SCHEMATICS

SCHEMATICS are a map of an electronic circuit. They are generally read from left to right, top to bottom, with diagram following the flow of energy through the circuit starting from the battery and flowing towards the output, which will be a speaker for our projects. Since we are going to be reading a lot of schematics, it's important to understand how to read them. Im going to redraw most of the schematics I find on the internet (and eventually draw my own schematics) to keep them consistent with how I best understand how to read them.

The various components on a schematic are labeled in the order that the current flows through them. For example, the first resistor passed will be labeled R1, the second will be R2. Every schematic has a COMPONENTS LIST to go with the schematic. This is the detailed list of parts (and shopping list!) that functions as a schematic key explaining what each component is.

Here are a few basic symbols that will be included in every schematics for my project:

This symbol represents the battery. My eventual goal is to have my oscillator powered from a 9V battery adapter, but for many of the earlier projects I will be using an actual 9V battery. The positive wire from the battery clip is red, the negative wire from the battery clip is black.

Wires are represented by straight lines. Wires may overlap on the schematics, but they are only connected if a dot is placed over the crossing point.



This symbol represents the speaker or output signal. On some of the schematics Ive been finding, they just write output, but this is confusing since every electronic component has two wires (a positive and a negative) and I want to know where the other wire goes. It usually goes in the ground. My eventual goal is to have a 1/4" output from every device, so I can connect it to an amplifier, but since I am constrained by what I know in the beginning, my early outputs are a 3.5mm audio connector, or 1/8" output.