Brett,
Nearly a decade ago I became interested in Spice as a means to model =
nonlinear systems of mechanical type that exhibit chaos or other unusual no=
nlinear behavior. In use at the engineering school at Mercer University at=
that time the only spice code that I knew about was 'pspice', a pc-based f=
orm using object-oriented (dos) commands to work with the software created =
at Berkeley. Although most of my computing experience up to that point in =
time (starting with assembly commands and Fortran) was still of dos-type, I=
found the learning curve for pspice to be difficult. Luckily, I happened =
by Googling to discover Penzar's code called 'TopSpice'. By myself I was =
able immediately to use their free (internet downloadable) demo-version; an=
d was surprised by its versatile windows capability. You 'grab' components=
from a library file and place them one at a time on a monitor display to f=
orm a schematic like hooking up actual physical parts on a proto-board. T=
hen to execute your program, a variety of different display types are avail=
able to the user. One that I found especially useful amounts to what we in=
physics call 'phase space' trajectories. I even had a graduate student fr=
om India contact me about this type of display (evidently not common to eng=
ineering folks) in the article that I wrote titled 'Spice modeling of the =
Vilnius chaotic circuit', online at
http://arxiv.org/html/physics/0503049
Eventually the physics department purchased the full (professional Penzar) =
version, but there was little occasion for me to ever need anything more th=
an the free package. I can't remember if the following additional paper I=
wrote ("Yo-yo oscillator", http://arxiv.org/html/physics/0503030v1 )
was one that could also be analyzed with the demo version (since it uses di=
gital switches).
In a course that I taught the last few years before retiring from Merce=
r University I found TopSpice to be a pegagogical tool with which my studen=
ts were very pleased. It was well suited to the study of systems of the ty=
pe that I had in the 1990's first modeled with Microsoft's QuickBasic, and =
which resulted in the monograph titled
"Mechanical System Dynamics, with an introduction to Chaos & Complexity", t=
he contents of which can be read by scrolling down the 'right-side bar' on =
my webpage at
http://physics.mercer.edu/hpage/peters.html
Randall
Brett,
Nearly a decade ag=
o I became interested in Spice as a means to model nonlinear systems of mec=
hanical type that exhibit chaos or other unusual nonlinear behavior. =
In use at the engineering school at Mercer University at that time the only=
spice code that I knew about was ‘pspice’, a pc-based form usi=
ng object-oriented (dos) commands to work with the software created at Berk=
eley. Although most of my computing experience up to that point in ti=
me (starting with assembly commands and Fortran) was still of dos-type, I f=
ound the learning curve for pspice to be difficult. Luckily, I happen=
ed by Googling to discover Penzar’s code called ‘TopSpice’=
;. By myself I was able immediately to use their free (internet=
downloadable) demo-version; and was surprised by its versatile windows cap=
ability. You ‘grab’ components from a library file and pl=
ace them one at a time on a monitor display to form a schematic like =
hooking up actual physical parts on a proto-board. Then to execute yo=
ur program, a variety of different display types are available to the user.=
One that I found especially useful amounts to what we in physics cal=
l ‘phase space’ trajectories. I even had a graduate stude=
nt from India contact me about this type of display (evidently not common t=
o engineering folks) in the article that I wrote titled ‘Spice =
modeling of the Vilnius chaotic circuit’, online at
http://=
arxiv.org/html/physics/0503049
Event=
ually the physics department purchased the full (professional Penzar) versi=
on, but there was little occasion for me to ever need anything more than th=
e free package. I can’t remember if the following additio=
nal paper I wrote (“Yo-yo oscillator”, http://arxiv.org/html/physics/0503030v1 )
was one that could also be analyzed with =
the demo version (since it uses digital switches).
In a course that I taught the last few year=
s before retiring from Mercer University I found TopSpice to be a pegagogic=
al tool with which my students were very pleased. It was well suited =
to the study of systems of the type that I had in the 1990’s first mo=
deled with Microsoft’s QuickBasic, and which resulted in the monograp=
h titled
“Mechanical Syst=
em Dynamics, with an introduction to Chaos & Complexity”, th=
e contents of which can be read by scrolling down the ‘right-side bar=
’ on my webpage at
http://physics.mercer.edu/hpage/pe=
ters.html
Randall
=