OT: How not to draw a schematic (?)

[Rob Strand]

When people started drawing schematics on computers there was an era where they used too many sheets - to the extent where it was hard to understand the circuit.

I recently found this, it's an example in the complete opposite direction:
http://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/38933510/23432455/racal/racal-dana_model_9904_frequency_meter_a3_circuit_9-9-06.pdf_1.png
(BTW, this company designs high quality test equipment.)

Back in the day these things were draw by hand on a very large sheet.

[Ben Lyman]

I clicked on the link and got motion sickness.. puked all over 

[EBK]

That is hideous, yet beautiful (as long as you aren't trying glean information from it). 
!

[blackieNYC]

Eh, a fancy tube screamer is still a tube screamer.

[davent]

Reminds me of a couple books i have by Pete Frame, rock artist/band family trees. Beautiful incredible stuff i'd loose myself for hours in.

-for example first one i pulled off the net




A bunch more too small to read
https://familyofrock.net/the-trees/#ksp

dave

[Jdansti]

When people started drawing schematics on computers there was an era where they used too many sheets - to the extent where it was hard to understand the circuit.

I recently found this, it's an example in the complete opposite direction:
http://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/38933510/23432455/racal/racal-dana_model_9904_frequency_meter_a3_circuit_9-9-06.pdf_1.png
(BTW, this company designs high quality test equipment.)

Back in the day these things were draw by hand on a very large sheet.

I've got a Vero layout of this if you want it.

[greaser_au]

Back in the day these things were draw by hand on a very large sheet.

When I did work experience (in year 11 at high school - over 35 years ago) at an electronics company, I was marking up simple changes on fairly complex S100 computer card schematics for the draughtsman to update the originals.  The originals were on synthetic vellum, and I made copies for markup with a wide diazotype (I think) copier that stank of ammonia...   These were on  A0 sheets (841x1189mm = about 33"x47"). 

The company's PCB designer was also drawing on A0 sheets,  using a mixture of tapes and ink,  which they reduced to life size by photographic reduction for outsourcing to one of the local PCB fab houses.

It was only 10 years later I was using Protel Autotrax on a 286 PC (which needed a dongle for licence control) for drawing schematics and PCB designs at TAFE college.

david

[StephenGiles]

Reminds me of a couple books i have by Pete Frame, rock artist/band family trees. Beautiful incredible stuff i'd loose myself for hours in.

-for example first one i pulled off the net




A bunch more too small to read
https://familyofrock.net/the-trees/#ksp

dave

I have the first 2 of those books, both are fascinating reading - especially the Lord Sutch & Johnny Kidd trees. They are very cleverly drawn.

[duck_arse]

When people started drawing schematics on computers there was an era where they used too many sheets - to the extent where it was hard to understand the circuit.

I recently found this, it's an example in the complete opposite direction:
http://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/38933510/23432455/racal/racal-dana_model_9904_frequency_meter_a3_circuit_9-9-06.pdf_1.png
(BTW, this company designs high quality test equipment.)

Back in the day these things were draw by hand on a very large sheet.

the ghost of Q16.

[amptramp]

I prefer hand-drawn schematics.  The slight differences in pencil darkness and line thickness allow you to follow parallel lines a lot easier than CAD designs.  And CAD systems are a colossal pain to use whereas you can draw up a schematic a lot faster.  And digital / printout copying is not an advantage for CAD - you can load a hand-drawn schematic into a scanner and get a copy which you can store in a photo server like photobucket and use it just by calling it up as a jpeg.  I am glad CAD did not exist when I started in electronics or I would have picked another profession.

[Rob Strand]

I prefer hand-drawn schematics.  The slight differences in pencil darkness and line thickness allow you to follow parallel lines a lot easier than CAD designs.  And CAD systems are a colossal pain to use whereas you can draw up a schematic a lot faster.

I'm generally a calm person but there been times I felt like putting fist through the computer using some CAD packages.   The user interfaces are extremely poor and the only reason people become efficient at it is by using it everyday.  Perhaps like playing guitar using two fingers and a toe - you can do it but there's obviously a better way. The software is often full of bugs, the bugs never get fixed but new features get added every year for sales purposes. 

Yeah, smaller schematics are often quicker by hand but as time goes on my handwriting is getting harder to read.  Maintaining designs and revisions in a professional environment is much better with CAD.

[EBK]

I prefer hand-drawn schematics.  The slight differences in pencil darkness and line thickness allow you to follow parallel lines a lot easier than CAD designs.  And CAD systems are a colossal pain to use whereas you can draw up a schematic a lot faster.

I'm generally a calm person but there been times I felt like putting fist through the computer using some CAD packages.   The user interfaces are extremely poor and the only reason people become efficient at it is by using it everyday.  Perhaps like playing guitar using two fingers and a toe - you can do it but there's obviously a better way. The software is often full of bugs, the bugs never get fixed but new features get added every year for sales purposes. 

Yeah, smaller schematics are often quicker by hand but as time goes on my handwriting is getting harder to read.  Maintaining designs and revisions in a professional environment is much better with CAD.

I love the calm artistry of hand-drawn schematics.  Always loved the work of Forrest M. Mims III in those notebooks he produced for Radio Shack.  I think that is why I always do my schematics and vero layouts by hand in pencil.  It just feels right, more personal, perhaps.

[Rob Strand]

I love the calm artistry of hand-drawn schematics.  Always loved the work of Forrest M. Mims III in those notebooks he produced for Radio Shack.

When I was a kid I had a book from Radio Shack it had beautiful hand-drawn schematics.   I'm sure it's the same one you are talking about.  It was drawn on engineering paper with a course grid.  A pleasure to read.

[Ed:]
Found one:
http://www.rc-float-flying.rchomepage.com/RCWeb/PIC/alarm-circuit.jpg

[bloxstompboxes]

I love the calm artistry of hand-drawn schematics.  Always loved the work of Forrest M. Mims III in those notebooks he produced for Radio Shack.

When I was a kid I had a book from Radio Shack it had beautiful hand-drawn schematics.   I'm sure it's the same one you are talking about.  It was drawn on engineering paper with a course grid.  A pleasure to read.

[Ed:]
Found one:
http://www.rc-float-flying.rchomepage.com/RCWeb/PIC/alarm-circuit.jpg

I still have mine out in the shop somewheres.

[analogguru]

When people started drawing schematics on computers there was an era where they used too many sheets - to the extent where it was hard to understand the circuit.

I recently found this, it's an example in the complete opposite direction:
http://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/38933510/23432455/racal/racal-dana_model_9904_frequency_meter_a3_circuit_9-9-06.pdf_1.png
(BTW, this company designs high quality test equipment.)

Back in the day these things were draw by hand on a very large sheet.

I think you will love the oversized schematics of this unit:


http://www.emsrehberg.de/VIDEOSIZER/videosizer.html

I had to repair such a unit in the early 80's and still have the schematics somewhere.... Maybe you want to build a clone ?

I mean you can save a lot of money - the list price is € 40.000,--:
http://www.emsrehberg.de/Pricelist/pricelist.html