Intro to Logisim Evolution, the free and oh-so-good logic simulation software

[@riverchampeimont]

At 1:52 it did not blink for me, I needed to click the "enable clock ticks" button (the 3rd button in Simulate).

[@CuriousMarc]

Yes, good that you mention it, I ran into that issue also.

[@MrKarateEd]

@@CuriousMarc As did I.....great program

[@NivagSwerdna]

@@MrKarateEd As did I.... :o)

[@skiaspensnowmass]

@@CuriousMarc I've been looking for a free logic simulator where I could experiment and gain some knowledge. Logisim-Evolution is what I was looking for. I subscribed and looking forward to more. Thanks for the tip @RaphaëlChampeimont.

[@rocoreryan9445]

To get mine to run, I went to simulate, clicked on the run simulator symbol, then the first clock shaped icon that says "Enable Clock Ticks".

[@johnderoy916]

I wish I could time travel and give this to myself back in the late 80s when I was still in college :-)

[@azpcox]

Spice was useful but the interactive aspect of this is phenomenal. This is PERFECT for some middle school or high school computer club!

[@metatechnologist]

You had Karnaugh maps, pencils, and graph paper. And a single ttl probe. Lol spell check wanted to give me 'titties probe'.

[@ksbs2036]

You would have needed a Cray to run it on 😜

[@vincei4252]

@@metatechnologist Yeah, the "modern" world we live in. Be thankful the "AI" didn't delete your comment. I didn't have a logic probe but thankfully I spent all my student allowance buying a 2 channel 20Mhz oscilloscope from Hameg which I used to debug the final year of uni 68K development system that I designed and built. Those were the day, I miss them somehow.

[@senilyDeluxe]

I have a digital similator very similar to this one on my Atari ST and it's dated somewhere late 80s. You could even build your own ICs.

[@HandMeTheBacon]

The original Logisim was my very first experience with logic simulation when I was a kid. I played with it for weeks. Following the diagrams and descriptions in my Code book I evem made my own 4 bit processor. One of the big reasons I became an engineer. Happy memories.

[@vinesthemonkey]

I used the original logisim like 8 years ago and had a lot of fun with it too

[@recarsion]

I had a similar experience in Minecraft of all places. Redstone is very good at simulating simple digital circuits, I made my own 8 bit ALU with it

[@gcewing]

Tip: Instead of the Rotate command, you can press an arrow key to make a part face in that direction.

[@CuriousMarc]

Ah, thanks, I was wondering why there wasn’t a rotate right and rotate left in the menu...

[@Controllerhead]

As a software person, it's comforting to know that i could design electronics without blowing things up. Thanks for sharing!

[@LubosMudrak]

The joy od creating a circuit that does exactly what you wanted.... And then the smell of melting cables kicks in :-(

[@em4964]

That's a great open source find , thanks for sharing Marc ! Windows users tip: First of all go to menu -> "Simulate" , and enable option "Auto-Tick Enabled" . Otherwise clock will not start ticking even after clicking "Start simulator" as Marc did at 1:50.

[@vincei4252]

Thanks! I was wondering what I needed to poke with my digital finger to make it work :-)

[@StefanWolfrum]

Same for macOS users, btw! Thanks for pointing that out! 👍👍

[@joshmyer9]

Nobody tell Look Mum No Computer that Marc is encroaching on his "retro beep and boop circuits" turf!

[@GuilleAcoustic]

But the boops don't come from a Furby, so it should be ok

[@TradieTrev]

ROFL!!

[@Tetrafluoroethane]

This is the pace introductory tutorials should have. I can figure out how to create a new file on my own thanks. Give me the good stuff! Thanks for this.

[@juliankandlhofer7553]

I learned about the old logisim that was discontinued in 2011 in school but I didn't know someone has taken up the development! Thanks for sharing this!

[@timothyjacques4126]

I actually use this program in my logic design classes at UCLA :)

[@LRTOTAL]

At university we used it to design a little 8 bit CPU from the bottom up! It was my favourite course.

[@AvNotasian]

Used LabView at my uni. its like this but more features and utilities.

[@mgw10101]

I discovered Logisim a few weeks ago to simulate some keyboard timing I couldn't wrap my head around in a vintage synth. I'm really impressed with it.

[@dosgos]

Do a video on that!

[@nigeljames6017]

Michael, a quick question if I may, I’ve downloaded the files from Marc’s link on GitHub, but now I’m stumped. It’s not like I’m a newbie straight out of college, I’m actually retired, but things are just racing by me these days (lol). I’ve checked I have a valid version of Java on my Windows 7 machine but I’m stumped as to what to do next (and with what file !). Any response would be helpful, thanks for your time.

[@bene5431]

@@nigeljames6017 The windows installer is the .msi file, or open the .jar file to run the program without installation i think. You don't need the other files

[@nigeljames6017]

@@bene5431 The .msi file worked fine. Thanks a lot ! My sixty five year old brain is slowly grinding to a halt (lol).

[@dano4700]

Started watching to see what software it was and then couldn't stop watching. Great stuff. Looking forward to next ep. Cheers.👍🇦🇺

[@canaDavid1]

Quick tips - arrow keys to rotate - output pins can be configured to display decimal, disabling the need for the 7segs - counters and registers (or almost anything) can vary in bit size

[@Stephen_Heathcote]

Brilliant! Just spent the last 10hrs fooling around with Logisim because of this video! Now I've just ordered the BASY03 FPGA board to experiment on! Thanks Marc :)

[@vincei4252]

Thank you for this, Marc. After the last video I hunted for and installed this. I do have logic schematic capture in the big bad professional Verilog/VHDL tools from Xilinx and Intel (cough Altera) but something about using this tool appeals to me way more. I have some retro circuitry that I've been scratching my head over (also to do with DRAM refresh) and you've just given me the massive kick in the pants to get to the bottom of how they work while keeping an excellent simulation of the circuits. Thanks for all you do, you may not realise how much it means to many of us! Cheers!

[@benbaselet2026]

Man that's an appealing piece of software.. instant download, now I feel like developing modules for this thing might be very fun also

[@jacoblieberman5138]

Love you videos, super stoked to see the progress on your HP! Mr. Fancypants would definitely approve 💯

[@timthompson468]

Great introductory video. Thanks. I saw this when you first posted it, but, at the time, I was not working in digital, so I didn't try it then. After working on the analog side for the past 15 years, I'm going back to refresh my understanding of digital logic and computer architecture, and this will come in very handy. I had planned to use Microcap, but this is a lot faster for most circuits. I made one mistake; I initially downloaded an old version called Logisim, but that does not have the features of Logisim Evolution. Once I got the correct program, it all worked as demonstrated. Thanks again.

[@barrybbenson2624]

I’m trying to learn computer engineering what do you recommend i learn first and could you do a list of things in order of what to learn

[@kBashumUclugam]

First i recomended learn about ALU,registers,and simple architecture simple processors. It is better to find a video on KZbin that explains the simple operations of the processor and how they are done

[@vyachachsel]

​@@kBashumUclugamlike Ben Eater's series? Seriously not a computer engineer but those series taught me how the CPUs are put together (I've already had an idea about the rest of stuff)

[@whawaii]

YES! THANK YOU for introducing me to LogiSim. This is the answer I've been wishing for to resolve many struggles I've been having. And THIS tutorial is perfect! Just the compliment to getting someone started. SUPER AWESOME!

[@jamesharrison6023]

This was a great video. I've been looking to create a clock signal where multiple clock signals all end at the same time. Using your implementation of JK flip-flips and changing the constant values of the comparators is a great idea. Thanks.

[@Wabbaxt]

is there a good book or guide on how to learn all of this and everything to do in logisim evolution?

[@madlad357]

I’ve been looking for a book on how to learn everything in logisim and so far haven’t found nothin

[@mr-meek]

I recently became aware of Logisim, but, hadn't began using it yet. Your timing couldn't have been better :D Thanks!

[@David-zt5yl]

You don't need to tunnel the clock signal. Just put in another clock component and all clocks will synchronize automatically. (Great video btw!)

[@FlyNAA]

What if you want different clocks?

[@gr33n39]

I was originally using the original Logisim, and that hasn't been updated since 2011. This is an awesome update! Thank you for bringing this to my attention!

[@bernard2735]

Awesome. All along I was hoping you’d say ‘and it generates Verilog’ :-)

[@josugambee3701]

Absolutely agree. I have this TinyFPGA that I haven't been able to do anything with because trying to design logic circuits through code sucks ass.

[@thatonekevin3919]

It does generate verilog and vhdl in some cases!

[@danieldyer1]

"It's a little bit intimate dating" -what I thought I heard Marc say "It's a little bit intimidating" - what he actually said

[@ovalteen4404]

Potato, potahto.

[@CuriousMarc]

No, no, intimate dating eez correct. Zis eez what I meant.

[@ThatBrubakerFellow]

Das ist richtig.

[@graemedavidson499]

For a moment I pondered over that 1 input AND gate but when the 5V PSU goes to 12V, that’s a very real possibility! Then there was that 2001 evolution moment as Marc threw us a bone and Thus Spoke Zarathustra broke forth from the circuit! Truly an amazing tool!

[@mariodistefano2973]

Thanks alot CuriousMarc for this kind explanation. This program would ha blown my mind when I was at school several decades ago... But I've learnt the basics of computer programming, exactly on the HP 9825, which was at school. A brother of the one you are now trying to revive.... My heart is on your fingertips Marc! Keep up that extraordinary work you're doing, on that lovely computer! *THANKS MARK !!!!*

[@72polara]

I remember paying a lot of money for a student version of a program called Electronics Workbench when I was in college. Wish I still had it, worked real good for analog circuits.

[@darkstatehk]

That was amazing to watch! Logisim Evolution is the most intuitive software of its kind I've seen so far.

[@forbiddenera]

This is pretty awesome especially if its free. Thanks for sharing Marc!

[@bobvines00]

It's free at the link Marc provided.

[@MorganChristiansson]

It's not just free as in beer. It's open source.

[@forbiddenera]

@@MorganChristiansson even better

[@uwezimmermann5427]

Thanks to point me to yet another spin-off and release of Logisim. I was triggered by the beeper in your simulations which I have never seen in Logisim before. Once upon a time I had made the German translation of the user interface for Carl Burch.

[@jamesandrews4723]

as a complete amateur i used some older versions of this it is a super tool for learning and i hope to use it to develop more understanding

[@jecelassumpcaojr890]

Since the comparison circuits have "" outputs, you could do an AND between two of them to have a signal similar to what the flip-flop is outputting. It would not be synchronized with the clock, however.

[@ErikBruchez]

I wondered why that approach was not chosen, but then I haven't done circuit design for a very long time.

[@rtlgrmpf]

Or demux the counter and use RS FFs.

[@TheBobbytux]

Bonjour de Normandie Marc et merci pour ce tutoriel. Hâte de voir la mémoire dynamique de votre appareil à nouveau opérationnelle ;)

[@michaelcherry8952]

Lego for Ultra Computer Nerds! How much do you want to bet that he was noodling around with this thing until 3:00 in the morning before he got dragged off to bed?

[@FlyNAA]

Reminds me of the “someone is wrong on the internet…” comic but actually constructive XD

[@thorpejsf]

Marc -- I just discovered your tutorial today, and it's great! Thanks so much for doing it!

[@spewp]

This is easily the best part of my week.

[@knyghtryda]

Wow... This took me right back to my university CPU architecture course. We had to design all the various components of a simple 8 bit CPU in logisim.

[@pranavbelgaonkar8634]

This is the first time I have seen this tool and I love it

[@dhpbear2]

Thanks, Marc for introducing us to this great app!

[@camelcaseco]

I have loved this tool for a while now, I'm so glad other people like it too

[@reeeeeeeeemmmmmmmmmm]

I love your videos Marc! Always super interesting, this one is no exception. One thing reminds me of back when I worked with a team of electrical engineers though. Anytime someone would use a buzzer for something someone would shout "CAN'T YOU JUST USE AN LED FOR THAT" and I totally stand behind that. The second half of the video was really annoying to get through even though I really wanted to see it to the end. Perhaps just leave it at LEDs! That said, keep doing what you're doing, I love how you explain complicated things simply, and it seems you always have something really interesting to work on.

[@huntabadday2663]

Finally! A good logic sim! Thank you, Marc!

[@audiodiwhy2195]

Great tutorial/great find. I will have a lot of fun with this app. Thanks.

[@ludmilascoles1195]

Gee I use to do that on paper. Brings back bad memories of late nights and too much coffee.

[@cleitonfelipe2092]

I remember when I was a kid, there was a shareware program in a CD called Crocodile Clips Elementary. I was amazed by that program even though it was just basic electronics.

[@sky173]

This is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for sharing!

[@rallymax2]

Fantastic find. I was hoping you would do a follow up after hinting at it in the last video. And here we are!

[@TehTezMan]

I had an entire class in college where logisim was kinda the crux of the whole course. design and simulate in logisim for most assignments.

[@jasonmurawski5877]

Took me a second to click on this video, and then i saw who was uploading it, instant click when i saw that

[@DavePKW]

Thank you Marc for another fine video. This is a very interesting tool for free. I don't know if anyone has heard of Livewire by New Wave Concepts, but I have used it for many years. I found it to be intuitive and fast. I have the Professional version and it was only $40 US.

[@9rune5]

Nice introduction! I'm thinking of volunteering at my local school and see if I can teach sixth graders some (very) basic circuit design. This looks like the right tool.

[@radarmusen]

Nice, will try this. Use proteus trial when I have a digital thing to test but this is free!

[@lmaoroflcopter]

Reminds me of my years of playing with electronics workbench in college :) really nice recommendation for a tool Marc!

[@ferix.98]

Same to me. I remember using the Electronics Workbench digital module (versión 4.0 I think) on Windows 3.1 to test some relatively complex designs (I remember creating data aleatorizer and dealeatorizer modules and such). But it was more than twenty years ago (1994?)... I feel really old now :P

[@largepimping]

Like others, I also missed this on the youtube home page... thankfully, I saw it in my Subscriptions and clicked IMMEDIATELY!

[@Digital-Dan]

My KZbin link from my home page always goes straight to Subscriptions. Home is a combination of reasonable stuff and a cesspool of stuff generated by the algorithm.

[@eebaker699]

That's fantastic! I would like to see a series of tutorials on this software package. Very interesting...😁

[@ruadeil_zabelin]

Thanks for the great recommendation of logisim evolution. This is actually something i've been looking for for a while now.

[@MeanGeneHacks]

Thanks for this, I had no idea this free software package existed!

[@danielwcrompton]

This is an awesome tool, I'm going to give it to my children to play with

[@redace001]

That's a neat tool. I have a simple one for mobile, but it's quite limited. Can't wait to see you use it! Meanwhile, I'll go try it out! 😁

[@jensschournnowpedersen6401]

Thank you for your always good entertaining and educative videos! I have just installed Logicsim on my Linux PC after watching this video and will try it out 😄 I hope to see you soon in your great videos maybe in your fancy pants again working with vintage electronics and computers 😄

[@1985AW11]

At 1:05 the bottom left under Circuit: main shows VHDL and Verilog. My setup shows “Circuit Main: FPGA supported: Supported.” I didn’t run into any problems following the tutorial until I reached 8:41 when you added the buzzer. My display for the buzzer says “FPGA supported: Not supported” and I don’t get any sound. Was there a step at the beginning to set up VHDL?

[@sylens_]

have you found the solution to this problem because its not occurring for me, and I have no clue what it means. Even after a few google searches I still can't find the answer to this. Im also on the latest version of logisim.

[@keithlambell1970]

That looks like a great tool. I am going to try it out now!

[@NickNorton]

13:00 Early stages for Close Encounters of the Third Kind... The HP 9825 finale is sure to be awesome.

[@metatechnologist]

Needs fricken' fireworks at this point.

[@FinnyBc1]

I love messing around in Logisim. You can build some really complex stuff. I recommend Logisim Holy Cross Edition because it is very optimized for speed. It can run some very complex circuits above 100khz.

[@AlessandraLimax]

Bateu a nostalgia! Fiz muitos projetinhos com logisim na faculdade. Muito bom

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Enjoyed the episode. Logisim looks more approachable than VHDL. About try try it, thanks.

[@andymouse]

Such cool tools for designers nowadays...cheers.

[@GodzillaGoesGaga]

I'm so glad I work in Verilog!

[@rot_studios]

I've been using Falstad's "Circuit Simulator" a lot, but this seems like a good upgrade! And it being FOSS is always a winner :)

[@KeinNiemand]

one other thing you can do in logisim is to put different parts of the circuit in different "Ics" with input and output pins and stuff then use those ICs

[@astrixff]

Very good demonstration. Thanks a lot, Marc!

[@michaelhaardt5988]

Thanks for this introduction. I kept using the old chipmunk digital simulation, but I guess it is time to switch, especially because this feels just the same.

[@77leelg]

That is a cool tool. I have to try it. Loved the perfect fifth.

[@DaCoder]

Very intuitive ui. Sure beats doing verilog modules by hand.

[@artursmihelsons415]

Looks like I'm too need to test this software out.. In some cases this will help.. Thanks for video! :)

[@lucvanhove9639]

Nice to share this 🤓 educatief 👍👍👍👍

[@VicVlasenko]

Reminded me, how we've used Electronics Workbench (it was full of bugs) when I was a student :-)

[@FlyNAA]

I got what the set, reset, and output do on the flip flop, but what is the purpose of the clock in there? It seems that turning the output on/off depending on what it gets from the 2 inputs, is all that’s happening… (not an electronics guy, basic question I’m sure)

[@zevfarkas5120]

I'm trying to put a lot into a nutshell here - circuits like flip-flops change state based on their present state and their inputs. The clock signal triggers this change, and the output remains steady until the next clock pulse.

[@chasingcapsaicin]

I remember doing this with 74xx etching, hand drawn with sharpies, BCD to 7 segment at nine years old. no sim's back then.

[@TechGorilla1987]

My eye doctor friend told me that I was too young for cataracts, but I assured him that my eyes were just glazed over after watching CuriousMarc's latest video.

[@tim0steele]

Very good video.. could you make the Logisim file for the HP9825 available so we can follow along? Thank you in advance :)

[@CuriousMarc]

Here you go: Logisim Evolution Downloads here: github.com/reds-heig/logisim-evolution/releases Full 9825 RAM logic simulation file available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1-SKQtA4llqf6CWmHHgf50lfWvHGDzex4/view?usp=sharing Simple counter example used in the tutorial: drive.google.com/file/d/1oCZ1BCA0rI6xVFfG1shTUn4jNyyDIzHE/view?usp=sharing

[@brickviking667]

@@CuriousMarc I noticed that all I get for the 9825 simulation file is a picture of the circuitry (called Refresh Sim 02.jpg). I assume we're meant to get the XML file instead?

[@bobvines00]

@@CuriousMarc Marc, the "Full 9825 RAM logic simulation file" is a jpg. Is that intentional instead of something that Logisim can open? Or am I misunderstanding it since I haven't used Logisim _yet_?

[@CuriousMarc]

Oopsie. I edited my answer.Can you try again?

[@bobvines00]

@@CuriousMarc Success! Thanks!

[@forbiddenera]

Falling asleep during YT videos where you're begging for clearer faster info is normal. Don't feel bad.

[@Digital-Dan]

Some YT mavens will belabor the most simple thing while breezing through the hard parts, thinking them obvious I guess.

[@forbiddenera]

@@Digital-Dan ya should be the other way around like if I'm coming to a video about working with quaternions with an IMU on arduino as an example..I do NOT need you to tell me how to install libraries and upload to an arduino..lol

[@kai990]

I am very confused as to why there was no mention of mr fancypants?

[@ruudslaman6966]

Mr Fancypants whished for a tool like this i presume... not in his time.

[@grover-]

I added the buzzer but there's no sound, even though the led is blinking and the wiring is good. Linux Mint. In .3.8.0 you need to also add a constant for the volume input to the buzzer, otherwise the volume is 0. Needs a 7 bit input. The default value of 0x7f worked for me.

[@userPrehistoricman]

This tool seems very intuitive.

[@SkyOctopus1]

I would have killed for that during my postdoc. I was fighting vhdl and modelsim on a daily basis.

[@RobSchofield]

Excellent! A new tool to try out.

[@krisztiannemeth9995]

Great! But have you noticed that your output is one clock cycle late (because of the flip-flop)? It's on between 3 and 11. I'd use the "greater than" output of the comparator for the smaller constant (2) and the "less than" for the larger one (10) and AND them together.

[@kins749]

Amazing tool, and a fun demo too!

[@LaurentLaborde]

you're the khan academy of electronic

[@Brian-L]

Wow, this is fantastic! Way back in my school daze we used equivalent software, for both digital and analog sims and design, but the package was prohibitively expensive for the hobbyist to get their hands on. I always dreamed of having access to something like this for home brew projects. Looks like dreams can come true.

[@gammaxana]

Sounds like multi sim

[@Belissimo-T]

10:48 You could just have used an and gate and connected it to bigger than 2 and less than 10. You wouldn't need the clock input then, too.

[@servantofourlordjesuschris6456]

This reminds me of the hospital monitors that check your heart.

[@lionrider889]

Can any one explain me how that led works only providing one input voltage to it?

[@zevfarkas5120]

The other side is "ground". For simplicity, it's not shown on the diagram. (Or did I misunderstand your question?)

[@theposguy1435]

That's a really neat program.. thank you!

[@paulround8501]

I have been looking for something like this for some time, just wondering of it can simulate propagation delay for high frequency simulation.

[@MVVblog]

This is GOLD