User suggestion: standardize schematic components

[oliver-phet]

Delighted to see the circuit builder released on the PhET app, we have this on every school iPad - hundreds of them!

One tiny request please, that might be quite easy to add. We are based in the U.K. We, and virtually the whole world, use the IET (internationally agreed) standards for circuit symbols. As the app doesn't use very many, it should be easy to add a setting where you can choose between US symbols, or IET ones.

Details here... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_symbol

The problem for us is that pupils already have to try hard to learn the symbols they need to know, to have to learn an entirely different set of symbols is a little unfair.

Thank you, though, for an incredible app that just keeps getting better!

[arouinfar]

@oliver-phet Iooking at the user's link, we are using standard circuit symbols. Perhaps their concern is that we are using the American standard for resistors? The resistor symbol we are using is ANSI/IEEE, and the IEC (international standard) is somewhat different.

CCK	Electronic Symbols

I don't think this is something we are likely to change. We could potentially have an IEEE/IEC radio option in the Options menu, similar to what we did for dipole conventions in MolPol:

[oliver-phet]

I just replied to the user, and I'll update once I hear back.

[oliver-phet]

A similar request received into phethelp:

This is not a real problem, more the wish for another feature.

Outside the US most countries use the electronic symbols according to
the international standard set by the IEC. It would be great if it would
be possible to select the Symbols for resistor (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistor#/media/File:Resistor_symbol_IEC.svg
) and
lamp (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_symbol#/media/File:Lamp_symbol.svg
)

Ohterwise: You are doing a great job!
Thanks a lot!

[oliver-phet]

Another reply from the original user:

Further to my email below, as the Wikipedia article suggests “The number of standards leads to confusion and errors” – indeed it does, hence my email.

Standard circuit symbols taught in UK schools can be found on page 24 of this examination board specification:

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/physics/specifications/AQA-8463-SP-2016.PDF

I’ve just loaded the PhET app to check which ones are the issue.

The British Standard 3939 contains these symbols, which I’ve snipped below:

https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/346763/view/standard-electrical-circuit-symbols

The confusing ones for UK students are just the light bulb and resistor (or anything else purporting to be a resistance, e.g. dollar bill (UK version could have five pound note!))

The addition of an LED and/or a diode to the circuit construction kit would be AMAZING.

I note that when in circuit symbol mode, any voltmeter and ammeter in the circuit remains represented by the orange coloured graphical representation, rather than changing to the standard A or V symbol in a circle. This would be a great feature please.

[samreid]

Co-assigning @ariel-phet since this might be a good task for Isam.

[arouinfar]

1/9/20 design meeting

• Options menu with radio buttons for IEEE & IEC, settable by query parameter e.g. ?schematic=ieee
• @arouinfar will make a table of components in each style
• Isam will likely be working with @samreid on this.

[samreid]

Self-unassigning, please reassign me when the table of remaining components is ready.

[arouinfar]

@samreid @ariel-phet it looks like these are the primary differences in the IEEE and IEC standards.

Component	IEEE	IEC
Resistor & grab bag items
Bulb
Fuse

It seems like the coil-like inductor is a deprecated symbol, and IEEE and IEC both use the symbol currently in master. Both standards are behind a paywall, but CU has access to the IEEE standards. I've uploaded a copy of the IEEE standards to the CCK sim design folder.

[samreid]

@ariel-phet or @kathy-phet or @arouinfar is this feature (query parameter and in-sim option) important for next week's dev release?

[kathy-phet]

No - its not a priority.

[oliver-phet]

Another email received 3/10/2020:

I am a physics teacher from Slovenia and I am wondering if you are thinking of adding to your simulation the possibility of choosing electrical symbols for Europe, which differs in certain parts from US (lamp and resistor)?
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab/latest/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab_en.html

My suggestion is that you could also add EU symbols to the picture below.

[samreid]

At today's design meeting, we agreed to go ahead with this. Let's do it as a cherry-pick maintenance release.

[samreid]

The proposed fix is in master, @arouinfar can you please test and verify? I'm also seeing some layout issues in the carousel in master--we will make sure those don't affect the branch.

[arouinfar]

@samreid the schematics, Options dialog, and query parameter are all looking good in master.

I'm also seeing some layout issues in the carousel in master--we will make sure those don't affect the branch.

The carousel is looking pretty wacky right now. I'm seeing lots of holes. Should you publish an rc version on the 1.2 branch to verify before proceeding with the MR? (Or maybe just a dev version if you can do it on the 1.2 branch.)

[samreid]

Yes, we'll publish an RC for the MR.

[arouinfar]

@oliver-phet can you forward me the user's email so I can let them know when we publish the maintenance release?

[samreid]

In phetsims/phetmarks#48 @jessegreenberg remarked that he is in the process of making a maintenance release--I'll need to coordinate with him.

[oliver-phet]

User email forwarded.

[samreid]

Here's an RC for "DC": https://phet-dev.colorado.edu/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc/1.2.1-rc.1/phet/circuit-construction-kit-dc_en_phet.html

and for "VL": https://phet-dev.colorado.edu/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab/1.2.1-rc.1/phet/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab_en_phet.html

@arouinfar can you please test? If they seem good, I'll run a production release.

[arouinfar]

@samreid looks good!

[samreid]

Deployed: https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc/latest/circuit-construction-kit-dc_en.html
Please wait for the build-server to complete the deployment, and then test!
After testing, let the simulation lead know it has been deployed, so they can edit metadata on the website

Deployed: https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab/latest/circuit-construction-kit-dc-virtual-lab_en.html
Please wait for the build-server to complete the deployment, and then test!
After testing, let the simulation lead know it has been deployed, so they can edit metadata on the website

@arouinfar does any metadata need to be changed?

[arouinfar]

Everything's looking good and there wasn't any metadata to update. AP's also tweeted about the new feature a few times too.