Proteus Meaning – Microorganism or Software or Greek Mythology ?

The term Proteus is ambiguous. It is a term used by both people in the science and engineering fields.

In this tutorial, we will discuss the term Proteus as it concerns both scientists and engineers, especially the electrical and electronics engineers, Electronics hobbyists and makers.

Proteus in Science (Microbiology)

In the field of Microbiology, Proteus is a member of the Enterobacteriaceae family. The genus of Proteus consists of motile, aerobic and facultatively anaerobic, Gram-negative rods. Proteus is a member of the tribe Proteeae, which also includes Morganella and Providencia. The genus Proteus currently consists of five named species namely:

P. mirabilis,
P. vulgaris,
P. penneri,

P. myxofaciens
P. hauseri

As well as three unnamed genomospecies which are: Proteus genomospecies 4, 5, 6.

However, a recent study indicated that P. myxofaciens may represent a separate genus with low similarity to tribe Proteeae, and it has been suggested that this organism be renamed Cosenzaea myxofaciens.

A striking microbiologic characteristic of Proteus species is their swarming activity. Swarming appears microscopically as concentric rings of growth emanating from a single colony or inoculum. On a cellular level, swarming results from bacterial transformation from “swimmer cells” in broth to “swarmer cells” on a surface such as agar, in a process involving cellular elongation and increased flagellin synthesis.

Proteus in Greek Mythology

In Greek Mythology, Proteus was a sea god and an attendant of Poseidon. Proteus could change its shape at will.
Microbiologists hence adapted the name Proteus for the bacteria genre that has the microbiological characteristic of smarming, by transforming from “swimmer cells” in broth to “swarmer cells” on a surface like agar. It reminded early microbiologists of the morphologic variability of the Protei on subculture, including their ability to swarm.

For more on Proteus on microbiology see this article.

Proteus in Engineering (Electrical and Electronics)

On the other hand, Proteus in engineering is a sophisticated software used in electronics circuit design, electronic circuit simulation and printed circuit board (PCB) design. It is a software tool that is used mainly by electronic and electrical engineers and hobbyists.

Proteus is a very powerful circuit simulation software with over a thousand different microprocessors and over 15 million electronic components for circuit simulation. Proteus is not open source, it is a proprietary is a proprietary software tool suite belonging to Labcenter electronics

Proteus design suite combines ease of use with a powerful feature set to enable the rapid design, test and layout of professional printed circuit boards. Proteus Design Suite is a proprietary software tool suite used primarily for electronic design automation. The software is used mainly by electronic design engineers and technicians to create schematics and electronic prints for manufacturing printed circuit boards.

Designs, software updates and advancements going on at Labcenter electronics are a product of over 30 years experience. Labcenter electronics has garnered enough experience in the industry and their product is a testimony to that.

What you Get in Proteus Design Suite

There are two main components in the Proteus design suite which are discussed below:

ISIS:

ISIS stands for Intelligent Schematic Input System. This component in Proteus allows you to create electronic circuits with tons of electronic components involving both discrete components like resistors, transistors, diodes, inductors, silicon controlled rectifiers, capacitors, transformers, relays, batteries, buzzers, and tons of other discrete electronic components and integrated circuits like, regulators, operational amplifiers, 555 timer, even microprocessors. As much as the Proteus design Suite Is not free, you can create libraries that can work perfectly with the software, just like guys at engineeringprojects.com have done, in creating several Arduino libraries.

ARES:

ARES means Advanced Routing and Editing Software. This is the software tool in the Proteus Simulation software that is for printed circuit board design. It is for making PCBs. PCB making in Proteus has gotten much better, you can now create a 3D mockup of your PCB design to get a feel of what the PCB will like after production.

Some Features of the Proteus Schematic Capture

A lot of advancement has been made in the Proteus simulation Software. If you have not been a fan of Proteus before, I think it is time to check out Proteus once again. Below are a list of reasons why you should embrace Proteus as your best companion as an electronic engineer, hobbyist or maker.

Rich Library

Proteus contains over 50,000 components and footprints in the libraries. The software also provides import capabilities providing access to over 15 million parts from 3rd Party Vendors such as Ultra-Librarian, Samacsys and SnapEDA.

Easy Connection

Whether you prefer making connections with wires between components or by placing terminals on the end of pins, Proteus makes the job easy. The wire placement algorithm lets users direct wire placement by mouse movement while terminals can be quickly connected by touch to the pin ends.

Project Clips

Project Clips allow you to save sections of schematic and their corresponding PCB layout to disk and then import them back into future projects. Both the schematic and pcb parts of the project clip are imported and placed as single entities with no annotation or wiring required.

Assembly Variants

Assembly Variants provide a simple method of managing multiple product configurations based on a single schematic and PCB. Users can specify either the fitted status or an alternative pin compatible part for each component in an assembly variant.

Design Explorer

The Design Explorer provides the user with a full list of components and their associated nets, the ability to view these on both the schematic and the PCB and details regarding the packaging information and net information.

Bill of Material (BOM)

The Bill of Materials operates in its own application window with a WYSIWYG view of the report. Component properties can be added/removed or edited directly from the editor view of the BOM module. The final output can be to print, Excel or PDF as you wish.

Project Notes

Proteus comes with pre-supplied templates for common report types or apply a rich set of data objects that make it quick and easy to create custom reports for your product design documentation.

Some Features of the Proteus PCB Layout

Footprints Library

Dozens of pre-installed libraries of schematic parts packaged with IPC standard footprints. Over 15 million packaged parts on tap via the integrated web search and import tool.

Templates

Store and re-use board definitions and board constraints along with other technology data with PCB templates.

Manual Routing

Proteus uses advanced route placement algorithms that are fully design rule aware and intelligently route around obstacles. Switch between linear and curved routing at a keypress.

High Speed Routing

Dedicated differential pair routing with automatic skew correction. A simple select and match method for net tuning high speed signals and detailed reporting to verify tolerances.

Auto-Routing

Proteus includes a world class integrated shape based autorouter as standard with all professional purchases. The router uses advanced cost-based conflict reduction algorithms proven to maximize completion rates on even the most densely packed boards.

Power Planes

Power planes that intelligently flood the board with full user control of nesting and islands. Support for plane layers and split planes as well as plane stitching and via fences.

Verification

Advanced design rule support including multi-layer design rule rooms. Live design rule system shows you instantly where violations occur.

3D Visualization

3D board visualization with fly-by navigation and zoom. Bareboard view and height bounds checker along with STEP/IGES import and export.

Test Points

Proteus has Comprehensive support for test points and testpoint coverage and compliance strategies.

Output Formats

It has A range of modern manufacturing output formats and multiple export formats for MCAD tools and documentation.

Multi Board Projects

The Proteus design suite has design products consisting of multiple rigid PCBs on a single schematic.

Proteus has many more features which we will discuss in another article post.

How to get a copy of the Proteus Design Suite

You can get a copy of the software by purchasing the license key after downloading the software from Labcenter Electronics. This purchase comes with full license and all-round technical support.

However, you get a Proteus crack version, which is more like a free version for educational purposes. Below are links to download various versions of Proteus cracks free. Please note that, if you intend to use Proteus for business, you need to purchase the license key from Labcenter electronics. However, Proteus gives you the opportunity to get a demo version of the software, so you can evaluate the product before making the purchase.

Download Proteus

You can choose from the variou versions of Proteus cracks listed below and download anyone of your choice to install on your computer for your circuit simulation.

How to use Proteus

After downloading Proteus on your computer, the next thing you do is to install the software, then you open the software you installed. Any Proteus version you download has a how-to install guide tutorial with it. If you need a video guide on how to install Proteus, the watch this video on how to install proteus 8.12.

After installing the Proteus software, you can immediately start your circuit simulation in Proteus. You can start by watching this tutorial on how to use Proteus.

After that, you can try out these other tutorials and projects on circuit simulation with proteus.

Voltage Level Indicator Circuit Using op-amp, Simulation in Proteus