BEGINNERS:: Why are Fritzy diagrams so unpopular?

Community General Discussion
1

Pretty diagrams convey almost zero circuit principles or diagnostic information.
They’re fast and easy to produce, but give nothing back.

This is why a properly considered circuit schematic diagrams and overall block diagrams have existed for over fifty years, and haven’t really changed in their objectives.

This isn’t being pedantic, you’ll appreciate it when you begin to assemble the project, debug and maintain functionality in five years time..

As you work toward completion, accommodating revisions that you discover, write out a ‘theory of operation’ that explains how the software and hardware are supposed to work together as a complete system.

If you’re confident, annotating ‘test points’ and expected values will help your son or daughter diagnose the system in ten years when it fails, or needs to be replaced.

2

I have moved this out of the Introductory Tutorials category because it does not meet our standards for that curated category.

You are welcome to work to develop this into something that qualifies as an introductory tutorial and I will be happy to re-evaluate it once you think it is ready.

Your use of the personal jargon "fritzy" is very counterproductive. How can you expect a beginner to understand what you are talking about if you don't use a standardized term? If you aren't communicating a message to the target, it is nothing more than a rant.

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3

I'm surprised this doesn't get mentioned more often:

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4

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say.

Are you saying that diagrams drawn with Fritzing, Tinkercad, Wokwi and the like are totally useless and in no way help a beginner understand basic electronics?

5

@lastchancename did say "almost".

So no, not without some value. How much may be a matter of opinion. And age: life too short.

The sheer efficiency of one person producing a "real" schematic compared to all of us taking more time than it should to read a pretty picture is my argument and justification for asking him or her to do.

a7

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6

Newbies usually have no idea how to draw a schematic. Many have no wish to learn. They only want answers. Asking for a schematic is micro- aggression. So I ask for a schematic or circuit diagram and have to live with what I get. Or move on.

7

Timeless is the ASCIImatic


  +----------------------------------------+
  | +------------------------------------+ |
  | |  ===========                       | |
  | | | ARDUINO  |            =======    | |
  | | |          |     SERVO |DROPsrv|   | |
  | | |       D10|->---------|PWM GND|---+ |
  | | |          |           |    +5V|---|-+
  | | |          |            =======    | |
  | +-| 5V       |     SERVO |PICKsrv|   | |
  +---|GND    D09|->---------|PWM GND|---+ |
      |          |           |    +5V|---|-+
      |          |            =======    | |
      |          |         +-------------|-+
      |          |         |  =========  |
      |          |         | | TSC3200 | |
      |          |         +-|VCC   GND|-+
      |       D08|-----------|OUT    OE|-+
      |       D07|->---------|S2     S1|---+
      |       D06|->---------|S3     S0|-+ |
      |          |            =========  | |
      |       D05|->---------------------|-+
      |       D04|->---------------------+
      ============
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8

Thus, circuit diagrams were transmitted via RTTY on short wave.

9

And is more readable than a great number of fritz pictures.

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10

Is there a way to make those faster then just typing(very slow typist here)?

11

I found two good, online, GUI ascii diagram drawing sites... they both let you drag connectors, save the drawing, and no account needed...

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12

When you go to the Fritzing download page you see this:

IMG_0833
IMG_0833780×1525 245 KB

This looks like it contains a way to create a schematic. I’m not going to spend $10 to find out but does anyone know if Fritzing provides a way to create a schematic?

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13

Save the money and just use a pen and a piece of paper. That's how the Egyptians did it too. :smile:

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14

Right, and I still have some of my early schematics I did on papyrus :grinning: but the topic was Fritzing and I was curious if there was a way newbies could use it to produce real schematics.

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15

Fritzing does allow the creation of a schematic.

16

Until Omar ibn Al-Khattab saw a Fritzy...

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17

Thanks for the info. It would make sense to suggest that to newbies along with the other options. Is it smart enough to take the breadboard view and turn that into a schematic and vice versa?

18

I find the clay hard to work with and sort of messy as well.

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19

It will take work to get a readable schematic from the breadboard view unless one is incredibly lucky.

I really like the schematic sketcher from ExpressPCB. It was free when I downloaded it years ago. It is easy to learn and easy to make your own parts (for the schematic). I tried Eagle and KiCad, but Express Sketch was much easier to learn if all you want is a schematic. I never used the PCB design part so can't speak of that.

image
image1342×494 4.23 KB

An example from Express Sketch with user created parts (tiny85 and WS2812 pixel).

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20

That was the first non-commercial PCB software I used. I found it quite useful and at the time 3 boards for $99 was a deal. I’d probably still be using it sometimes if I had any other reason to keep a Windows box around.

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