Simulation: Getting started with ngSpice and other resources

[paulvdh]

There are quite a lot sources and resources for getting started with ngSpice in KiCad, so I thought to make a list with links instead of repeating the information again and again and again and…

Text Tutorials

First, of course the ngSpice website itself. The link below is to how to use ngSpice with KiCad, but there is lots of other info over there, from the official ngSpice manual (ngSpice is a separate project then KiCad), to (links to) downloadable libraries with models.

KiCad Eeschema as GUI for ngspice, tutorial for setting up the simulation

Video’s

If you prefer video’s, Holger (the main developer / maintainer of the ngSpice project) has also made a youtube channel with some tutorials:

ngspice in KiCad 8 for circuit simulation

Examples

On this user forum there are several threads dedicated to ngSpice examples. For the most recent overview, you can do a direct search:
https://forum.kicad.info/search?q=simulation%20examples

And some direct links to the threads with examples:

Simulation examples for KiCad/Eeschema/ngspice

Attached you will find some simulation examples for audio amplifiers, oscillators, power supplies, and other circuits. All have been designed/tested with KiCad 6.0.2 / ngspice-36 or KiCad 6.0.10 and ngspice-38. All will run with internal ngspice, Inspect → Simulator → Run —> Add Signals some (Tian probes) will require an additional external ngspice (mostly for its more complex interface and output capability) File → Export → Netlist… → Create Netlist and Run Simulator Command after having …

Simulation examples for KiCad8/KiCad9/Eeschema/ngspice

New simulation examples are following here. Up to Class E RF generator I have been using KiCad 8. Now I am switching to KiCad 9. It should be no problem to open KiCad 8 Eeschema files in KiCad 9 for simulation, as the simulator interface did not change. Unfortunately it is not possible the other way round. You may not be able to open KiCad 9 files in KiCad 8 any more. ngspice-44 is typically involved. The previous examples (KiCad 6, ngspice-38) are visible at Simulation examples for KiCad/Ees…

34 Simulation Examples for KiCad 8.0 Using Ngspice

After watching a presentation by Holger Vogt in a Youtube video FOSDEM 2024 - ngspice circuit simulator stand alone and embedded into kicad, I located the source of the examples in a forum post More simulation examples for KiCad/Eeschema/ngspice. To make it easier to play with the examples (and update/maintain them), I have migrated the examples from the forum post (extracted 7z archives and documentation) to this GitHub repository: https://github.com/labtroll/KiCad-Simulations To run any of t…