iTunes App Store, and for
traditional computers as a web app on Facebook, the Chrome Web Store, and via
direct link for Safari!.
We focused our efforts during this first year on features, interface design, and
on community. Spicy offers the most powerful, spice-based circuit schematic
capture and simulation application for mobile and web, with features no other app
can offer.
Spicy Community
You can share Spicy, get help, and get involved in many ways. Below we have links
to our Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and YouTube pages and channels, where you
can share, connect, and discuss Spicy with other users. We watch these pages
regularly and you can ask questions and give feedback directly to us!
Note that we also have a new
User Forum page
where you can post your questions or comments, in case you don't use social media.
Spicy Facebook Page
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Spicy Google Plus Page
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Spicy Twitter Feed
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Spicy YouTube Channel
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Spicy Resources
Spicy Reports and Share Links
Spicy now allows you to easily share your schematics, or create reports, which you
can easily share with others by direct link, or post to Facebook!
There is a new toolbar button that allows you share a screenshot of your
schematic. Just click the button and you will get a private link you can share
with others, or you can post directly to Facebook!
In addition, the new report feature allows you to easily create a report,
including our schematic, most recent simulation results, and your netlist, all in
one easy to read report! The report is hosted on our server, so just save the link
and we will keep your report available for you to share, or just keep as
reference!
Example
Report
More information can be found on our
What's
New page on ischematics.com.
Introducing Spicy SWAN
Spicy SWAN is coming soon!
Simulation by Wave Analysis (SWAN) is a uniquely powerful simulation technique,
using the revolutionary but stable algorithms of Digital Wave Simulation (DWS), a
simulation engine with a 40-year history of success in many different
applications. SWAN uses Digital Wave Network (DWN) mapping, rather than Nodal
Analysis, and is fully Nyquist Compliant.
SWAN is Complementary to Spice!
The unique simulation engine of SWAN is complementary to Spice. To understand why,
note that SWAN is oriented to propagation and transmission-line effects, whereas
Spice assumes no signal propagation. Also, because of the complex (true DSP)
algorithms SWAN uses internally, it is able to produce highly accurate simulation
results with hundreds of thousands, even millions of simulation points, in short
time, whereas doing this in Spice would take hours, if not days to complete.
Does this mean SWAN is better than Spice?
It does for certain types and classes of circuits, but not in general. Spice is
still great for general purpose circuit simulation of circuits including .model
cards, but when it comes to transmission line circuits, and high-speed digital
electronics, or signal integrity and EMC problems, you need SWAN to give you a
correct answer, without approximation of lumped-parameter models, and with high
accuracy. In short, SWAN is complementary to Spice, and having both makes Spicy
SWAN the most powerful toolset available!
How does Spicy SWAN look, does it use the same
components and simulation types?
Yes and No. Some basic components like resistors, capacitors, and inductors look
the same in SWAN, but there are more options, and many more parts that are unique
to SWAN. For example, there are piece-wide linear resistors, sinusoidal resistors,
voltage and current controlled resistors, and more .. There are multiple types of
transmission lines, and there are 1,2,3 and 4 port elements that can be specified
by their s-parameters.
For the s-parameters blocks, a very straightforward modeling technique of their
actual behavior in time domain is allowed, avoiding complicated frequency domain
models and their stability problems encountered in Spice. In such a way even
multigigabit/sec circuits are modeled and simulated very easily.
Spice and DWS can also cooperate very efficiently in several ways.
All simulations are carried out as TRANsient simulations, and syntax for that is
similar to spice. Most syntax in netlists would be very familiar looking to Spice
users, but some concepts are new.
How does SWAN compare to Spice when running an
identical circuit?
It depends on the circuit. As SWAN is complementary to Spice, for a circuit that
is best done in SWAN, SWAN will give a much more accurate and stable answer,
whereas Spice might give an answer with lots of roundoff and integration errors.
For a circuit where SWAN is not best suited, Spice may give a better answer. It is
best to use Spice where you are running general purpose simulations for circuits
including .model cards, and use SWAN when you are doing high-speed digital or
transmission line simulations and many other specific class of circuits like those
showing chaotic behavior.
By combining two powerful simulation engines like NGSpice and DWS, Spicy SWAN is
the first HYBRID concept circuit simulation of the world, becoming the most
powerful and comprehensive product available in the market for both Web browser
and tablet applications.
Can we see an example?
Sure! Here are some examples run with Spicy SWAN showing some unique SWAN parts,
and some unique outputs!
Example
1
Example
2
Example
3
Example
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Example
5
Example
6
Example
7
This sounds great, how can I get Spicy
SWAN?
Go to our homepage or search Spicy SWAN on itunes it is now available!
Spicy Features
Spicy Uses Spice
Spicy is Spice-based. We
use ngspice,
one of the most stable and trusted distributions of spice, based on Berkeley
Spice3f5. The fact that Spicy is the only truly spice-based product for these
platforms means that Spicy can offer functionality no other apps can. You can use
and create your own sub-circuits, and use spice models from device manufacturers.
This allows for maximum flexibility in design, and allows you to simulate real
circuits with real parts. This entry on our
FAQ page has a
good explanation of what spice models are, and the difference between sub-circuits
and device models.
Digital Parts
Spicy added Digital parts
based on user request, and this
FAQ entry
explains a bit about how to use them. Digital parts are sub-circuits, so you can
use our implementation, or any implementation you require in your design, by
simple changing the default sub-circuit model used!
Spice Model Manager
Spicy now includes
the Spice Model Manager! With the Spice Model Manager, you can create and manage
your spice models right inside the app! Modify models from manufactures to suit
your needs, or just create your own, you have ultimate flexiblity. All standard
parts come with standard models that can be modified at any time.
Wire Strikeout Feature
The new wire
strike-out feature is one of those features you can't see until you try it, but it
is so handy ... just strike out wires you want to delete by tapping/clicking and
dragging through a line through a wire.
Circuit Analysis
In addition to
Transient, AC and DC analysis, we recently added Operating Point (OP) analysis to
Spicy, with schematic annotation! Just run an OP analysis, then click the "DC OP
Values" button in the toolbar, and your schematic will show the DC values for all
nodes with an independant source, or any node you place a PORT part on! A very
useful feature in many designs, try it today!
New Parts
There are a whole bunch of new
parts we added recently, including non-linear sources, controlled sources, digital
parts and transmission lines. With the list of standard parts, combined with the
ability to make virtually any circuit using subcircuit models, Spicy offers you
the most powerful and flexible design system available for mobile and web.
Online Circuit Library (OCL)
Spicy's
unique OCL allows you to upload and share your designs with other users, or find
some basic designs for use in your own projects.
Spicy has tons of great features, and we are always taking requests for more, so
feel free to email us any time, post to our forum page, or post on one of our
social media pages to suggest the next great improvement!
Steps to Wire Circuits
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Wiring circuits can be done in many ways, and sometimes people assume it
will work differently than it does. The steps to making wires are listed
below, and we have posted a new YouTube video below to help.
- Click wire mode button to turn on wire mode
- touch and drag to set the position of the first node of the wire
- now drag (at any location on screen) horizontally or vertically, to
make wire sections ...
- tap when done (on schematic)
- repeat from (2) to make more wires, or tap wire button to exit wire
mode ..
Learning it right one time is much easier than doing it wrong many times, so
we hope this new video helps!
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