Thread: Electronics Workbench - Circuit design software

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I was wondering if anyone knows of a decent, cheap or free, piece of electronic design software? When I was in college about 14 years ago, I had to take all these classes where I had labs, labs, and more labs. In the software lab, we would each sit down at a PC and run the EWB software (Electronics Workbench). This software would allow us to pull resistors, capacitors, LEDs, 555 timers, FETs, relays, etc out of a multitude of toolboxes on the side, and we could put them anywhere and connect them anywhere we wanted. We could plug AC or DC power, (and enter the voltage, amps, resistance, etc in a drop-down props window). When we got done figuring out our circuit, we would build it in the hardware lab the next day.

I loved that EWB so much! It was so cool! You could easily test circuits and find out what it would do, minus the real world elements of course, without ever touching a wire!

Well, EWB went hi-tech and now runs about $4000 and includes thousands of leading edge components. Too pricey for me...

Does anyone know of a circuit design package like this that is free or relatively cheap? I can only find specialty programs that only do one thing (like figure LED voltages and resistances), but what I am looking for is a complete package with basic tools and components.

Anyone have any idea where I can find something like this?

Of course, this is to build a custom controller for none other than a haunt prop!

At the risk of sounding like a salesman.... wouldn't you rather spend your time on the prop's behavior than the grunt silicon to run it? There are a lot of companies (including the one I work for) that can provide you with a general-purpose controller that you can build a prop around. And we save you the trouble of assembling the electronics!

take a look at PSPICE...

http://www.electronics-lab.com/downloads/schematic/013/

Hey JonnyMac, that was a great reference by the way (grunt silicon)!

Well, I agree that typically you want to work on the props behavior to make sure it is perfect. But, at some point, you really have to stand back and think to yourself, at what point do you try to build something for yourself? I mean, we have about a dozen bricks, several minibricks, some parallax Stamp controllers, latching and time-delay relays, a ton of SSRs, I think 6 BOOboxes (friggin $500 each, but very nice), and another 6 picoBOOs. They are all great in their own regard, but they are expensive as hell! And being that about half of the commercial haunts out there benefit charitable organizations, so few haunts have the means to start buying into $500 (per scare) booboxes.

This year I am trying to get 50 new air cannons in the haunt, and each one requires a controller. Of course, I could find ways to reduce that number by doubling up the cannons, or just using "delay-on-make" time-delay relays, but I also don't want to compromise the versatility. In 2004, I threw together a small controller for about $6 out of components I bought at Radio Shack (not including the relays, otherwise it was about $15). And, to be honest, everyone knows how expensive Radio Shack is! I used it to run the knocking mechanism inside a little coffin I built, and it also switched on the audio. The problem with this? It took me about a week to figure the whole thing out, and it wasn't variable, it wasn't optically isolated, it didn't have a nice prefab, silkscreened PCB, and it didn't have an enclosure! I am just not an electronics genius, not even as much as when I was in college! It's about time someone bring a controller to market for less than $20. Of course, that won't be me, I just want to run my air cannons. I have no desire to manufacture a controller, but it can be done, and I think for a retail price below $20. Granted, that's still a $1000 to run my cannons at a $20 price. The controllers on the market today are being marked up at double or more than the production price.

If you know of a controller that I can program the length of time of the "pop", as well as a reset time where the prop won't activate, let me know! I know it is possible to do it, just nobody out there that I know of willing to seel them for less than $20.

Anyway, gonna check out the little S/W package that RandyAZ mentioned, and see how that works!

I'm certainly a "roll-you-own" kind of guy, especially since I write a column for Nuts & Volts magazine that shows others how to do that. My May column shows how to build a PC-driven servo and solenoid controller board (eight servos and eight solenoids) -- that's a device I wanted for animatronics control but really doesn't exist in a convenient form at this time.

I would still encourage you to consider the microcontroller approach for cost and precision. Microchip and others make all kinds of small (8-pin) controllers that you can easily program and get precise timing; many have built-in ADCs that will let you use knobs to set event timing. The problem with using RC (e.g. 555) type timers, as you know, is that the RC is never going to be very precise, especially under varying environmental conditions. And with PICs as cheap as 555s, the choice really isn't tough (in my mind, anyway).

I tend to use the SX micro in my own designs, but as there is no 8-pin version I'm actually doing a bit of PIC programming, too. Microchip sells a small PIC programmer called th PICkit for about $40 that even comes with a small C compiler if you don't want to program in assembly.

And <wink> if you buy 10 at a time the EFX-TEK Prop-1 is only $25 -- that's pretty close to your target and you don't have to do any parts purchasing or board assembly! Honestly, I think you're going to be very hard pressed to find a $20 controller. The reason is that this market isn't big enough to support very high volume production and, in the end, vendors have to make a bit of money too -- how else can they provide tech support and develop new products?... or feed their families? <grin>

Have you tried Fry's Electronic's Parts Outlets do you have any in your area?
They might even be able to help you with EWB software.

Hey Blinky,

You know, that's actually a really good idea! I have 3 Fry's stores pretty close to me, and I can check with them, as they always seem to have things you can't find anywhere else!

Plus, the guys that help you out usually know a lot about what they are selling....

Some of them seem to be off in their own little world, but that's a good thing I guess when you want information on a product.

I'll try them out in a few days when I get a chance to drop by!

Originally Posted by SkeletalRemains

Hey Blinky,

You know, that's actually a really good idea! I have 3 Fry's stores pretty close to me, and I can check with them, as they always seem to have things you can't find anywhere else!

Plus, the guys that help you out usually know a lot about what they are selling....

Some of them seem to be off in their own little world, but that's a good thing I guess when you want information on a product.

I'll try them out in a few days when I get a chance to drop by!

Dear SR: I went to the FRY's by my house, and it was a let down to me. I was looking for wall wart's ( none ) servo's ( only in kits ) cat5 in Black ( None all out ) walk out with electical tape two rolls big purchase of $2.08 I wanted to Cry so call them first if you are needing something special.

Can you program a parralex EFX to fire a solenoid, activate a fogger and sound all at the same time and for varying amounts of time? Or even in a completely random fashion for the solenoid only?


I want to update my monster in a box prop and am confused between the parallax EFX and the hauntmaster Flex ECT products. Do they both do the same thing or is one better suited to a certain application?

Thanks a lot

Hey Willise,

Parallax can be used to do this pretty easily. With 16 i/o pins, the BS2 works quite well. You'll need an external chipcorder for the sound (or some other sound device), but solenoids are perfect. Randomness from the solenoid cannot be done, but you can make it SEEM random, by programming various delays to make it appear random. Only problem is, it will be the same 'random' cycle each time. I guess you could build multiple subroutines/functions and cycle through them making it appear more random, just increment a variable from 1-5 and start over at 1 each time it gets to 5.

The chipcorder can be triggered, like the Cowlacious design or any other, and solenoid may need an SSR or relay. I'll leave the fog-triggering instructions up to the other folks who have done that. We run all our foggers and lighting off of DMX-512 and a DMX controller, so I can't really speak to that.

My only problem with Parallax is the $50 per BS2 chip. I can get them one at a time for about $40 on eBay, but I don't have the time to mess around with all that.

As far as the Parallax vs. Flex ECT, I can't really say the differences. I only know Parallax, but not the other. The two major types of controllers on the market can be divided into 2 categories. The Parallax falls into the category of controllers that you program, much like an industrial PLC such as an Allen Bradley or Idec. You actually have to write a program and complement the software with a hardware setup of electronic components. The other category is controllers such as the BOObox, and any other controller that you program realtime with buttons, and you don't have to write software for. These controllers you just plug in, turn on, and program, and they are ready to run...