Connector pins on schematics

[Joel Kolstad]

I've noticed that many newer schematics just show a labeled "box" such as
"J1-2" to designate a connector pin (John's "load cell input circuit" on ABSE
is a good example). Historically it seemed as though -- while it was common
to have "off page" connectors with, e.g., a net name such as "MClk",
eventually you made it to a drawing of, say, a DB-9 connector as one single
entity.

I can see the utility of these "broken apart" connectors -- it's certainly
faster for the guy entering the schematic -- although I've liked being able to
see from the schematic what sort of *physical* connector I should be looking
for on a PCB (e.g., DB-9, double-row header, etc.) as well.

Anyone have their own opinions on this? I think I'm trying to convince myself
that the "broken" connectors are the way to go and that I really won't miss
having a physical connector shown.

---Joel

 

[Peter Bennett]

On Wed, 8 Nov 2006 11:14:39 -0800, "Joel Kolstad"
<JKolstad71HatesSpam@yahoo.com> wrote:

I've noticed that many newer schematics just show a labeled "box" such as
"J1-2" to designate a connector pin (John's "load cell input circuit" on ABSE
is a good example). Historically it seemed as though -- while it was common
to have "off page" connectors with, e.g., a net name such as "MClk",
eventually you made it to a drawing of, say, a DB-9 connector as one single
entity.

I can see the utility of these "broken apart" connectors -- it's certainly
faster for the guy entering the schematic -- although I've liked being able to
see from the schematic what sort of *physical* connector I should be looking
for on a PCB (e.g., DB-9, double-row header, etc.) as well.

Anyone have their own opinions on this? I think I'm trying to convince myself
that the "broken" connectors are the way to go and that I really won't miss
having a physical connector shown.

---Joel

I normally show the physical connector as one piece - but the
schematic symbol may just be a box with numbered pins - no attempt to
draw a picture of the real thing.

However, particularly on larger connectors, I'll just draw short wire
stubs and put net names on them, with other short wires with
corresponding net names elsewhere on the drawing, rather than actually
wiring the connector into the circuit.



--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca