Best process to learn how to read schematics

[larcenasb]

For any electronics engineers, like the title says, what would you recommend a total beginner do? I'm really curious to learn, but got a little overwhelmed watching a couple YouTube videos on it. I think it would be fun to understand circuit designs better and maybe try putting it to use by making the pretty simple Millett Starving Student headphone amp. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Paul Birkeland]

Understanding circuit design is completely separate from being able to read a schematic, which is also somewhat separate from creating a layout off a schematic. 

I would suggest you try to build the starving student on a piece of plywood with inexpensive components just to get the hang of things.  There are a lot of mistakes to make along the way and doing that with a prototype mock-up is less painful than reworking something you've put a lot of time and money into.

[larcenasb]

Thanks, PB! That sounds like a good, sensible first step before the final build. I hope to work on this during weekends. Thanks again!

[BenjaminSmith]

If I understand you correctly I am currently doing exactly this process. As a mechanical engineer who doesn't recall his 38 years-ago EE classes so well it's been an arduous journey. I'm in the final throes of completing my first project, a CX-371a preamp. I would recommend buying and reading two excellent books: Valve Amplifiers by Morgan Jones and Merlin Blencowe's Designing High-Fidelity Tube Preamps. Skip Rozenblit's Tubes and Circuits. Understanding the building blocks of schematics (resistors, FETS, etc) is paramount to understanding how they all fit together. Then, as Paul said, build a kit. And build some more kits. Let others do the heavy lifting of design and spec'ing parts, just build to familiarize yourself with the processes. Then pull a reasonable schematic off the web and be prepared for a couple months of pain trying to implement it and sort it out

Best luck!

[larcenasb]

Thanks, Benjamin!

I've heard of that Morgan Jones book somewhere before, seems to be highly regarded. Looks like my local public library has an eBook version available! Okay, I'm really excited to do some reading and studying now. First though, I'm going to finish watching this video on YouTube by Blueglow Electronics called "Understanding Vacuum Tube Amplifier Schematics - Basics - Part 1".

After going through both of these resources, I'll try Paul's suggestion of a low-cost Starving Student build on plywood. I feel good about this plan! Thanks again, PB and Benjamin. I really only have weekends to focus on this, but hopefully I can report back and update you.

Good luck to you, Benjamin, on that CX-371a preamp! If there are any gold nuggets of info you've learned during this learning process, please don't hesitate to share! Cheers!

- Lowell

[Joe Garfield]

I've learned a TON from Uncle Doug on YouTube. He has lots of great videos and is a former teacher:

[Thermioniclife]

I second Uncle Doug. He is multi talented. Building on a board is a good way to design and make changes before committing to a permanent chassis. Just be careful as there are lethal voltages easily touched if not careful. Use one hand when using a VOM and keep the other in your back pocket.

[2wo]

Thumb tacks, that's brilliant

[Paul Birkeland]

When you build stuff on plywood, it's a lot easier to see what catches on fire too.