We always enjoy videos from [FesZ], so when we saw his latest about tips and tricks for LTSpice, we decided to put the 20 minutes in to watch it. But we noticed in the text that he has an entire series of video tutorials about LTSpice and that this is actually episode 30. So there’s plenty to watch.
Like any tips and tricks video, you might know some of them and you may not care about some of them — for example, the first one talks about setting the colors which is a highly personal preference. But it is a good bet you’ll find something to like in the video.
Ever get a timestep error? [FesZ] has advice for that. Want thermal information? Looking for an easy way to find RMS values? The video covers all of that and more. Note that if you run LTSpice under Wine (like we do), the Alt key mouse shortcuts will probably not work since most Linux desktops will use Alt+mouse to move windows. However, if you poke around in your settings, you can probably move that function to the Windows key, so that the Alt key will work in LTSpice and other programs. For example, in recent versions of KDE, look under Window Management, Window Behavior, and then Window Actions to change the modifier key from Alt to Meta.
We were really interested in watching some of the other videos. The topics ranged from the simple like using the .step directive to higher-level topics like simulating crystals, measuring power factor, and working with transformers (something we’ve talked about, too.). In fact, we’ve done our own (shorter) series on getting started with LTSpice, so if you’ve wanted to binge-watch something, there are plenty of videos for you to get started simulating. You might also want to check out our Circuit VR series.
The simulations are nice but I don’t see anywhere we can download at least the .asc (schematic) and .plt (plot) files for them. Am I missing something?
“20 minutes in to watch it… this is actually episode 30”
Life’s too short.
Yeah. Because the thing I need to know is buried in episode 17 at the 3.14 minute mark – bu there’s no index that I can search to find it, and no way for a search machine to locate it.
Videos for technical stuff is a total waste of time.
I’d agree for looking things up, but when learning something completely new it’s often more efficient.
The FesZ channel is a proper gem. Not one of those “here I did all the work, download my files so you can duplicate what I did without understanding anything” channels. Not one of those opinionated channels that mostly show that the talking head doesn’t really know what it’s taking about.
No, on this channel you can really learn some fundamentals about electronics that go way beyond cobbling some breakout boards together and running some downloaded Arduino code on it. Probably won’t get much traction in the Maker community because of that. 😂
Really excellent content if you really want to learn electronics!
When Alt+Mouse moves the window, Ctrl+Alt+Mouse might work. For a handy manual you might simply want to search for “ltspice manual” or “ltspice manual pdf”. About 10 years ago I found a file named “LTscad3_Handb.pdf”, which so far contained everything I needed to know when using LTspice, but I don’t know wether it is somewhere on the internet nowadays, or maybe a better/newer version of it.
For anybody unfamiliar with LTspice, it’s not a low-end shareware tool, and it’s not a crippled version of a professional tool.
It’s a real professional circuit simulator, but it’s free. It’s the go-to simulator everywhere I have worked.