Software

There is software, firmware, and hardware. Firmware is software. Hardware is hard. I've got a headache.

MicroHard

MicroFirm

MicroSoft

List

RF Design Tools

• http://web.archive.org/web/20230604005515/http://hp.woodshot.com/hprfhelp/design/appcad.htm

Audio Tools

• https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/is-this-a-good-speaker-model/ - simulating a speaker

Power Design Tools

See Switchers

Simulations

SimHeatsink

Ansys

These fine folks use ansys:

• https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/14/2/314 - Cooling Methods for a Typical Printed Circuit Board Assembly in Spacecraft: Simulation and Experiment

Which has a free 'student' license. It appears to let you download and use the software for a year.

There is also a free online course offered by Cornell:

• https://www.edx.org/course/a-hands-on-introduction-to-engineering-simulations

FOSS Options

Searching alternativeto for ansys comes up with

Image Processing

Yolo is being used for a lot of image matching.

• https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/14/2/217 - SSHP-YOLO: A High Precision Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Defect Detection Algorithm with a Small Sample

The January 2025 issue has a couple articles that use image processing via yolo to detect different things. for example this article has photos showing the image recognition being used for pcb errors. see the photos. given that you can program yolo, you can use it for most anything, if you allow for less than 100% accuracy.

• https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/14/2/258 - Detection of Sealing Surface of Electric Vehicle Electronic Water Pump Housings Based on Lightweight YOLOv8n

This article does a generic defects search on an automotive part. Looking for example dents, or mistakes in the molding.