Re: How do you design a circuit?

On 2 Jun 2006 05:32:40 -0700, in message
<1149251560.070285.287610@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "ku7485"
<ku7485@xxxxxxxxx> scribed:

This might be a dumb question to some. I've been reading a lot about
electronics, but never find a good piece of text that properly tells
about how to design a PRACTICAL circuit. I've seen some basic examples
such as connecting a LED, resistor, and a battery and using Ohm's Law
to determine to right resistance, but that's about it. I never have
heard why an engineer explain how they built their own circuits and why
they chose these parts. We'll anyway, I'm just wondering how people
are able to design.

It's a better question than you think. A lot of people get engineering
degrees, every year. They really don't teach design in college, though.
They give you some of the tools you will employ. To design requires
mentoring and knowledge of the system that you will be designing for.

I've seen a group of graduates with no real experience, outside some
software testing, try to design a complex, integrated automatic test
equipment test station. They relied on *one* experienced engineer for
guidance, and soon abandoned his guidance because he was telling them
things they didn't want to hear. The project was a dismal failure.

On the other hand, with an infrastructure set up with a solid
plan-design-build scheme laid out, with different and experienced engineers
at each stage, with reliance on knowledge of the system being built for,
some extraordinarily complex projects can be completed in short order, with
all the parts melding smoothly into place with apparently little effort.
The effort is put forth in careful planning up front and execution of the
plan without undue variance. A good team makes hard work look easy.

Choosing parts is some of the most difficult work. It takes a lot of study
of requirements and specifications, dedication and attention to detail.
Part of the reason the "dismal failure" I mentioned previously went so
badly, is that the inexperienced engineering team spent little if any time
studying the specifications of the equipment, layout and wiring of the
system they were replacing. Thus, much of what ended up being purchased
did not make a good fit with the existing equipment. They were arrogant.
They thought they could make up for hardware mis-matches by making
short-cuts in the software. They were wrong.

.

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