why aren't electronics schematics trade secrets?

D

Dan Jacobson

Guest
Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
 
"Dan Jacobson" <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote in message
news:87wtw0skw2.fsf@jidanni.org...
Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
Click to expand...
oh but they ARE closely guarded....
ever tried finding schematics created by companies ?
try for instance finding a schematic of any gsm
(except in service manuals of course....)

and the hard part is also stringing them together thereby thinking further
as just principles, about as hard as creating parts if you try to do it
right
 
Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote:

Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
Click to expand...
At least 97% of the production use very common circuit solutions, usually
copied directly from from the application notes from the manufacturer.



--
Roger J.
 
In article <Xns95B3F395E45C786336@130.133.1.4>,
Roger Johansson <no-email@home.se> wrote:

Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote:

Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?

At least 97% of the production use very common circuit solutions, usually
copied directly from from the application notes from the manufacturer.
Click to expand...
Anyone remember the days before VLSI took over (60's and 70's), when the
manual for just about every electronic device included a wiring diagram?
I remember seeing this in televisions, transistor radios, and even some
early calculators.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
 
On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:52:13 +0800, Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
wrote:

Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
Click to expand...
Mine are. And you can't get a schematic any more from Tektronix or
Agilent or most anybody big. Probably not for a cell phone or any
serious automotive controller.

John
 
I remember forty or so years ago, we got a stereo and the schematic
was actually pasted on .....
Click to expand...
I disassembled several radio-gramophones when I was a child.

Big furniture floor types and slightly smaller desk models.
Those radios usually had many shortwave bands, and anything from 1 to
6 tubes, and often a circuit diagram inside.

What surprised me were the ingenious half-mechanical solutions which
showed up in those radios.

One was using a piece of cottom string to pull a coil further away from
another coil, changing the degree of magnetic coupling between them,
probably changing the characteristics of a filter.

Another was a lever to move which moved a metal foil on top of another
metal foil, a variable capacitor. Movable coil cores to change the
inductance, etc..

Today we see very little of mechanical movement in machines, we hardly
have real switches anymore, just plastic buttons which move half a
millimeter. And all circuits which needed mechanical movement have been
replaced with full-electronic variants.

The last to go in consumer electronics was the variable capacitor in
radios.



--
Roger J.
 
The circuit is protected by Patents.

"Dan Jacobson" <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote in message
news:87wtw0skw2.fsf@jidanni.org...
Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
Click to expand...
 
On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 20:11:37 -0500, "DAW" <davew@joink.com> wrote:

The circuit is protected by Patents.
Click to expand...
---
Yes, and the schematic is protected by copyright, so anyone who wants
to copy the schematic or the circuit can't?
---

"Dan Jacobson" <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote in message
news:87wtw0skw2.fsf@jidanni.org...
Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
Click to expand...
--
John Fields
 
because one can make the same FUNCTION with different component/schematics


"Dan Jacobson" <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote in message
news:87wtw0skw2.fsf@jidanni.org...
Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
Click to expand...
 
On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:52:13 +0800, Dan Jacobson wrote:

Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
Click to expand...
They are. It's just that you never see them. If they published them, they
wouldn't really be secret, now, would they?

Cheers!
Rich
 
"hotkey" <adennel@jeack.com.au> wrote in message
news:41b9a782$2_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
because one can make the same FUNCTION with different
component/schematics
Click to expand...


"Dan Jacobson" <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote in message
news:87wtw0skw2.fsf@jidanni.org...
Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?
Click to expand...
Our mainframe computer used to have a microfiche reader with boxes of
microfiche containing all the schematics of the boards and backplane,
power supplies, disk drives, tape drives, etc. These were all marked
trade secrets by the maker of the mainframe, and were only supposed to
be read by the field techs.

So the answer to your question is that just because you don't believe
that electronic schematics are closely guarded trade secrets does _not_
mean they don't exist. For the obvious reason, that trade secrets are
meant to be just that: a secret. Duh.
 
On Thu, 02 Dec 2004 22:20:34 -0500, Barry Margolin wrote:

In article <Xns95B3F395E45C786336@130.133.1.4>,
Roger Johansson <no-email@home.se> wrote:

Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote:

Just curious why electronics schematics aren't closely guarded trade
secrets. Is it because the hard part is making the parts, not
stringing them together?

At least 97% of the production use very common circuit solutions,
usually copied directly from from the application notes from the
manufacturer.

Anyone remember the days before VLSI took over (60's and 70's), when the
manual for just about every electronic device included a wiring diagram? I
remember seeing this in televisions, transistor radios, and even some
early calculators.
Click to expand...
I remember forty or so years ago, we got a stereo and the schematic was
actually pasted on the inside of the cabinet, right alongside the tube
chart. The only tube types I remember seeing are 12AX7. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top