Analysis of electronic circuits by DC Circuit Analysis program 1.4
DC Circuit Analysis 1.4 Arthur Tanzell is a program for one-way analysis of electronic circuits composed of resistors, diode, both bipolar and FET transistors and DTL, TTL and CMOS logic circuits. Although it is “bearded” program of the year 1995 may be of particular interest to students and experimenters. HW requirements are low: 286-ka with an EGA/VGA graphics card, 256 kB of RAM 800 kB of hard disk space. However, experience shows, that the optimum is a 486 with a color monitor, which probably won't cause problems for anyone.
The installation of the program begins by unpacking the ZIP file and then running the file “install.exe”, self-extracting Lharc archive, which will create a DC14 directory with about a hundred files. DC Circuit Analysis is a 30-day shareware, if you want to use the program even after the trial period has expired, it is necessary to pay the author 15 USD.
After starting the program, after the initial screen, you will get to the six-item menu of the program:
- Analyse Circuit
: is a manual circuit analysis. The word manual means, that all variable elements (potentiometer, switches) it is possible to freely set and monitor their effect directly in the circuit. In individual nodes, the program displays the voltage and on the resistors it also displays the direction and magnitude of the current flowing. An interesting addition is the automatic monitoring of the power overload of the resistors. After exceeding 0.25W, the resistor turns red (how apt, hi) and in addition, the program will alert you to this fact with a text message. After pressing the key “p” at the potentiometer marked by the cursor, a graph is drawn showing the voltage change in individual nodes. Intuitive help, what each key does is at the bottom of the screen.
- Modify Circuit
: is to create and edit engagements. The displayed scheme can be edited as desired. Well-thought-out cursor control and a library of parts make it easy. The only peculiarity is, that the parts are connected to each other via a node, even if it is only two parts. It is not the fault of the author, nodes are measuring points and without them it would be possible to draw a diagram, in which it would not be clear where “to measure”. The diagram is drawn a little shabbily, but you can get used to it. Here, too, intuitive help is available at the bottom of the screen plus a short help explaining how to draw and build diagrams.
- Select sample circuit
: file selection. A large number of different sample connections are available, on which the user can best familiarize himself with the possibilities of the program.
- Save Circuit As
: saves the circuit to a file named, which we enter.
- Save Circuit
: saves the circuit to a file under the name, under which we opened it.
- Exit
: termination of the program.
Have DC Circuit Analysis for several years in high school, I would have saved myself many hours of studying Kirchoff's laws, Thévenin and Norton lessons, HI. Today I rarely reach for it, only if I need to verify some circuit, in which something doesn't work for me. This way I can compare the calculated and measured values of voltages and currents, which enables quick and accurate detection of the cause of circuit malfunction. I mean though, that the program still needs some improvements – a larger database of parts and a better display of the diagram. I rate 1 minus. You can find DC Circuit Analysis on CQ.sk in the section “For download”.
