Beginner's Guide to Reading Schematics, Third Edition, 3rd Edition

3Component symbols

On a road map, symbols illustrate towns, cities, secondary roads, primary roads, airports, railroad tracks, and geographical landmarks. The same rule applies to schematic drawings; symbols indicate conductors, resistors, capacitors, solid-state components, and other electronic parts. Every time a new component comes out, a new schematic symbol is derived for it. Often, a new type of component is a modification of one that already exists, so the new schematic symbol ends up as a modification of the symbol for the preexisting component.

Tip

In this chapter, you’ll find most of the schematic component symbols commonly used in electricity and electronics. Appendix A contains a more complete listing in alphabetic, tabular form. ...