[foobarian]

What layperson-friendly tools are out there to simulate simple analog circuits? For years now I've been going to the ancient app at https://www.falstad.com/circuit/ but wondering that surely there must be something that Real Electronics Builders use. (I intentionally did not say Engineers because I assume that would be covered by the pricy and/or UI-challenged tools like spice and company).

[nomel]

For simple circuits, LTspice: https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/design-tools-and-cal...

And it's definitely used by real engineers. It's for making switching power supplies, so it can handle fairly complex circuits. I wouldn't venture into RF/high speed circuits with it though, since the included parasitics aren't sufficient.

And, custom functions are supported, so, I believe, you can put whatever maths in a component (I've never ventured this far): https://ltwiki.org/index.php?title=B_sources_(complete_refer...

[SAI_Peregrinus]

One can also use KiCAD to generate netlists for other SPICE tools like ngspice.

Most EDA packages will include some sort of simulator, often SPICE-based. The fancier ones for RF work include or integrate with field solvers.

[madengr]

The parasitics all depend on the model, as I used LTSpice recently for an RFIC class for a 5 GHz LNA. The .net directive allows two-port analysis and even a Smith chart. Though Microwave Office is my go-to tool.

[drhodes]

There is JADE (for education), which can be integrated into a blog or for teaching on the web. It supports hierarchical custom analog and digital modules, a convenient way to create test vectors, (docs for that are floating around) This tool was used by students to build and grade the BETA CPU.

https://computationstructures.org/exercises/sandboxes/jade.h...

[dhdc]

I'm afraid there really isn't any hobbiest simulators out there. A lot of these arrangements rely on the intrinsic characteristics and geometry of the MOSFETs used.

[achr2]

circuitlab.com is great for simple designs. Not as powerful as some SPICE simulators, but amazingly convenient.

[compumike]

(CircuitLab developer here.) Thank you for the kind words! :) Clickable link: https://www.circuitlab.com/ if anyone wants to give it a try.

As far as the linked article "Fifty Nifty Variations of Two-Transistor Circuits: A tribute to the versatility of MOSFETs", I will mention that CircuitLab does NOT currently provide a MOSFET model that includes a separate body terminal.

Instead, the body (also sometimes called the "back gate") and source terminals are assumed to always be internally connected in the CircuitLab MOSFET models, resulting in a three-terminal device.

Almost all real-world discrete MOSFETs you can buy are also three-terminal (gate/drain/source), not four (gate/drain/source/body). Some discussion here https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/137161/why-a... and here https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/185109/mosfe... but not especially satisfying in my opinion.

As a result, Figures 2, 16, 27, 29, 46, 49, and 50 can NOT currently be realized within CircuitLab.