Junction Dot Conspiracy!

Asking all US Veterans to show @bobc that we do it that way to keep us all safe; and able to come back home still breathing.

I had a truck so full of manuals and schematics I scarcely had room for repair parts. Then we changed to computers. All that information and MORE was now available in less space than one of the binders. Today’s youngsters are adept with and prefer the small phone screen. Progress? Maybe. Inevitable? Probably.

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That device is not secure.
20 more…

This sounds a bit too US centric in an international forum… although I understand that people usually consider more than just technical merits of some approach, and it’s OK for me.

But I haven’t yet seen a better argument for not having dots in a schematic than that it’s annoying to see them there. Having dots and no 4-way junctions still seems the best solution to me if data integrity, unambiguousness etc. is concerned. KiCad allows hiding the dots but can’t (yet?) disallow 4-way junctions. Actually I would like to disallow 4-way junctions in my designs so that they couldn’t be there even by accident, i.e. that KiCad wouldn’t create them at all. Thanks to Sprig to bringing this issue into my awareness.

This discussion has been pretty much civil until now, but it’s going to slip towards military, and maybe it’s time to retire…

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I hope you stay active in this thread.

The United States military designated C-130 airframe variants have been used in many non-military roles; including humanitarian natural disaster relief missions.

I don’t see how having KiCad being able to provide the same quality of documents for the same complex systems is a bad thing.

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C-130 has some interesting engines. From what I understand the guy that designed the engines was pretty much a ‘Turing’ clone. Sad.

Still, like language, schematics and their presentation will continue to evolve. Those guys preferring the small screen WILL prevail. That’s the future.

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With an air force budget anything is possible.

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For me, it is more than both.

I have read your recent posts on the KiCad Bug Tacker. They were really well thought out, in my opinion. At the moment, they do not seem to have much traction.

When you find out that Altium already had such a feature, two(2) years ago, you might create your very own …Conspiracy! thread on the topic.

In the end, I wish you can have as many dots as you want; but I don’t want you to force your number of dots on me.

I just don’t know that I can agree; with what I know.

That stupid piece of paper that can be folded and requires no light emission management…

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Why not write a eeschema plugin that converts a 4 way junction with a ball, er dot, into 2 staggered T junctions with two dots. Just use if desired. Everybody happy, end of disputation, er conspiracy. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

I’ve had the privilege of flying on the NY ANG LC-130s (109th Airlift Wing). I was only PAX, but it is a fine aircraft. (Though the first time flying it was a little disconcerting watching the aircrew visually checking the landing gear (for hydraulic leaks?) after each take off…) But I quickly took the attitude of better safe than sorry.

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I never worked the C-130 launch procedure; or EOR protocol. But, your description seems normal to me.

" The benefit of not using Junction Dots is more readily apparent when using paper schematics in the field."
That is exactly where personal choice (and likely industry type) plays its part, to me it is exactly the opposite, years of working on equipment in the field and if I don’t see a dot I interpret it as no connection.
[edit] Just read Sprig’s comment about oil splatter, now there is something I never had to deal with and I can imagine how it would cause problems. Not much oil in mainframe computers and remote telemetry stations.

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There are still coffee spills and such. :sunglasses:

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I understand that KiCad users make up a very rapidly growing community group. KiCad, requiring to be on a screen, means that this community has very likely not have much experience with the use-case of printing the schematics onto paper to use off screen.

There are also some issues that @eelik has taken notice of because this topic was not taken as seriously as it could have in the past.

I don’t think the US-military will start to re-enter all schematics for all their equipment, just to print it out and cover it with oil speck just at the right places.
Furthermore, I bet that there are well defined procedures what to do with printed schematics in case there is even the slightest doubt about readability. On top of that, I bet that the aviation industry doesn’t allow private copies of a schematic to be used. There is a single instance that hands out schematics and that is responsible for their current state (revisions and readability).

Mimimimi

Nick

Hi, wish to say thank you all again for an outstanding program. I just use to draw technical type diagrams and only use a fraction of a percent of its capabilities.
Lean toward print out and do use junction dots and cross-overs as much easier dealing with mechanics with limited electrical knowledge. When I buckled down to learn I redid my existing schematics and recreated my custom library from scratch.
Not sold entirely on screen versions for example some equipment we worked on had beautiful 2’ x 3’ color printed schematic which we just stuck on side of machine with blueprint magnets. Had same schematic as pdf and spent all time zooming in and out and scrolling. Just a personal preference.
Example below shows one (yes some crossovers are in different directions and when I opened file to change the text was blue. Took while to figure out clean install OS and forgot to change the color preferences.:grinning:)

That stupid piece of paper that can be folded and requires no light emission management…

and does not require batteries

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Hey that’s great. I did not know that I could adjust the size of the junction dots. Now I can make sure that I never miss them.

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I am more interested in having twisted 1206 chips to fit on warped boards.