Early feedback on new idea for circuit creation

[CasperHornstrup]

Hi.

If you are an experienced electronics engineer, then you are welcome to provide feedback as well, however this post concerns early feedback from inexperienced/hobby electronics engineers on a basic idea for a new service.

This not-yet-developed service is meant to enable inexperienced/hobby electronics engineers to rapidly create new electronic circuits.

The basic idea is to bring proven techniques from software development and mechanical engineering to electronics engineering. These techniques are primarily re-use of components at different levels of abstraction, design by contract, test driven development, and parametric editing.

Also more ”intelligent” circuit designer software is intended to reduce the need for more in depth knowledge of electronics engineering, thereby increasing the productivity of inexperienced/hobby electronics engineers.

I illustrate the basic idea with an example currently described at emaker.co.

Your feedback is much appreciated. I am particularly interested in knowing which features you need to have to want to use such a service.

Best regards,
Casper Hornstrup

 

[MikeMl]

Another HDL? Yawn.

 

[CasperHornstrup]

I don't intend this to be a language, but rather an online electronics circuit designer with built-in simulation capability.

Another HDL? Yawn.

 

[MikeMl]

You will be hard pressed to come up with something that rivals the functionality of available Simulators, like LTSpice with its huge user community.

 

[misterT]

I'd like a place to store and share algorithms, small circuit drawings, documentation. Now I use Google docs, DropBox, WikidPad, Digikey SchemeIt.. tools like that. I would love to be able to keep all important documentation etc. in one place. But I think it is too big project for a hobbyist. Google tried with Google docs and Google+. The thing all places lack is the ability to write quality scientific documentation (equations, graphics, schematics etc.).

Internet was originally invented by scientists for scientists to share their work.. but still there is no good way to write math etc. MathML is coming.. I hope.

 

[CasperHornstrup]

I agree. I'm not catering to experienced electronics engineers, but rather inexperienced/hobby electronics engineers by focusing on usability and productivity.

I've used Multisim and do not feel very productive using this software. To test changes, I have to start and stop the simulator many times during development. It's very distracting.

If I make a simple change in requirements such as a change of the timing of a signal, then I need to re-calculate component values manually. Such trivial work seems like a waste of my time.

If I make changes to a circuit, it's very difficult for me to know if I broke the implementation of some requirements since there are no tests telling me that I didn't, so I have to manually verify that all requirements are still implemented after each change (in addition to remembering all the requirements of the circuit at the time of verification). This problem increases with circuit complexity.

I make some changes to a circuit and suddenly Multisim won't simulate the circuit anymore. Then I have to back track to find the combination of components and wiring that caused that simulation problem, test alternative components hoping that it will simulate the circuit again. I may also have to test various values for some mysterious simulation variables to make it simulate again.

Sometimes the Multisim simulator breaks, complains about an error, then it tries to automatically correct that error only to find out that it can't reproduce the error, so it can't fix it ;-( If it can reproduce the error, then it takes several minutes for it to try various simulation variables to find a combination that works. Not exactly productive.

LTspice seems to have a similar "low level" designer as Multisim (I haven't tried LTspice yet, but I've looked at the manual).

You will be hard pressed to come up with something that rivals the functionality of available Simulators, like LTSpice with its huge user community.

 

[CasperHornstrup]

Ok. I wonder what would be lacking in an OpenOffice/Google Drive solution? OpenOffice Writer can do equations and export to PDF.

Since Google Drive has developer APIs, any system/website can integrate with it to retrieve/store documents directly if needed.

I'd like a place to store and share algorithms, small circuit drawings, documentation. Now I use Google docs, DropBox, WikidPad, Digikey SchemeIt.. tools like that. I would love to be able to keep all important documentation etc. in one place. But I think it is too big project for a hobbyist. Google tried with Google docs and Google+. The thing all places lack is the ability to write quality scientific documentation (equations, graphics, schematics etc.).

Internet was originally invented by scientists for scientists to share their work.. but still there is no good way to write math etc. MathML is coming.. I hope.

 

[misterT]

Ok. I wonder what would be lacking in an OpenOffice/Google Drive solution? OpenOffice Writer can do equations and export to PDF.

Since Google Drive has developer APIs, any system/website can integrate with it to retrieve/store documents directly if needed.

It is lacking the ability to process data and create (good) graphics/plots/schematics. A good picture is worth a lot when communicating with people around the world.

This forum should have a way to add "a quick doodle" so that I could draw a quick image online.. would help a lot.

EDIT: With data processing and plotting I mean something like this: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/...Hz&f6=12500+Hz&f=Chebyshev1Filter.ws_12500+Hz

 

[MikeMl]

Casper, just for your edification, Multisim is a toy compared to LTSpice.