Re: Computer programmers' habits in electronics

"Ignoramus10397" <ignoramus10397@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:gyXpf.43110$Yb5.6502@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What I am worried about is that if I try to do something involving more
than say 20 wires, I would run into a wall and that electronics is not
the same as computer programming.

So, I am curious if anyone can relate and tell me either just how
mandatory drawing is, and how to get accustomed to it, or how they
make things without detailed plans.

A simple answer trivializes both. So I'll trivialize... Prototyping in both can be quite similar. It doesn't matter much whether you start by diagramming, or diagram by coding class heirarchies. Likewise, maybe it doesn't matter so much if you start by slapping a few ICs onto a breadboard. I find it easier to start with the schematic, if only to keep from having to count pins more than once.

Moving the prototype to production or finished product is vastly different. You can't just scan or xerox your breadboard to reproduce or version it. With software, just keeping the redundant copies or old versions under control can be a problem. For both, the task is trivial when the prototype is the finished product.

There are a lot of other similiarities and differences. Both make use of recurring patterns (eg. Colpitts; envelope; h-bridge; observer). Many times, it's a matter of simple plumbing, connecting commode A to sewer B, and matching impedances along the way.

I can go on, but don't see a need. Simple problems have simple solutions. Simple solutions don't require much thinking or planning. By extension, complex problems have complex solutions, and require more thought and more planning. At some threshold, you have to start scribbling down details to keep track of them, if only to avoid answering the same questions over and over again.

I arrive now at the inescapable conclusion that breadboarding even a small circuit is not at all like building software. With software, I can just pop over to the header and check the semantics of a function call. The reference material is all right where I'm working: sitting at the keyboard. Diagramming a circuit can be the same, only simpler, because even crappy tools will keep track of which pin is what. What are my choices when I'm hunched over a breadboard?

Take a look at Eagle http://www.cadsoftusa.com/. The free version will meet your needs for quite a while, I think. You can even layout a double-sided PCB if you want to take things beyond breadboarding.

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