Pspice and 4538 help

[Egor]

Hello!
I'm trying to simulate a monostable multivibrator MC14538B or CD4538B in PSpice. I'm butting heads with this program for the second day and can't seem to make it work.

Is there anything better than PSpice? Because I've grown to despise this program.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Welcome to our forum.

I can't help you with PSPICE, but is this PW=0,5m? Shouldn't this read PW=0.5m?
Also: is there a connection from R1/C1 to UA1? You show a wire, but there is no connecting dot (this may be a visual problem, check the netlist).

 

[Egor]

Hey!
There's a connection there, dunno why it shows that there isn't. And yeah, I changed the dot in 0.5 right away. Also, CX (1) shouldn't have anything connected to it.
It turns out you have to load specific model libraries. I don't have one that says 4538. I tried loading the likes of 1-shot.lib but that didn't really help. The simulation still says "unspecified model" or something like that.
Anyway, I found a different program called LT Spice IV and simulated the circuit without too many problems. The program itself is not very user-friendly, unfortunately. Even though it doesn't require any tinkering with libraries, you can't use keyboard shortcuts, copy/paste also doesn't work.

Do you know any good programs for simulations, that are relatively easy to use? Even if they are not free.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Even though it doesn't require any tinkering with libraries, you can't use keyboard shortcuts, copy/paste also doesn't work.

It does require tinkering with libraries - if the model you need is not included.
A lot of keyboard shortcuts are available and one can become acquainted quite fast with the program. See our ressources forum, there I have put lots of useful ressources for using LTSPICE.

Regardless of the simulator you use, you will always have to find suitable models for the components you want to simulate - or build your own model.

 

[Egor]

I meant that if a model exists in LTSpice, and I can place it on the board - it will simulate (Unlike PSpice, but maybe I'm wrong). I found a large library collection on the internet ("vanilla" LTSpice doesn't have a lot of models).

Thanks for your replies I will go look through the resources forum.

 

[LvW]

Do you know any good programs for simulations, that are relatively easy to use? Even if they are not free.

Don`t blame the program. Since more than 20 years I work with PSpice - and if something went wrong it was ALWAYS a failure of the user (that`s me) and NEVER a malfunction of the program.
May I ask: What means "can`t seem to make it work"?
Didn`t the program start? Was there any failure message? Are the resullts non-realistic?
Without any information about how the program does react I cannot give any recommendation.
By the way: I share your opinion about LTSpice.

 

[Egor]

Well, I built the exact same circuit (with some changes that are not present in the picture, like not connecting anything to CX) in LTSpice and it worked without a problem. PSpice wouldn't simulate it because of "unspecified model" error or something similar.