WinCCC Portable

What makes your computer perfectly function are tiny electrical components that work much like a city infrastructure, but for electrical current. Each piece has its own set of properties which engineers need to heavily take into consideration to avoid accidents. In order to learn a thing or two if you skipped one too many physics lessons in school, WinCCC Portable aims to teach you how to read various resistors based on their corresponding color code.

As the name suggests, this is the version of WinCCC that does not require you to go through a setup process, putting all features at your disposal right after download. As such, system registries remain intact and you can also take it anywhere you go on a USB Flash drive.

The main window is pretty compact and although there aren't many elements, it's somewhat of a disadvantage. Multiple types of resistors can be analyzed, with each one stored in a different tab, and this is where frustration adds up because there are so many that it's difficult to scroll through all tabs because of the poor design.

Going over such minor inconveniences, you don't need to know any bit about circuit design or electricity to realize how the application works. A small representation of the resistor is displayed, with color bars placed as they would normally be on a real one. Depending on the type, drop-down menus let you change colors in order to obtain various results.

Sadly, the representation is only a basic image and bars don't change along according to your selection, but these are numbered so you get a general idea. Scrolling through tabs, you find that the same applies for resistors, capacitors, diodes and inductors.

Depending on the type of electrical component selected, implemented info fields display value, tolerance and type. Color codes are used to determine these values. Mixing colors and hitting the “Decode!” button instantly generates the corresponding details. However, there are no export options so you need external tools or a good memory to record results.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that WinCCC portable might not shine when it comes to teaching you about reading electrical components color codes, but it's an easy step in that direction. It's main advantage is portability in this version, with the overall design being more difficult rather than creating more comfort. What adds a little to practicality is the variety of elements you can analyze.