Skip to main content

Simulating Your Circuit With Cirkit Designer

Introduction​

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to simulate a simple LED blinking circuit in Cirkit Designer. We’ll walk through selecting components, wiring them, adding Arduino code, and finally running the simulator. By the end, you’ll have a blinking LED in your virtual circuit!

Brief Overview of the Cirkit Designer Interface​

When you open Cirkit Designer, you’ll typically see:

  • Components Panel: A list of parts you can drag onto your workspace.
  • Circuit Workspace: The main area where you place and wire up components.
  • Code Editor: Where you’ll write and edit Arduino code.
  • Simulator: Tools for running and viewing the simulation of your circuit.

By default, the Components Panel and Circuit Workspace are visible right when you open the software. A top navigation lets you open the Code Editor and Simulator whenever you’re ready to write code or run a simulation. Having a basic understanding of these panels will help you follow the rest of this tutorial.

Cirkit Designer Interface Layout

Step 1: Selecting Components​

Finding Simulation-Compatible Parts​

Not all components in the Cirkit Designer library are supported by the simulator. To find ones that are compatible:

  1. Go to the Components Panel.
  2. Click the Simulation Filter button so only supported components are displayed.

Search for simulation parts

Adding electronic components​

For this example, we’re going to create an LED blinker circuit using:

  • Arduino UNO
  • Red LED
  • Resistor (1k Ω)

We'll proceed to add these parts to our circuit. After adding these parts, your circuit should look like this:

Circuit Parts Placed

Wiring the components​

To make the LED blink, we'll use digital pin 13 on the Arduino to control the on/off state of the LED. To do so, we will place the following wires:

  • D13 on the Arduino <-> Pin 1 on the resistor
  • Pin 2 on the resistor <-> Anode of the LED
  • Cathod of the LED <-> GND (ground) on the Arduino

After placing these wires, your wiring should look like this:

Circuit Layout

To control the LED, we’ll write a simple Arduino sketch that toggles pin 13 on and off:

  1. Open the Code Editor in Cirkit Designer.
  2. Paste the following code snippet:
void setup() {
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT); // Set digital pin 13 (D13) as an output
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(13, HIGH); // Turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);            // Wait for a second (1000 milliseconds)
  digitalWrite(13, LOW);  // Turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);            // Wait for a second
}

Adding Code

Verifying code​

Click the Verify button to check for compilation errors. If you see “Compilation complete” in the console (in green), you’re ready to simulate!

Verifying Code

Step 3: Running the simulation​

To run the simulation, we'll first open the Simulator:

Opening Simulator

And then click the Play button to start the simulation.

If everything is wired and coded correctly, you should see the LED blink on and off with a one-second delay.

Running the Simulation

Conclusion​

You’ve now seen the full process of creating a circuit, adding code, and running a simulation in Cirkit Designer. With this foundational knowledge, you’re ready to experiment with more advanced projects—have fun, and happy simulating!