On Oct 25, 5:41*am, sorry-spammers ""w9wi\"@(sorry-spammers)" wrote:
Yep, this is an off-the-wall question.....

Paging through an old QST, it dawned on me that when schematics are drawn, usually the earliest stages are drawn on the left side of the diagram. *The
speech input circuits for a voice transmitter; the antenna coupling and RF preamp (if any) for a receiver, etc., all seem to be drawn on the left.

In the tube days at least (and to some degree with solid-state homebrew today) we seem to build the actual equipment the same way: the earliest stages
are physically on the left side of the gear.

Of course, in Western culture we also read and write from left to right. *I suppose we learn to look for the beginning of a story on the left side of
the page.

And of course, in some other cultures, people read and write from *right to left*.

When people from these cultures become involved in radio, do they draw schematics (and build gear?) in the same direction Westerners do? *Or do they
work "backwards"?

--

Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View, TN *EM66

I don't know about how other engineers from other cultures think about
schematics and how they should be drawn, though I suspect that they
are biased more by the idea that schematics are a whole different
"language" than their native written language. Those engineers I have
known from cultures where the written language "goes" in a different
direction than mine still seem to draw schematics pretty much like I
do.

These days, I use computer programs to capture schematics, and they
support multiple page hierarchy. The result is that I try to keep
functional blocks on the same "page," but the order of the pages is
not necessarily consistent from one project to the next. The left-to-
right flow on a page is strongly influenced by the fact that symbols
for parts like transistors and amplifiers that have an "input" and an
"output" all come in with the input on the left and the output on the
right. I have to rotate or mirror the symbol to have it go the
opposite direction. Sometimes I indeed do just that: for example,
I'll draw a differential amplifier stage with one transistor in the
native orientation, and the one to its right in the mirrored
orientation.

I wonder if anyone would complain if I made a point of drawing a whole
schematic package "backwards" with inputs on the right and outputs on
the left... and maybe make things flow more from bottom to top...

Cheers,
Tom

K7ITM wrote:
On Oct 25, 5:41 am, sorry-spammers ""w9wi\"@(sorry-spammers)" wrote:


Paging through an old QST, it dawned on me that when schematics are drawn, usually the earliest stages are drawn on the left side of the diagram. The
speech input circuits for a voice transmitter; the antenna coupling and RF preamp (if any) for a receiver, etc., all seem to be drawn on the left.

For me, I draw schematics left to right mostly because I'm right-handed
and don't want my hand to smear the fresh ink or pencil lead across my
pretty picture

Scott
N0EDV

On 20 Nov 2009 15:54:49 GMT, Allodoxaphobia wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:25:27 -0700 (PDT), Tim Shoppa wrote:
On Oct 25, 9:41*am, sorry-spammers ""w9wi\"@(sorry-spammers)" wrote:
Paging through an old QST, it dawned on me that when schematics are drawn, usually the earliest stages are drawn on the left side of the diagram. *The
speech input circuits for a voice transmitter; the antenna coupling and RF preamp (if any) for a receiver, etc., all seem to be drawn on the left.

In the tube days at least (and to some degree with solid-state homebrew today) we seem to build the actual equipment the same way: the earliest stages
are physically on the left side of the gear.

In the 70's I was befuddled by a bunch of schematics from England that
I had to decode. I came to the conclusion that they were hard to read
because they drive on the wrong side of the road over there. But
really they were just using (by my standards) some odd symbols or odd
line thicknesses oddly placed. In my experience the choice of odd or
unconventional or even just different symbols is a far bigger barrier
to schematics between different cultures than any left-to-right bias.

Many old TRF schematics went left-to-right and then right-to-left.
This was done, I believe, to make it all fit on a 'standard' sized sheet
of paper. The antenna input was in the upper left -- with the RF
sections runing on towards the right. Just before, or just after, the
diode detection, the signal path would drop down the righthand side of
the schematic and then audio section(s) would run left-to-right.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
sigh... . . . . . . . . . . . . Of course I meant "right-to-left".

Jonesy

"K7ITM" wrote in message
...
On Oct 25, 5:41 am, sorry-spammers ""w9wi\"@(sorry-spammers)" wrote:
I wonder if anyone would complain if I made a point of drawing a whole
schematic package "backwards" with inputs on the right and outputs on
the left... and maybe make things flow more from bottom to top...

I would hope someone would mention it in your next design review. I have a
couple of circuit books where the author spend a few pages mentioning how
there is a marked difference in the understandability of schematics based on
how they're drawn, particularly for things like differential pairs which, as
you mentioned, people "expect" to be facing one another.

It seems like your employer decided that all power buttons should go on the
lower-level corner of equipment as well!