Albums as Cookbook revisited

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
I think it was up there for a while, but it is gone now. Is it possible to have a album only invited members can contribute to, but is available to view by the public? If so I'd like to start a 555 cookbook, just to start off and experiment with.

Here are the proposed rules:

1. All circuits must be verified, either personally or elsewhere on the net. First hand knowledge is preferred. These circuits must work. Links to sources in the captions are recommended.

2. Any circuit that has a credible challenge will be removed or modified. For this reason it is highly recommended no direct links to an entry is made on the forums, they can be reposted as attachments.

3. All entries must have a caption that has a thorough description of the circuit, no exceptions. The parts list may be part of the caption or the image, but it is also required. If these conditions are not met it will be removed or not accepted until these conditions are met.

4. Redrawn schematics are acceptable, as are legible scanned pictures of schematics. Legibility and accuracy is a must.

5. If entries are suggested by non invited members they should be made in the Projects Collection forum. If in the opinion of the mods or invited members they meet the above criteria and a request by the author is made they may be added.

6. Moderators and Administrators are the sole arbiters of what is acceptable. If a entry is challenged it will be discussed in the General Electronics Chat or The Projects Forum, not the Feedback and Suggestions.

----------------------------------------

This relates to and is a continuation of this thread...
http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=11651
 
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jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
The concept is appealing, as stated by others in the link. Cookbooks in chemistry (e.g., Organic Syntheses) have been around for years and are quite helpful.

One concept incorporated in Organic Syntheses is that every procedure has been verified (as you suggest), and the individuals who do the verification are identified. They are not authors, but they do have their reputations at risk.

Another suggestion is to require an image of the PCB, if used, and the completed project. Even if it is just a 555 on a PCB with some other parts, a clear image could be helpful to someone who was completely new to the field.

John
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
If they exist they could be added, but the flip side is most of these projects are breadboarded, either protoboard or other. I'm probably one of the few odd enough to draw breadboard layouts.

This does bring up another issue though, how do you link multiple images? My first inclination is to do it in The Projects Collection. The caption will allow you to link, so no problem there.

That added some changes to the proposed rules though, as I thought about it.
 

KL7AJ

Joined Nov 4, 2008
2,229
If they exist they could be added, but the flip side is most of these projects are breadboarded, either protoboard or other. I'm probably one of the few odd enough to draw breadboard layouts.

This does bring up another issue though, how do you link multiple images? My first inclination is to do it in The Projects Collection. The caption will allow you to link, so no problem there.

That added some changes to the proposed rules though, as I thought about it.

Do you mean "ODD" enough or "OLD" enough? :)

This is a great idea. Just be careful about copyright...since so many 555 circuits were published already.

Eric
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Just because they were published doesn't imply copywrite, though some designs will be a problem. The way around it (assuming it is not a unique design) is to redraw it. Most simple 555 circuits have been pretty well explored by now.

Other circuits will present somewhat a problem. We'll have to explore this as we go down the road.
 

KL7AJ

Joined Nov 4, 2008
2,229
Just because they were published doesn't imply copywrite, though some designs will be a problem. The way around it (assuming it is not a unique design) is to redraw it. Most simple 555 circuits have been pretty well explored by now.

Other circuits will present somewhat a problem. We'll have to explore this as we go down the road.

Though it's probably a fair bet that most of this would be in the public domain, it's best to check first. Though it's always been my philosophy that, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission", not all legal authorities agree. Most electronics writers are delighted to have their material re-distributed (with proper acknowledgment, of course). However, it's standard practice for electronics and other tech magazines to buy the material outright, and the publishers aren't always so generous. I've never had any problem with any magazine giving me permission to cite an article....but I've always given them the opportunity to refuse.

We should make EVERY effort to properly source the original material whenever possible.

Eric
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
What rules do you object to? The key to this is simple, the circuits must work. I have lots of junk in my personal albums.
 

leftyretro

Joined Nov 25, 2008
395
What rules do you object to? The key to this is simple, the circuits must work. I have lots of junk in my personal albums.
I don't object to any of them necessarily.

Just an opinion that with your suggested listed rules, procedures, and other subjective requirements that unpaid voluntary contributors might feel reluctant to have to have their contributions pass muster from a committee for final approval.

Certainly the proof will be in the pudding and only time will tell if your idea results in fruitful contributions. I certainly don't wish to discourage you from trying to implement a 'validated' projects album section and look forward to reading anything you might contribute.

Lefty
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
The thing is, we already have The Projects Forum for what you're talking about. This is meant to be of a higher quality.

I think you'll find some folks (like me) are willing to contribute.
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
I am relatively new to the world of Internet publishing; however, detailed rules and picky editors have not discouraged academic authors who are not paid (directly) for what they publish. The drive to see ones words in print has been compared favorably to sex drive in intensity -- at least by authors who have felt an editor changed too many of their words.

I felt the so-called rules were minimal and clearly needed to ensure function and reproducibility of the recipes.

John
 

leftyretro

Joined Nov 25, 2008
395
I am relatively new to the world of Internet publishing; however, detailed rules and picky editors have not discouraged academic authors who are not paid (directly) for what they publish. The drive to see ones words in print has been compared favorably to sex drive in intensity -- at least by authors who have felt an editor changed too many of their words.

I felt the so-called rules were minimal and clearly needed to ensure function and reproducibility of the recipes.

John
Well I guess we will have to see what the memeber's sex drive is around here ;)

Lefty
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Dr. Stranglove, yes, but I was 5 or so.

Leonard Nimoy, nope.

So what do you think of the albums idea?
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
OK, I've started an album to see how it might work here.

One thing that jumps out, which is relatively minor. There is no way to arrange the entries. Last in is first shown. Anyone know a way around this?

The first entry breaks the rules, but is still appropriate. Go figure.
 
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jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
That is a nice collection of circuits. Having the entries in some sort of order seems less important than having an index. Some of the individual items (like Electronics #2), which are actually smaller compendia, need indexes too.

Could the index be in a blog that users would be directed to first?

John
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
It is hard to index if you can't sort. The original Electronics albums were originally started to give me a place to put images so I could post them. I've since figured out a better way (see this thread). I thought it was interesting no one seemed impressed, but before I started using it I hadn't seen it here or any other site.

The albums have 3 big issues, with number 1 being a killer.

1. There is no save with replace. This means to update the image you have to delete the old one, which breaks any links.

2. There is no way to sort the images, which means they are scattered in any old order without any way to clean them up.

3. There is no way to find any links within AAC to see what images are used. This means you can't easily update links if they do get broken.


I already have an index on my blog. My general albums have a lot of duds, DOHs!, and goofs. Any album designated as a cookbook will be held to a higher standard. For this reason I really don't want people to link to those images, they will change to keep them current and corrected as needed.

The old cooksbooks I am using as my guide weren't that organized, except as a general sense. There may be better ways of doing this, I get the feeling Dave has a different mental image of what it would like.

I already see the need for some rule changes. This is a good reason to have the experimental area. If someone wants to add to it I'll be glad to do so, by linking to The Projects Collection forum and putting the schematic up on the album.

I think if/when I change the rules I'll do it on the album, and leave the orignal rules alone as a reference.
 
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jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
My concept was very simply a table with columns for Circuit Name, Album Name, and Date (posted). Other columns could be added, such as main IC/transistor or logic function. That table could be in your blog.

Of course, keeping it up to date would be a one-man effort (you :D). WordPerfect, and I suspect Word, allows one to sort such tables and even to search on words. Thus, in this simple version, Electronics #2 might have 23 entries that would be spread throughout the table, depending on how you sorted it, but still pointing to Electronics #2 on this date.

One question is how to sort and name each circuit. For chemistry that is easy, e.g., the empirical formula is used. I am not aware of a similar objective way for electronics. That is, the names given to circuits require a certain amount of knowledge to recognize and there is lack of uniformity in naming -- you might call something an oscillator; someone else might be looking for PWM, and so forth. So, you could add columns, such as the main chip, microcontroller, principal component (e.g., zener, etc.) that would help in narrowing a search for a reference circuit.

John
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
I'd rather draw em than sort em...

The old cookbooks of memory had indexes, but mostly they were circuits. The chapters were segregated according to types.

Went we stopped posting to the other thread we were at:

555 Circuits
Audio Amps
Audio Oscillators
Digital
Instrumentation
PICs and CPU
Receivers
Transmitters
Video

I need to go back through the old posts to see if there is some I missed. I seems to remember other conversations on the subject.
 
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