JPNAS.NET / Digital Resources

⚡ Electronics & Circuits

Free and open-source tools to draw schematics, design circuit boards, simulate circuits and logic gates and look at real signals. Arduino IDE, PlatformIO and ESPHome are in the Programming & Development section. See also my notes Computing with Switches and From Source Code to Silicon.

Open in the interactive Digital Resources

• KiCad

  kicad.org

  A complete electronics design suite: schematic, PCB layout, 3D view and files for the board manufacturer. Used by hobbyists and professionals alike.

  • #OPEN-SOURCE
  • #PCB
  • #SCHEMATIC
  • #CERN

• Fritzing

  fritzing.org

  Draw a circuit as it looks on a breadboard, then turn it into a schematic and a simple PCB. Great for Arduino projects and documentation. The download asks for a small contribution, the source code is open.

  • #OPEN-SOURCE
  • #BREADBOARD
  • #ARDUINO
  • #BEGINNER

• ngspice

  ngspice.sourceforge.io

  The open-source SPICE circuit simulator. Calculates voltages and currents in analog and mixed circuits; built into KiCad.

  • #OPEN-SOURCE
  • #SIMULATION
  • #SPICE
  • #ANALOG

• LTspice

  analog.com

  A fast and widely used SPICE simulator from Analog Devices with a large library of parts. Free, but not open source.

  • #FREE
  • #SIMULATION
  • #SPICE
  • #ANALOG

• Falstad Circuit Simulator

  falstad.com

  Runs in the browser and shows the current flowing through the circuit as moving dots. The best way I know to get a feeling for how a circuit works.

  • #OPEN-SOURCE
  • #BROWSER
  • #SIMULATION
  • #LEARNING

• Wokwi

  wokwi.com

  An online simulator for Arduino, ESP32 and Raspberry Pi Pico with sensors, displays and LEDs – test the code before you have the hardware. Free plan for personal projects.

  • #FREE
  • #BROWSER
  • #ARDUINO
  • #ESP32

• Logisim-evolution

  github.com

  Build digital circuits from gates, flip-flops and memory, and watch them work. Popular in schools for learning how a CPU is built.

  • #OPEN-SOURCE
  • #LOGIC
  • #DIGITAL
  • #LEARNING

• Digital

  github.com

  A logic circuit simulator similar to Logisim, with tests for circuits and export to Verilog and VHDL for real FPGA chips.

  • #OPEN-SOURCE
  • #LOGIC
  • #DIGITAL
  • #FPGA

• PulseView (sigrok)

  sigrok.org

  Software for cheap USB logic analyzers and oscilloscopes. Shows and decodes signals such as UART, I²C and SPI – very useful when two devices do not talk to each other.

  • #OPEN-SOURCE
  • #LOGIC-ANALYZER
  • #DEBUG
  • #UART