SPICE

How to fix pyspice OSError: cannot load library ‘libngspice.so’

Problem:

When trying to run a PySpice program, you see an error message such as

OSError: cannot load library 'libngspice.so': libngspice.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.  Additionally, ctypes.util.find_library() did not manage to locate a library called 'libngspice.so'

Solution:

Install libngspice, often called libngspice0.

On Ubuntu, install it using

sudo apt -y install libngspice0-dev

You need to install the -dev library since libngspice0 only contains libngspice.so.0 whereas the -dev library contains libngspice.so which is required by pyspice.

Posted by Uli Köhler in Python, SPICE

How to DC-sweep resistive voltage divider using PySpice

The following code simulates a resistive 10kΩ / 1kΩ voltage divider using PySpice using a DC sweep and can serve as a suitable starting point for simulating simple circuits. We sweep from 0V to 5V in steps of 10mV.

Also see our previous post How to simulate resistive voltage divider using PySpice for an alternate version using transient analysis:

import PySpice.Logging.Logging as Logging
logger = Logging.setup_logging()

from PySpice.Probe.Plot import plot
from PySpice.Spice.Netlist import Circuit
from PySpice.Unit import *

circuit = Circuit("MyCircuit")
# Create voltage source: 5V DC
source = circuit.VoltageSource('in', 'in', circuit.gnd, dc_value=5@u_V)
# Create resistor divider
r1 = circuit.R('R1', 'in', 'n1', 10@u_kΩ)
r2 = circuit.R('R2', 'n1', circuit.gnd, 1@u_kΩ)
# Simulate for 1 second with steps of 1 millisecond
simulator = circuit.simulator(temperature=25, nominal_temperature=25)
analysis = simulator.dc(Vin=slice(0, 5.0, 0.01))

You can access the array of output voltages of the divider (i.e. node n1) using analysis['n1']Keep in mind that if the first argument of circuit.VoltageSource is 'in', the argument to simulator.dc will be valled Vin,  not just  in! A Vwill automatically be  prepended!

 

This is the code we used to plot this:

import matplotlib.ticker as mtick
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from UliEngineering.EngineerIO import format_value

def format_volts(value, pos=None):
    return format_value(value, 'V')

plt.style.use("ggplot")
plt.xlabel("Input voltage")
plt.xlabel("Divider output voltage")
plt.gca().yaxis.set_major_formatter(mtick.FuncFormatter(format_volts))
plt.gca().xaxis.set_major_formatter(mtick.FuncFormatter(format_volts))
plt.gcf().set_size_inches(8,5)
plt.plot(analysis["in"], analysis["n1"], label="Input voltage")
plt.savefig("/ram/PySpice-Voltage-Divider-Sweep.svg")
Posted by Uli Köhler in Electronics, Python, SPICE

How to simulate resistive voltage divider using PySpice

The following code simulates a resistive 10kΩ / 1kΩ voltage divider using PySpice and can serve as a good starting point for simulating simple circuits.

This post shows you how to simulate the voltage divider using transient analysis. Also see an alternative variant of this post using DC sweep analysis instead: How to DC-sweep resistive voltage divider using PySpice

import PySpice.Logging.Logging as Logging
logger = Logging.setup_logging()

from PySpice.Probe.Plot import plot
from PySpice.Spice.Netlist import Circuit
from PySpice.Unit import *

circuit = Circuit("MyCircuit")
# Create voltage source: 5V DC
source = circuit.VoltageSource('V1', 'in', circuit.gnd, dc_value=5@u_V)
# Create resistor divider
r1 = circuit.R('R1', 'in', 'n1', 10@u_kΩ)
r2 = circuit.R('R2', 'n1', circuit.gnd, 1@u_kΩ)
# Simulate for 1 second with steps of 1 millisecond
simulator = circuit.simulator(temperature=25, nominal_temperature=25)
analysis = simulator.transient(step_time=1@u_ms, end_time=1@u_s)

You can access the array of output voltages of the divider (i.e. node n1) using analysis['n1']:

This is the code we used to plot this:

import matplotlib.ticker as mtick
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from UliEngineering.EngineerIO import format_value

def format_volts(value, pos=None):
    return format_value(value, 'V')

plt.style.use("ggplot")
plt.xlabel("Time [ms]")
plt.ylim([0.0, 5.5])
plt.gca().yaxis.set_major_formatter(mtick.FuncFormatter(format_volts))
plt.gcf().set_size_inches(8,5)
plt.plot(analysis["in"], label="Input voltage")
plt.plot(analysis["n1"], label="Voltage divider output")
plt.gca().legend()
plt.savefig("/ram/PySpice-Voltage-Divider.svg")

 

Posted by Uli Köhler in Electronics, Python, SPICE

How to create resistor in PySpice: Minimal example

This creates a resistor named R1 which has its + pin connected to node n1 and its - pin connected to GND. The value of the resistor is set to 1kΩ.

r1 = circuit.R('R1', 'n1', circuit.gnd, 1@u_kΩ)

Full example:

import PySpice.Logging.Logging as Logging
logger = Logging.setup_logging()

from PySpice.Probe.Plot import plot
from PySpice.Spice.Netlist import Circuit
from PySpice.Unit import *

circuit = Circuit("MyCircuit")
r1 = circuit.R('R1', 'n1', circuit.gnd, 1@u_kΩ)

 

Posted by Uli Köhler in Electronics, Python, SPICE

How to create constant voltage source in PySpice

This creates a voltage source named V1 which has its + pin connected to node n1 and its - pin connected to GND. The voltage source is set to 5V DC.

source = circuit.VoltageSource('V1', 'n1', circuit.gnd, dc_value=5@u_V)

Full example:

import PySpice.Logging.Logging as Logging
logger = Logging.setup_logging()

from PySpice.Probe.Plot import plot
from PySpice.Spice.Netlist import Circuit
from PySpice.Unit import *

circuit = Circuit("MyCircuit")
source = circuit.VoltageSource('V1', 'n1', circuit.gnd, dc_value=5@u_V)

 

Posted by Uli Köhler in Electronics, Python, SPICE