How to Read a Schematic

Contributors: jimblom

Overview

Schematics are our map to designing, building, and troubleshooting circuits. Understanding how to read and follow schematics is an important skill for any electronics engineer.

This tutorial should turn you into a fully literate schematic reader! We'll go over all of the fundamental schematic symbols:

Then we'll talk about how those symbols are connected on schematics to create a model of a circuit. We'll also go over a few tips and tricks to watch out for.

Suggested Reading

Schematic comprehension is a pretty basic electronics skill, but there are a few things you should know before you read this tutorial. Check out these tutorials, if they sound like gaps in your growing brain:

• What is Electricity?
• What is a Circuit?
• Voltage, Current, Resistance, and Ohm's Law