What the books don't tell you?

[duck_arse]

It hurts my brain when other people claim not to be able to read a schematic. I mean, it's not like learning to read a book. It's just a few symbols that look more-or-less like the real thing does! So what's the difficulty?

one of the reasons might be the number of circuits that are presented in the mechanical, instead of the electronic. a drawing of an 8 pin IC with "555" on it does not convey much about the internals, and some of us are too lazy to memorise the pin functions. same goes for "386", same for switches drawn as a square w/ 9 "connections".

[merlinb]

a drawing of an 8 pin IC with "555" on it does not convey much about the internals, and some of us are too lazy to memorise the pin functions.

Well I don't memorize them either (except for opamps, which only happened by accident because I use them so often). But as long as the legs have the pin numbers written on them, you just refer to the data sheet to find the corresponding pin on the phsyical chip. It's paint solder by numbers, literally!

[R.G.]

It might help for beginners to attack this like a computer game. There is this thing you want to accomplish. You're presented bits of data that are possibly incomplete, but no one tells you they're incomplete or what is missing. The idea is to ferret out any miscellaneous bits that can be added together to let you get to the next level... er, finish the pedal and get it working.

This forum is a compendium of cheats for the game.   

[Johan]

A schematic and a layout are basicy two sides of the same coin.  It's a representation of a circuit drawn in a way that suits the purpouse.

The schematic is the map, as Paul put it,  and is there to show what is going on.   And when people can't read schematics, they basicly say they don't know what the parts do

The layout is about real estate. How to connect the dots in a way that takes up little space and does the job but is usually too cluttered to show what's going on

If you know what the parts do, there is no reason you could not read a schematic.  If all you want is paint by numbers and don't really want to know how something works, use a layout.

It's a little sad though that it seems more people and more people aren't inserted in learning but only paint by numbers. I guess that is just the way any community like this grows over time. But ten years ago The forum was schematic driven and people discussed each others ideas and designs much more than today. Today it's layout driven and if you want someone to try you ideas/designs,  you have to give them a layout a sound file a link to a YouTube clip and preferably a ready made kit...I'm becoming a cranky old man. 
J