Readme
Readme
Readme
0
for Windows XP/Vista Copyright (c) 2001-2008 Powersim Inc.
1. Introduction
PSIM is a computer simulation software specially designed for the analysis and design of power electronics and motor drives. With fast simulation speed and friendly user interface, PSIM provides an efficient and powerful simulation environment. This document describes how to simulate a circuit, and issues on installation and trouble-shooting.
2. Simulating a Circuit
To simulate the sample circuit "chop-1q.sch" in the examples\dc-dcsub-folder in the PSIM directory: Start PSIM by running PSIM.exe. Go to File -> Open and load the schematic file. Click on the Run Simulation icon in the toolbar, or choose Run Simulation from the Simulate menu, to start the simulation. Once the simulation is completed, the waveform display program SIMVIEW will launch automatically. In SIMVIEW, select curves available for display.
Table 1: Comparison of demo version, standard version, and professional version Features Cost Circuit size limit Motor Drive Module Demo Free 34 elements* Standard $ 60 elements (except nonlinear machine models) Professional $$$ No Limit
Digital Control Module SimCoupler Module Thermal Module MagCoupler Module MagCoupler-RT Module SimCoder for code generation C blocks (built-in C interpreter) Saturable core element Advanced DLL blocks (Power Modeling Block, Embedded Software Block, and General DLL Block)
: Feature is available; : Feature is not available * In addition to the 34-element limit, the demo version also imposes limits on individual elements.
In some cases, the timeout length may need to be increased for the software to find the License Manager. To set the timeout length, add: NH_SESSION = xx NH_SEND_RCV = xx [xx is the timeout in sec.] [xx is the timeout in sec.]
6. Troubleshooting
The following is a list of problems that one may encounter when installing and running PSIM, and possible solutions. Problem: There is a problem in running PSIM softkey version. It used to work, but when the computer is connected to a different network, it does not work. Error message: Error: Computer ID is not registered. Please contact Powersim to register the ID.
Possible cause and the solution: o Cause: The PSIM softkey version checks the MAC address of the computer against the registered MAC address. If you are using a removable network adaptor or running VPN, the computer MAC address can change and this problem can occur. o Solution: Make sure that you are not running VPN or using a removable network adaptor. Then run the program MAC.exe from the PSIM folder, and send to Powersim the MAC address of a network card that is always present on the computer. Powersim will generate a new license file for you based on that MAC address. Problem: Error message: The Hasp network key cannot be found during the PSIM installation Hasp network key was not detected.
Possible causes and the solutions: o Cause: Either the License Manager is not running, or the Hasp network key is not connected to the same machine that runs the License Manager. o Solution: Make sure that the License Manager is running, and the Hasp network key is connected to the same computer. o Cause: The Windows XP firewall is preventing the setup program from communicating with the License Manager. o Solution: In Windows XP, go to Control Panel -> Security Center -> Windows firewall, and temporarily turn off the Windows firewall. This should help solve the problem. After the installation and after the Windows firewall is turned on again, if there is a problem running either PSIM or SIMVIEW, go to the Windows firewall settings. Under Exceptions, click on Add Program to add PSIM to the firewall exception, and click on Add Port to add Port 475 with the following settings: Name: Port number: PSIM 475 UDP 4
Cannot start PSIM or SIMVIEW Error: No Hasp key with the correct ID found!
Possible causes and the solutions: o o o o Cause: The Hasp key is not connected to the computer.
Solution: Connect the Hasp key to the computer. Cause: The Hasp driver is not properly installed.
Solution: Run "haspUserSetup.exe" in the PSIM directory to install the Hasp driver. The installation needs administrative privilege. Make sure that you have the administrative privilege on the computer if you perform the installation, or you should ask your system administrator to perform the installation.
Cause:
You are using the PSIM network version. The Hasp key is connected and the Hasp driver is installed, but the Hasp license manager server is not running.
o o
Solution: Ask your system administrator to run the Hasp license manager. Cause: You are using the PSIM network version. The Hasp key is connected, the Hasp driver is installed, and the license manager is running. But under certain network settings and configurations, PSIM can not find the key over the network. In this case, you need to modify the nethasp.ini file.
Solution: Modify the file nethasp.ini and configure the access to the License Manager. Please refer to Section 4.3 for more details. In most of the cases, setting the parameters NH_SERVER_ADDR and NH_USE_BROADCAST as instructed in Section 5.3 will solve the problem. Also, if you are running PSIM from a network drive, copy the entire PSIM folder from the network driver to the local drive, and run PSIM from the local drive.
Can not start PSIM or SIMVIEW Error: Invalid Hasp key version!
Possible cause and the solution: o Cause: You were trying to run a newer version of PSIM with an older version of the Hasp key. For example, your Hasp key is for Version 6.1, if you try to run a version of PSIM which is higher than 6.1, you will get this error message. o Solution: Make sure that you run the version of PSIM that matches the Hasp key.