Are There Schematics of Consumer Electronic Equipment on the Web?
Well, yes and no. You are searching for the Holy Grail. Everyone is, but it isn’t going to happen on a large scale – at least not for free. Schematics are copyrighted by the equipment manufacturers who sell them as part of their service manuals or license them to organizations like Sams Technical Publishing (Sams’ Photofacts) and others. • If you reverse engineer – trace – the schematic of a piece of equipment from the unit itself – and can prove it – and then make it available at your Web site, that is probably legal. You’ll have a hard time proving it though for something like a TV or VCR. • However, if you scan a service manual or Sams’ Photofact and make that available at your web site, you may eventually find yourself in court. For schematics from original service literature of obsolete equipment, the chances of the manufacturer wanting to spend a lot of money on lawyers is small but for newer equipment, they may indeed – or just to make an example at your expense. A scanned Photo
