Simulide vs Falstad simulator
Hello,
I have just recently found SimulIDE and I am very impressed by the features included.
I must say that I have taught introductory electronics for more than a decade and the Falstad circuit simulator has been my preferred choice. Are you familiar with it?
As I understand Falstad simulator and Simulide have in common a rare feature: the ability to interact with the circuit at runtime. The Falstad simulator does not claim to model real world features of components, it rather uses 'textbook' models of typical components. When you say that Simulide is a 'simple' simulator is in the same sense that it does not include complex real world features of components?
The reason for me choosing the Falstad simulator in the past is essentially due to the philosophy of the GUI, which is very intuitive, interactive, and provides visual representation of voltage (through color) and current (through animated 'charges'). Did you ever consider including these features in your simulation? In your opinion, would these hinder considerably the speed of the simulation?
Thank you for the amazing work!
Hi. Glad you find this project interesting.
Yes, I'm familiar with Falstad circuit simulator, indeed some models in Simulide are based on Falstad.
When you say that Simulide is a 'simple' simulator is in the same sense that it does not include complex real world features of components?
Yes, something like that.
If you see Spice models they often have dozens of parameters.
Simulide models are similar to Falstad, just a few basic parameters. It can not simulate fancy things like temperature dependent behaviors, diode or BJT capacitances, etc.
provides visual representation of voltage (through color) and current (through animated 'charges'). Did you ever consider including these features in your simulation? In your opinion, would these hinder considerably the speed of the simulation?
Falstad is more into visualization of analog circuits, speed is not essential.
While Simulide is designed for speed, and more into Microcontrollers and logic circuits than analog simulation.
The goal is real time simulation.
Currently Simulide can only animate wire color with logic states and IO pins with type and state.
I have considered the implementation of something like Falstad voltage and current animation, but as you say that could reduce considerably speed, specially current animation. And more importantly increase the complexity of the program.
Maybe it will be implemented in the future, but by now there is no plan for that.