drawing schematics on the puter

[Jim]

I have been fiddling with drawing schematics on the puter. I have no
knowledge of even the basics of CAD stuff, I'm a real beginner here. A real
Elmer Fudd. All I want to do is throw a few components together with a few
lines. Very few at this stage )
Does anyone know of a free basic program that will let me draw up, say a
basic 555 timer circuit etc ?
Yes I do have too much time.........NOT.

Cheers
Jim

 

[John Crighton]

I have been fiddling with drawing schematics on the puter. I have no
knowledge of even the basics of CAD stuff, I'm a real beginner here. A real
Elmer Fudd. All I want to do is throw a few components together with a few
lines. Very few at this stage )
Does anyone know of a free basic program that will let me draw up, say a
basic 555 timer circuit etc ?
Yes I do have too much time.........NOT.

Cheers
Jim

Hello Jim,
a chap called Tery Pinnell has looked into a lot of these
programs. Some are free.

Here is Terry's home page with lots of good stuff.
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/terrypin/indexpersonal.html

Here is Terry's ECAD list
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/terrypin/ECADList.html

Terry has a fondness for a free one called
Circuitmaker 6 student version. The company
that made it are slack but Terry and other devotees
are on a self help mailing list/group.
[email protected]
For circuit maker 6 free student edition go here
http://www.microcode.com/
Terry is on the ball with sorting out the many problems
with this program. Even though the program is full
of faults there is a bunch of faithfull followers out
there in internet land.

I got interested in switch mode power supplies and
installed switcher cad III
http://www.linear.com/software/
I found it difficult to buy (cheaply) the LT devices for
the power supply circuits that it would magically draw
up for you, when you fill in a form with your power supply
requirements. Since I can't get the parts cheap, it is of
limited use to me for power supplies.
What I am leading up to tell you is that, this program
is used often by other people on other groups to share
circuits. So it is handy for that purpose alone, just to
view another posters circuit diagram.

I am feeling a bit guilty here Jim, because if you follow up
on my suggestions you are going to use up several hours
of your time downloading and learning to draw a 555 with
a few a few wires attached and you could have done it
far quicker with pencil and paper.
Oh well, it is only a hobby and all good fun!

Regards,
John Crighton
Hornsby

 

[Jim]

I am feeling a bit guilty here Jim, because if you follow up
on my suggestions you are going to use up several hours
of your time downloading and learning to draw a 555 with
a few a few wires attached and you could have done it
far quicker with pencil and paper.
Oh well, it is only a hobby and all good fun!

Regards,
John Crighton
Hornsby

Hi John, many thanks for that. I appreciate it. So much to learn and even
then it seems a bit hit and miss. You're right about the pencil and paper,
sooo much easier. Not as dandy as a printed one. But trying to zap up a
small pcb would probably be a nightmare.
I'd leve it as a rainy day project except that the rain is a bit light on
this year )
Cheers
Jim

 

[John G]

Hi John, many thanks for that. I appreciate it. So much to learn and even
then it seems a bit hit and miss. You're right about the pencil and paper,
sooo much easier. Not as dandy as a printed one. But trying to zap up a
small pcb would probably be a nightmare.
I'd leve it as a rainy day project except that the rain is a bit light on
this year )
Cheers
Jim

10:00am Friday The Parramatta River is over the banks at Church St
Parra.
And the ferries are stopped due to too much water.

 

[Jim]

1.pm Currumbin Valley QLD..... 17 heavy drops of rain.....least I think it
was rain....it was wet.......

 

[Spajky]

I have been fiddling with drawing schematics on the puter. I have no
knowledge of even the basics of CAD stuff, I'm a real beginner here. A real
Elmer Fudd. All I want to do is throw a few components together with a few
lines. Very few at this stage )

if you have installed MS Office package & no need to do any automatic
routing for PCBs, so just a picture of a schematic (when made), you
could use PowerPoint to do it & later use some proggy for screen
snaping to export it as a *.gif or *.jpg picture.

Well you would need to do first a file with drawings of components, so
you could do than using copy/paste components to actual schematics
drawing easily. I did it this way years ago & still do it for
schematics for my site, IMHO they look nicer than made with some
appropriate CAD program ... (check the site for pics)

If that is enough, mail me for a sample file(s) ...

 

[Albm&ctd]

I have been fiddling with drawing schematics on the puter. I have no
knowledge of even the basics of CAD stuff, I'm a real beginner here. A real
Elmer Fudd. All I want to do is throw a few components together with a few
lines. Very few at this stage )
Does anyone know of a free basic program that will let me draw up, say a
basic 555 timer circuit etc ?
Yes I do have too much time.........NOT.

Elmer, I find a cheap pad and a pencil do it just fine. What's to know
about a 555? It's been around for such a long time. I hand draw my
PCB's and have found the cheap and readily available newsagent uni
paint markers are as good if not better than a Dalo pen.

Al
2004 insult page awaits your contribution
http://kwakakid.cjb.net/insult.html
*Inept dysfunctional descendants of Sloths*
are setting ridiculously low speed limits

 

[Albm&ctd]

1.pm Currumbin Valley QLD..... 17 heavy drops of rain.....least I think it
was rain....it was wet.......

Not far from me at Elanora, so you should be
frightened at this point
I'll take the bike for a run tomorrow, even the mention of it can
cause rain.

Al
2004 insult page awaits your contribution
http://kwakakid.cjb.net/insult.html
*Inept dysfunctional descendants of Sloths*
are setting ridiculously low speed limits

 

[Alex Gibson]

I have been fiddling with drawing schematics on the puter. I have no
knowledge of even the basics of CAD stuff, I'm a real beginner here. A
real
Elmer Fudd. All I want to do is throw a few components together with a few
lines. Very few at this stage )
Does anyone know of a free basic program that will let me draw up, say a
basic 555 timer circuit etc ?
Yes I do have too much time.........NOT.

Cheers
Jim

rather over the top for a 555 curcuit
but a electronics cad package that has a free version
Eagle for windows, linux and macosx

http://www.cadsoft.de/freeware.htm
http://www.cadsoft.de/download.htm
from download page there are links to user projects libraries etc


superspice
http://www.anasoft.co.uk/ has a demo version
models here
http://www.anasoft.co.uk/links.html

Alex

 

[Joe in Bendigo]

Spajky,
you may not have noticed that Powerpoint can save as .jpg all by itself! I
use it all the time to do simple line graphics adn then save them as
JPEGs...
Cheers.
Joe