Sorry, total KiCad n00b here. I was asked to help transfer my SPICE knowledge to KiCad and maybe help write a tutorial in the future. Anyway, I’m trying to start simple and get the basic operating point analysis to run in KiCad/ngspice, since I believe that’s the best way to get SPICE beginners off the ground (pun intended). I’ve updated to ngspice-30, added pspice compatibility (set ngbehavior=ps), and enabled the debug output (set ngdebug). This is what the simulator debug window spits out after running my simulation:
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
max line length 34, max subst. per line 0, number of lines 15
test temperature 0.000000
Circuit: KiCad schematic
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
Doing analysis at TEMP = 27.000000 and TNOM = 27.000000
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
? finished after 2682.03 seconds.
Reference value : 0.00000e+000
No. of Data Rows : 1
Background thread stopped with timeout = 0
Error: no such vector 2
Error: no such vector 1
And below is the netlist for this simulation. It is a basic voltage divider with two 100ohm resistors and a 5V DC voltage source. If I change the analysis type to transient, I don’t get any errors and I’m able to probe nodes and look at device currents on the plot screen.
You may reduce the error by not using the GND symbol, but use the 0 (Zero) symbol, or label your ground net with name “0”. ngspice 0 net name as a reference 0 volt (It don’t understand that GND can be use as 0 volt reference).
Hum… I did not experiencing that. May be, I were using ngspice interactive console, and manipulating some pspice net list file make it a difference experience. I will had to adjust my logic about this… Thank you @holger
My simulation settings window shows many more tabs (screenshot attached). I vaguely recall reading elsewhere that showing the unsupported tabs is a bug of some kind? Anyway, I find it strange that .op isn’t supported, since .op is always run during any of the other simulation types as the first step in the simulation. Doing a standalone .op would just be a subset of features that already exist. Having a standalone .op which just spits out all node voltages and device currents in the simulation log window would be very powerful. I know ngspice supports this, so I believe KiCad needs to be set up to call it properly and parse the data. Oh well, sounds like something I need to request as a feature? Can someone point me in that direction? Thanks for the help.
Running .op only (without Transient Analysis) gives an error.
And it is not possible to get operation point for nonlinear devices (as with running ngspice and e.g. typing show Q1). when will this be fixed?
