I am interested in learning about circuitry, but I'm scared on investing money for soldering tools, breadboards, and components and later become discouraged and end up wasting money in the process.

I recently came across ngspice, which seems to offer a compelling platform for simulating circuit designs. I conducted a simple simulation of an LED circuit using a DC source, a resistor, and an LED model. However, I encountered results that seem unrealistic; the voltage across the LED only reached 0.05V, while the source current remained slightly above 1.6A. Given that a red LED typically has a forward voltage drop of around 2V, this raises questions about the simulator's accuracy.

Here is a snippet of my ngspice code for reference:

* Realistic LED circuit simulation with DC source
V1 1 0 DC 5           ; 5V DC voltage source
R1 1 2 220            ; 220 Ohm current-limiting resistor
D1 2 0 LED_RED        ; Red LED model

* Realistic red LED model (approx. 2V drop, 20mA forward current)
.model LED_RED D( IS=1e-14 N=2.0 RS=10 BV=5 IBV=10u CJO=2p TT=1u )

If the results from ngspice are actually reliable, I would like to know if there is a way to include tolerances in my simulations, similar to a Monte Carlo analysis to help ensure that the circuits I build would work correctly once assembled life kinda like a plug & play stuff.

I appreciate any insights or guidance on this topic. Thank you!