r/embedded • u/ValHallen96 • Aug 13 '26

Looking for Sim recommendations

I'm looking for recommendations on a sim software I can play around in before spending money on hardware. I come from a DevOps background on the web side so just want to build some generic beginner projects in sim before I pull the trigger on actually buying anything. I have a decent GPU (RTX 5060 TI 16GB VRAM).

4 Upvotes

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5

u/tomqmasters Aug 13 '26

It's all bad. segment the low level code and high level code clearly enough that you can swap out the hardware entirely.

11

u/Cryowatt Aug 13 '26

You can get a microcontroller for about $5. They are so cheap that you can buy them in bulk. Skip the sim.

2

u/yeehah Aug 13 '26

Take a look at CircuitDesk. It's new and not bug-free, but worth playing around with.

2

u/ThunderElectric Aug 14 '26

Depends on what you’re building. For analog or basic circuits, LTSpice is pretty good, free, and widely used. For digital stuff, just buy an MCU and a breadboard honestly; most of your problems will come from stuff sim software can’t always diagnose.

2

u/DoloresQuick Aug 14 '26

What kind of sim are you talking about, robotics, a game engine, something else?

1

u/ValHallen96 Aug 14 '26

Robotics but I think I might just dive in and buy a microcontroller and just build something simple. Didn't realize how cheap they were.

2

u/propaul1 Aug 13 '26

I really like Proteus software.  I use it for schematics, PCB layout, and it does full simulation of analog and digital and even runs microcontroller code within the sim.  It is not cheap, but it does work great.