Wikipedia:WikiProject Electronics

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A pentium MMX processor

The aim of this project is to better organise information in articles related to electronics. This page contains only suggestions, with the hope to help other wikipedians writing high-quality articles with the minimum effort.

1 Scope
2 Subpages
3 Guidelines for articles in Project Electronics
4 Drawing circuits
- 4.1 Using vector editor and prepared components
5 Tables of standard symbols
6 Featured article nominations
7 Joining
8 Project members
9 Templates
10 Sister Projects
11 Pages needing attention
- 11.1 Engineering

[edit] Scope

This WikiProject aims to provide a standard style for writing articles about electronics. The field of electronics is the study and use of electronic devices that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles in devices such as thermionic valves and semiconductors. Many subjects are closely related to electronics: telecommunications, biomedical, design and construction of electric and electronic circuits, hardware design, etc.

All these subjects are considered to be related to this project. In the future we may restrict the scope if the project grows too large, and sister projects about these other subjects may be split off.

[edit] Subpages

Assessment
Task list of all the tasks the members are currently working on. Here is the place to suggest the modification/creation of a new article, to propose merging two articles, etc.
Standard symbols
Categories

[edit] Guidelines for articles in Project Electronics

When writing about electronic devices and related topics, some questions to consider are the usual

Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?

questions (not necessarily in that order) ie

Who made the first one/invented it?
Who were the rivals in the development phase?
Who wants/uses it?

What is it?
What did we use before it was invented?
What is/was the social effect of it?
What seems likely to succeed it?

When was it developed/thought of?
When was the first one made?

Where did it come from?
Where was the work done?

Why was it necessary?
Why did it take so long?
Why was it not discovered/made/invented earlier?

How does it work?
How was it developed?
How big/small/powerful/costly is it?
How does/did it affect the environment?

Once these questions are answered, you will find that you have a baby article!

[edit] Drawing circuits

One of the main parts when writing an article about electronics might be drawing of a circuit. At the moment, there are several pictures showing electronic components around wikipedia, most of them from Commons. Anyway, paying attention to them, it will be clear that anybody used a different programme to draw them, getting different quality. Moreover, a lot of them did not use a specialised programme, so they had to draw all the components from scratch, starting from simple lines and circles. Normally in these cases the output quality is very high, but the time to make them must have been very long.

Because of these reasons, this project has to propose a standard to be used to draw circuits, suggesting tips or whatever, in order to get the best possible quality with the minimum effort. First of all, let us start from a sort of "wish list", with the list of all the feature this programme should have:

It must be free and open source: this is the way wikipedia is, and so must be any programme wikipedia suggests.
It must be multi-platform: in order to be proposed as a standard, anybody must be able to use it. The programme has to run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
It has to be able to export in SVG: the SVG is the format that was proposed by wikipedia for diagrams. It provides the best quality at the minimum space.
It has to have a big standard collection of electric/electronic components, with optionally an extensible library: this way it will not be necessary to draw components from scratch, and, just in case, it will be necessary to do it just once.
It has to help the schematic drawing by a grid or something like this: if it does not give the possibility to "hang" the components to a grid, it will be hard to make a precise drawing
Connections should be better than just lines. They should attach to components, default to right angles, move when the components are moved, autoroute around objects, and so on.
It should be part of a complete, easy to use, drawing package, not just for circuit diagrams (though a 'circuit mode' might be good). Vector drawing has long been a weak area on PC's (British Acorn computers had 'Draw' in ROM which was excellent, leading Acorn users to draw a lot more because it so was easy and they didn't have to decide which program would be best to use).
It should have Bezier curves to allow the creation of good audio curves, since most weighting curves are specified by points, not by an equation or circuit model.

At the moment, as far as we know, there is no programme satisfying all these points. Anyway the members of the project made a list with several programs that have been used for drawing circuits on Wikipedia. Any program has a short comment and an example of its output; this list is in its on page: programs for drawing circuits. The only way to get a circuit in SVG format without drawing everything from scratch is using Xcircuit; for more info see How to draw SVG circuits using Xcircuit.

[edit] Using vector editor and prepared components

electrical_symbols_library.svg

An example of a schematic drawn using this image

There is an image on commons specially intended to help drawing SVG circuits simple, fast and flexible. Just open this image in any common vector editor (e. g. Inkscape), copy, place and join the components as you wish. This technique produces nice and small SVG images. Except for 6th it achieves all the wishes mentioned above.

When drawing, it is recommended to

use grid snapping (the components are designed to be snapped to a 1 mm grid)
make all connection lines 0,5 mm thick
properly mark the joints with the dot (to distinguish them from cross-sections)
use the font "12 pt sans-serif" (or similar)

Feel free to extend the component list and to upload a new version.

[edit] Tables of standard symbols

In order to keep a consistent layout layout between different articles related to this project. We created some tables with a list of standard symbols. Here is the first (and most important) of those tables, you can find the others on their own page. Please use them.

Symbol	Meaning	SI Units of Measure
$\ f \$	frequency	hertz (cycles/second)
$\ \omega \$	angular frequency	radians per second
$\ k \$	wave number	radians per meter
$\ \lambda \$	wavelength	meters per cycle
$\ T \$	period	seconds per cycle
$\ n \$	refractive index	dimensionless
$\ c_0 \$	speed of light in vacuum	meters per second
$\ c \$	speed of propagation	meters per second

More...

[edit] Featured article nominations

[edit] Joining

In order to join us just add you signature at the bottom of the list in the next section. Joining will not affect your status on Wikipedia, it's just a way for us to know each other, to know other people that is interested and is working in the same topics as you do. If you have questions to ask, guidelines to propose or whichever else that might be related to the topic of this project you are welcome to discuss it on the project page; if you join us we well know you are concerned about it. After you have joined the project, if you edit any article please follow the guidelines we have already chosen and add the right template on the talk page. You don't have to: nobody will ever check whether you are actually doing it, but, since we have been working on it, it makes sense to use it now!

[edit] Project members

Please don't forget to make new members welcome by leaving a message on their talk page.

Alejo2083 I started this project. I am a sound/broadcast engineer.
Omegatron Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (concentration in signal processing and communication systems). Employed in the field of audio recording and live sound equipment. Interested in pretty much everything else.
Light current If you cant beat em, join em! (Ex Electronics Eng now just a student of the universe and WP editors!)
Alfred Centauri
mako EE undergrad; will try to help out when not too busy.
Snafflekid Analog power IC design engineer.
Krishna Vedala ETC under-undergrad. I only give (and take) nominal shocks unlike electrical engineers.
HappyCamper Statistical signal processing, digital communication systems - you name it!
Oli Filth 4th-year EE student; especially interested in comms. Only just joined Wiki, so still getting used to editing...
Alphax EEE student.
McCart42 BS in computer engineering, minor in electrical engineering, working on MS/PhD in CAD/EDA, currently working on SPICE acceleration.
r b-j middle-aged EE with some experience in audio, DSP, and academics.
mak17f PhD student in EE. Experience with pulsed power, power electronics, ferroelectricity, and plasma physics.
Nippoo Fairly experienced in "raw" electronics and audio ideas.
Adam1213 Experienced in electronics.
Cadmium 17:18, 22 December 2005 (UTC) Radio ham who has been interested in electrical/electronic things since about 9. I will help out on radioequipment if asked to (if I can get the time)
Terry King OldTime Broadcast Engineer, Broadcast Journalist, Photographer, Engineer and Software Designer at IBM, now teaching High School Robotics, and Photography. I am used to explaining technical things to non-technical people. Terry King 00:01, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
Bennyboyz3000 (talk)-Very experienced with everything picaxe and programming and well, eveything :-). High-school electronics teacher.
Mystic Pixel EE undergrad (almost done!) working in broadcast engineering, interested in a wide range of EE topics, and enjoys explaining them.
KPWM_Spotter Ameteur in electronics, with experience from FIRST Robotics.
Geljamin
minorproblem EE specialising in control theory, and intrested in audio electronics on the side, have been running private IEEE student society wiki for about 2 years and may port some articles.
Jidan EE student. Can I join in? jidan 03:08, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I guess this means yes :) Jidan 07:24, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes sorry of course you can. All projecte members must have been too busy to greet you! anyway welcome. Have a look at the Task list for things to do!--Light current 07:11, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

jmclark911 Now what?
TristanJ I'm a third year electrical engineering student and a 2nd year physics student at the University of Calgary. This looks like a worthwhile cause! --TristanJ 18:12, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

WhiteFlye Newly minted electrical engineer looking to help spread the knowledge! Whiteflye 17:47, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Dbackes Computer Engineering student/electronics enthusiast.
Wser Student
Jerome Baum Student with an IGCSE in Physics (A). Taking it for IB.
Macsdev 23:50, 8 September 2006 (UTC) hi guys, i am doing my final year, electronics engineering in India.. can i join? - Mahadevan
Danilo Roascio I'm in :). 5th year EE student in Politecnico di Torino (Italy). Always glad to help if I can.
xCentaur EE undergrad student. I'd love to help out whereever I can :>
Ogunjosam: Physics/Electronics undergraduate. Loves anything electronics
Ambroody amateur Electronics buff!
SdjindEE Undergrad Student, India
zido EE student.
Srinivasasha Electronics and Communication engineering student
Adambro 2nd year BEng ECE Student
NightFalcon90909 - Still in high school but love electronics and will help out in any way I am able.
FDominec student (CTU - lasers).
Joel Wigton B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering: digital, analog, MEMS. Great project! Will contribute when I can.
Joe I Hey, I have a few years knowledge of military avionics. :) Joe I 04:09, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
Tom Electronics Student
Anh Tran PhD Student in ECE
Geolly undergrad student in ECE till April 24 2007
Indica MSc student in experimental physics
J. D. Redding

Please add your name ABOVE this notice. If you do not receive a personal welcome all project members must have been too busy to greet you! Anyway welcome. Have a look at the Task list for things to do.--Light current 07:11, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Templates

What to type

What it makes

What it's for

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	This article is part of WikiProject Electronics, an attempt to provide a standard approach to writing articles about electronics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
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