Hello all. I have never used a circuit simulator before. After reading a bunch of hype, I downloaded tina ti 9. The quick user guide and the manual are terrible. Many inaccurate steps and can not be followed. And no support from ti. Which simulator has the most accurate and complete documentation? I don't mind hard to learn, and I don't mind an older version....so it fits the docs. I can not learn with a non existent example. Someone free me from pen and paper.

 

Falstad's circuit simulator is a pretty well-documented one.

You can find the simulator with its example circuits here.

You can find more information on the example circuits along with demonstrations here.

 

LTspice (a free download from Linear Technology) has comprehensive Help (although somewhat terse) and a bunch of examples. And there's a Yahoo LTS User Group wich can provide assistance plus many third-party simulation models.

 

If you want something that's free then you are somewhat limited.

Many on these forums use LTspice, a free download from Linear Technology. Its tutorial and help files are reasonably good and it has many example simulation files that you can experiment with. There's also a User's Group on Yahoo which can be helpful. As with any Spice simulator the initial learning curve can be a little step so you need some patience to get started. But I think you'll find it's well worth the effort.

Edit: Alec beat me to the punch.

 

Thank you all. After trying those and several others, I WILL stick to pen and paper. I thought a sim would help explain circuit operation......but that is way to cumbersome and time consuming. The Falstad site has a lot of fine examples that I can use. I'm satisfied and thank you all.

 

Thank you all. After trying those and several others, I WILL stick to pen and paper. I thought a sim would help explain circuit operation.....

A simulator won't really help explain circuit operation much, but it allows you to experiment with the electronic theory that you learn. It's like a lab at school to demonstrate what you've learned.

For example you learn about RLC circuit series and parallel resonance, and then you can see the actual result of this resonance in a simulator circuit while playing with the various circuit values to see how the resonance changes. That's a lot easier (and cheaper) than building the circuit. Just an example.

 

Moderators - please delete

Choose "edit" then "delete" choose "delete the message" radio buttin. Then click "delete this message" at the bottom.

 

easy answer

in my eyes eagle offers the best tutorial and help section. there are so many resources for their simulator and the whole software: check it out:
http://www.cadsoftusa.com/training/

 

easy answer

in my eyes eagle offers the best tutorial and help section. there are so many resources for their simulator and the whole software: check it out:
http://www.cadsoftusa.com/training/

They do have a simulator available but I don't think it's free.