Piecewise Linear Current Source

The Piecewise Linear Current Source is an independent current source with a piecewise linear waveform of the current as a function of time. The arrow symbol shows the direction of the positive current flow through the current source.

Piecewise current source waveform plot, along with piecewise current source symbol in Maxwell Circuit Editor

A piecewise linear current source is described by up to 20 pairs (T_i, I_i), where every pair of values specifies the value I_i in Amps of the current at time T_i in the following units:

In seconds if type is TIME
In degrees if type is POSITION and type of motion is rotational
In geometry units if type is POSITION and type of motion is translational
In rpm if type is SPEED and type of motion is rotational
In geometry units per second if type is SPEED and type of motion is translational

Alternatively, instead of specifying 20-pair data to define a PWL waveform, you can specify a project-level dataset. In this case, the dataset needs to be specified in the properties of the source and any defined point pairs are ignored. Only project-level datasets can be used for this purpose as design-level datasets do not exist for external circuit designs. For more details on using datasets, see Adding Datasets.

Piecewise Linear Current Source waveform defined with a dataset