Accurately Evaluate Circuits with New Probes in Multisim

Publish Date: Apr 16, 2015

Introduction
The probe functionality has been redesigned in Multisim 14 to allow additional measurement functionalities in Multisim. Whether
youre learning for the first time about an inverting amplifier circuit or designing a sophisticated switching power supply, the new
probes will help you gain knowledge of your circuit performance quickly and easily.
The new Voltage, Current, Power, and Digital probes provide:
A clear and convenient way of acquiring common measurements, such as voltages, branch current, and power.
Automation of the output variable selection process in analyses (such as Transient and AC Sweep); after an analysis is run,
variables from probes are automatically plotted in the Grapher.
Easy annotation of important nodes on the schematic.

New Probes in Multisim

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The new probes could be found by default in a new toolbar in Multisim

The available probes are:

Voltage, Current, Voltage and Current
These probes can measure voltage, current or both. You can use the probes properties dialog to change the measurement as
needed and the symbol updates to reflect the selection.

Power
Measures the power dissipated or generated by a component.

Digital
This probe is for interactive simulation only. During simulation, the symbol updates dynamically with 1, 0, x. High and low digital
thresholds for analog nets can be set in the Digital Probe Properties dialog box.

Differential voltage
Click once to place a voltage probe and again to place a reference probe. The voltage measured between these two points is the
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Differential voltage
Click once to place a voltage probe and again to place a reference probe. The voltage measured between these two points is the
differential voltage.
Reference
Provides a reference net to a voltage probe. Without a reference probe, a voltage probe will reference net 0. Use for differential
voltage measurements. This an alternative to placing a pair of Differential voltage probes. Use if you have placed a number of
voltage probes that you want to reference to a given point.
Probes stay with wires and components when the wires are moved. They are not deleted when their nets, net segments, or
components are deleted.

Probes in Interactive Simulation

Probes display measurements based on the settings in Interactive Simulation (SimulateAnalyses and simulation).

The displayed parameters can be configured locally on each probe or globally using the Probe Settings dialog box (
SimulateProbe settings).

The Digital Probe is special in that it displays the instantaneous value of the digital signal directly inside of the probe symbol. It
does not have a Parameters tab in its properties dialog.
The instantaneous parameters are useful for all signal types. Periodic parameters are best suited to periodic signals. They may
provide misleading results for transient events. It is recommended that you use Transient analysis and the Grapher's post
processing functions to perform calculations on signals that are not periodic.

Probes in Advanced Analyses

To enable users to quickly get to simulation results and perform faster measurements on their circuit, when a new probe is placed,
it automatically appears in the Selected variables for analysis list in the Analyses and Simulation dialog box for several of the
analyses available in Multisim.
For example:
1. Open the 3-phase inverter sample circuit in Multisim available under File>Open Samples under Power Conversion>DC-AC
2. Place 6 Digital probes on the PWM signals S1 to S6 as shown below

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1. Open the Transient Simulation settings by clicking on the wrench icon in the toolbar and notice the placement of the analog
and digital probes in the Output tab

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1. Moreover, when the analysis is run, variables from probes are automatically plotted in the Grapher and saved to a raw file .
Variables from voltage, current, and power probes are plotted on the analog graph, while variables from digital probes are
plotted on the digital graph.

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Conclusion
Significant improvements have been made in Multisim 14.0 to the way analyses are setup, signals are probes, and measurements
are visualized. You will now be able to gain understanding of your circuit operation faster and have more control over design
variables to get accurate results.
Upgrade to Multisim 14 now (http://www.ni.com/multisim/buy)
Learn more about new features (http://www.ni.com/multisim/whatsnew)

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