Your schematic collection

[Rodgre]

I spent most of yesterday trying to reorganize my schematic collection and I'd say I'm about half done. It's ridiculous the amount of great information I have gathered over the years from books, magazines, and mostly the internet/this forum!

I've been collecting them since I first ready Electronic Projects for Musicians back in the mid-80s. and I've printed out nearly every schematic I've found on the internet (okay, I'm a little obsessive.... is that so wrong?)

So I started to wonder how the rest of you organized your schematics. Do you store them all on your computer? Do you print them out? Do you organize them in any way?

I've got a half dozen 3-ring binders full of prints of schematics, and I'm trying to decide the best way to organize them according to circuits. It is a little obsessive, but I feel that once it's done, it will be so much easier for me in the future.... you know, as long as I keep it organized

I also store everything I've gotten online on a couple of hard drives and a few backup discs (I think I make a backup disc of schematics once a month or so)

Lately, I've found that I only print out what I want to work on right now, and keep the files on the computer. I try to organize those files as well.... a folder for Distortions, inside that a folder for MXR type circuits, a folder for Big Muff style circuits.... etc...

It's a mess, but I'm trying.

I've felt bad in the past when people have posted asking for some old schematic that I knew I had somewhere.... but wasn't sure which binder it was in, and didn't have time to look through all of them.

Roger

[mikeb]

I used to keep stuff on paper, but threw out that idea (literally!) a couple of years back.... all my stuff is on my PC, and backed up every month or so. Everything is organised by manufacturer, except for synth circuits which are organised by module function. If I want something on paper for easy or bed-ready analysis I print it out, then reuse the paper for doodling later. Simple, but it all works for me!

Mike

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

The stuff I save is in a messy heap in my computer (rather like my house & my life :oops: ) all that saves me, is that I always add a keyword to the filename as I save it (eg RINGMOD or ENVFOL) so, provided I use the keywords consistently, there is a chance I can get it back.
I also have a couple of filing cab drawers from a few years ago when I used to photocopy stuff from mags & print out stuff, definitely much handier, but I couldn't afford the paper & ink at one stage and stopped.

[Mark Hammer]

At present, the disk partition I use for storing downloaded tech info and related material is about 3 Gig full.  It breaks down as follows:

soundclips - 416meg
pictures of equipment - about 100meg
material related to synthesizers and keyboards - 830meg
all amplifiers, including guitar amps, headphone amps, hifi, etc., - 218meg
datasheets - 300meg
all electronic percussion and guitar synthesis - about 40meg
technical documents (how stuff works), tutorials and scanned books - just over 50meg
all guitar and non-amp, non-synth electronics - about 760meg
waiting to be filed - about 250meg

To be fair, a lot of it is duplicates, or unnecessarily long pdf files printed from the browser.  Files are often stored with names that do not end up with two or more copies of the same schem placed adjacent to each other in the thumbnail listing, so I have duplicates and triplicates I haven't noticed.  I try to trim them, but when you end up with several hundred files in a given directory it's easy to lose track.

For effects, my directory structure is as follows:

Major categories - Delay & Reverb, Distortion & Overdive, Dynamic control, Filter-related, Mixers, Modulation, Noise reduction & surround, Octave up and down, Preamps and buffers

Delay and reverb has two subdirectories under those headings.
Distortion and overdrive is divided first into commercial and diy subdirectories.  The commercial directory is subdivided into commercial makers and general.  The diy subdirectory needs....a little work.
Dynamic control is subdivided into duckers, dynamic processors of the rackmount variety, envelope-control, noisegates, and stompbox compressors.
Filter-related is divided into envelope-controlled filters, wahs, EQ, fixed filters & cabsims, and exciters.
Modulation is divided into flangers and chorus, phase shifters, and trem+ringmod.  Phase shifters is further divided into univibe files and everything else.
The rest are simply single directories.

All newly acquired files are stored in TEMP.  That way, if I want to scan for duplicates, I can simply delete all same-named, same-sized files in TEMP that are found in TEMP and elsewhere.

Could be better, but it works for me.

The same cannot be said for the mountains of paper.  I used to have reasonably well-organized bindersd according to effect category, but you end up taking out a project here, an article there for, uh, priority reading in the office, and eventually the thing becomes disorganized.  There are easily 10 or more binders.  Fortunately, some of them like the photocopied books, remain intact.  Unfortunately, there must be 80 copies of the damn Dynacomp distributed over several binders and several rooms.

I like having the electronic access, since it allows me to respond to questions easily, or compare circuits when I have a question myself.  AS well, If I have some concerns about the integrity of a board, it is nice to be able to call up a PC mask, enlarge it, flip/mirror it to suit the view I have of the physical object, and check traces for solder bridges.  Couldn't do that with paper.  At the same time, if I'm perfing something, being able to hold a paper copy and NOT have the damn computer on with the fan buzzing for hours on end, is a blessing.

[mojotron]

Many years ago, when I was an electronics tech in the military - and fiddling with DIY effects/amps... - I used to run across some really interesting circuits (tons of multivibrators and audio amp circuits) and I tried to analyze everything.... when I thought I had figured it out I would tuck my notes away and forget about it for a while.

Then, a few years later, I went to college and got an EE degree. This was a very different experience - instead of seeing each schematic I would analyze as a something really cool it got to the point where all I saw was blocks of mechanical steps that someone stepped through to produce a circuit that did "X"... Not that I was no longer really excited about circuits, effects and amps... but a lot of the mystery was gone... And, I threw away a lot of my notes that I had - which I now think was kind-of arrogant actually  :oops:.

Now, that I have worked as an engineer long enough to realize that I have forgotten way more then I actually remember, and have learned that everyone is someone I can learn from... I now realize that some circuits are just simply more complex then their component count or age would indicate - I tend to save things to disk now, but always the schematics with some analysis of what was interesting... a lot of datasheets on Ge parts too... That way, if I don't get back to the schematic for a while, I can kind-of re-start where I left off. I wish I had time to put together more of a filing system - I usually just make a directory for the type of effect, then the nickname for it, then a ton on directories for all of the WWW pages I saved about that circuit. But, this method of organizing things makes it tough to set things up - like WWW pages... - for other people. I think I am getting better at this, but I really need to find a consistant method of documenting schematics and organizing them - because I think the analysis is at least as important as the schematic itself.

[Khas Evets]

I organize mine like Mark. I was going to do it by manufacturer, but I find it more useful to have similar circuits side-by-side. I incorporate the mfg name into the file name so I can search for that. His headings are smarter than mine. If you're starting from scratch, use those. I broke out modulation into chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, etc., which isn't always that clear (Ibanez chorus/flanger e.g.).

[StephenGiles]

Basically, an absolute shambles in my case. I have several piles of circuits, some collected 25 years or so ago, mingled with stuff I have downloaded and printed out. Lately I have been saving stuff I download in separate folders on my D drive (away from windows) on similar lines to Mark and maybe I'll gradually sort the rest out...........
Stephen

[ian87]

my schem collection consists of a bunch of paper in a drawer and google. mostly google.  

[Ge_Whiz]

Jeez, I wouldn't trust anything as important as effects schematics to a computer. Dink, lost forever.

No, I print 'em out and stick 'em in two full box files. Volume three just starting. Also easier to append notes and scribbles than on a computer.

[ExpAnonColin]

Mine is organized, and comprises of, the DIY archives from EA, plus a seperate folder for "Non-site", basically stuff people ahve asked not to be on the net.

To Mark:  How much of the synth, guitar, etc, is there that you, or other people, would be uncomfortable having extra copies on the net?  Becuase I'd be more than happy to host what would be useful.  As far as datasheets go, I would be more than happy to host it all in the archives, if you could get it to me via CD or even email... I say that because generally datasheets are treated as free info, while schems are more touchy.

-Colin

[R.G.]

Indexing is always a problem, especially over years.

[brad]

I keep my schematics on a 124mb USB memory stick.  However, I recently went through it and deleted all those "just in case" schematics that I'm not really interested in building...but saved them er, just in case.  Now my collection only consists of schematics relevant to the direction of my interests.  I've started printing out the schems I'm most interested in as well.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I'm astonished at how many people keep web addresses & think it will "always be there". Sure the web is like the worlds biggest library... if you consider that half of it is burnt down each year.:shock:

[brett]

Because the paths to buried schematic "treasures" disappear, I print out *everything*, and file it in a filing cabinet at home.  Having a partially photographic memory helps because I can visualise what things looked like, which leads me to the various sections in my filing cabinet - "Tonepad", "GGG", "RG's Tech of the..", "Fuzzcentral", etc.

Here at work I have high-speed internet, so I can dig out datasheets, etc as required.

[ExpAnonColin]

Sure the web is like the worlds biggest library... if you consider that half of it is burnt down each year.:shock:

That's an excellent quote

-Colin

[toneman]

i should B burning a CD, or 2 , of my schemo archives instead of typing this.
:shock:
4sure, i should be backingup my tax info on a CD....instead of typing this.
:shock:  :shock:
nice hard drive
nice hard drive

[Gilles C]

I have the same problem of having too much info and not enough time to classify them.

I have a lot of schematics that I printed to be able to work on them. That includes schematics that are not available anymore on some sites.

So it's a luck that I printed them because I lost some of these files in a few computer crashes/upgrades...

What I began to do is store them in the PDF format in place of printing them. And I make a backup of them from time to time.

I also began to make Flip-Books of schematics. I like to be able to look at them as if it was in a book. I must be too old to change.  

I want to scan the papers I have to keep them only in pictures.

I still have a lot to do before everything is easy to browse (I just started to do that), but it seems to be the way I like my things organised.

Oh, and normally, they are separated as R.G., AMZ, Aron, GGG, etc... folders.

Ebooks, that's the way to go... at least for me.  :wink:

Gilles

[mikeb]

I'm astonished at how many people keep web addresses & think it will "always be there". Sure the web is like the worlds biggest library... if you consider that half of it is burnt down each year.:shock:

Ahhh ... maybe there are some people out there who occasionally (once a year or so) take a mirror / dump of interesting sites ... you know, just in case ..... .... there's WinHTTrack for example ....

Mike

[puretube]

watching drawings on the screen makes me & my eyes (and ears) mad...
want it all on paper:



most of this partial archive view is pre-internet stuff...

[rubberlips]

BTN (Before the net) I used to photocopy schematics and have ended up with stuff from that I'll probably never even have time to build. These are all in foldered pretty much ordered under preamps, poweramps, effects, filters and pretty much any other topic you could find. Then can ATN.

So many schematics to build. Basically I just download and put them under manufacturer as theres only a few of the really good ones that I wanted to duplicate pedals. But I also put under DIY people with original schematics such as mark hammer, RG, general guitar gadgets etc. Even stuff from their site will go under manufacturers if it['s not theirs. As long as you make a descriptive file name you can find it. Also makes it easy to find duplicates (which I still have a few of)

I lost a lot of what i had when I moved jobs. I had gigs of the stuff and damn floppy disks crapped out in between the transfer but I had most of it on paper.
These days I only print out what I'm going to built as always I'll generally have to debug for some reason or other.

Pete