Circuit diagrams, aka schematics, are line drawings that show how a circuit’s components are connected together. They serve as a map or plan for assembling electronics projects, and they are easy to read — far easier than understanding how the circuits they describe actually work.

This is an important point: You can read and successfully build from a schematic diagram without understanding the circuit.* Schematics are also readily available for countless easily-buildable electronic devices. Do you hear that? That’s the sound of freedom. Schematic diagrams are made up of two things: symbols that represent the components in the circuit, and lines that represent the connections between them. Let’s start with the connections, since that’s easier.

Created by Infinite Skills. Published 9/. In this Adobe Premiere CS5 for Beginner's tutorial, expert Phil Hawkins teaches beginning video editors how to use Adobe Premiere to create excellent videos. Phil Hawkins makes learning this robust video editing software program easy, fun and simple to follow from step to step.

Circuit diagrams depict a perfect world where wires and other conductors do not interfere with one another and have no resistance of their own. If a line runs between components, it means that they are connected, period, and it tells you nothing else. The connection can be a wire, a copper trace, a plug-socket connection, a metal chassis, or anything else that electricity will run through without much resistance. Messy details like wire or cable specifications and routing, if they are important for a project, belong elsewhere in its documentation. The length of a line also has nothing to do with the connection’s actual distance in real life. Schematics are drawn (ideally) to be clear and simple, with components and connections arranged on the page to minimize clutter, not to represent how they might be placed on a circuit board. Lines represent connections, but where two lines cross, it doesn’t necessarily designate a 4-way shared connection.

Schematics distinguish between unconnected paths that happen to be drawn with lines crossing each other, and junctions where the line crossings designate a shared connection. The most common way to make this distinction is to put a dot over the line intersections that indicate connections, which means that any line crossings without dots are all unconnected. The other method is to assume that plain crossed lines do connect, but draw small “jumps” at wire crossings where there is no connection.

As a corollary, a three-way intersection always means a three-way connection, even without a dot. Some people follow the dot drawing rule with 3-way connections and others see no need, because there’s no reason to draw a connection to nowhere. In addition to the lines used to show connections between components, schematics use special symbols to show connections to different types of power and ground. Canon Ir1023n Driver Windows 8 on this page. A power or ground symbol may appear in multiple places on the schematic, but it always means a connection to the same place or conductive object. Power connections are also often shown without any symbol, just a label indicating the type of voltage, e.g.