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Electronics => Beginners => Topic started by: Szewczykm on January 14, 2013, 06:40:57 pm

Title: LTSpice Noob
Post by: Szewczykm on January 14, 2013, 06:40:57 pm
Hi, I'm just starting to play with LT spice and what I'm trying to simulate is a delay that's controlled with a capacitor.  There is an LED controlled by a 2n2222, and I want to have the LED stay on for a few seconds after a button is pressed and released.

I'm trying to build this in LTSpice so I can play with values and just figure out how it all works, but how do you simulate a button press?
Title: Re: LTSpice Noob
Post by: Colfaxmingo on January 14, 2013, 07:07:34 pm
Lots of ways. You could use a separate voltage source instead of the button.  Then doing a transient simulation set the delay to whatever value you want.
Title: Re: LTSpice Noob
Post by: Szewczykm on January 14, 2013, 07:31:42 pm
Thanks,  I created another voltage source and then edited it's properties.

Right Click Voltage Source -> Pulse

Then I played with the pulse values and it acted like a button I was pressing.

Thanks!

Mike
Title: Re: LTSpice Noob
Post by: AndyC_772 on January 14, 2013, 09:00:48 pm
Another useful and non-obvious feature is that you can create components which don't have fixed values. I often simulate a switch by creating a resistor whose resistance changes between a very large and a very small value at some point in time.

The way to do it is to create one whose value is "R=V(name)", where "name" is a label attached to some node in your design. You can assign it to the output of a voltage source which steps between (say) 1V and 1000kV at some time, to make the resistor change from 1 Ohm to 1MOhm.
Title: Re: LTSpice Noob
Post by: Harvs on January 15, 2013, 06:55:05 am
Another useful and non-obvious feature is that you can create components which don't have fixed values. I often simulate a switch by creating a resistor whose resistance changes between a very large and a very small value at some point in time.

The way to do it is to create one whose value is "R=V(name)", where "name" is a label attached to some node in your design. You can assign it to the output of a voltage source which steps between (say) 1V and 1000kV at some time, to make the resistor change from 1 Ohm to 1MOhm.

+1 Much more flexible than a stepped voltage source, because it's not a low impedance to ground when it's off.