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

I have not been thru the whole book, but so far it's great.

Push through the first chapter and you wont have to hear anything else about road maps. I feel like all the people complaining about the persistent road map analogy probably didnt end up making it past the first chapter. HOWEVER, if you're looking for theory, this is not the book for you. I'm an avionics Technician by trade, and I wanted to brush up on my knowledge - mostly on theory though. My mistake was buying a book that was not titled "electrical theory", so that's on me. The book is awesome though, and the author is a huge dork that makes pretty lame jokes, which is very enjoyable. He definitely explains how to read schematics, but does not explain (or at least very little) the theory behind how the circuits work. Additionally, dont be fooled by the length. The last chapter is just a plug for another one of the author's books - which I find to be a bit of a slap in the face. Like, I paid for a book with 6 chapters, what I got was a book with 5 chapters and an advertisement. Lame.

good read

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO READING SCHEMATICSThe book starts out simple, but over simple in chapter1, which for me is ok. I m a slow reader, so simple is good. Mr. Gilibisco is very thorough in his teaching and writing style, you think he really wants you to learn how to do this. Book gets into more complicated circuits in later chapters.Book is well laid out and the spiral edition lays flat on the table surface so that makes it easier to hold place if using while looking at a circuit. A little pricey, but an asset for a beginner.

Looks like the book was written originally in 1991, then reissued with light updates. It's written by an old school ham operator who clearly has a thing for vacuum tubes and discrete transistor circuits, and is mostly interested in analog electronics. It was dated for 1991, it barely covers ICs. That's cool if you want to learn to fix vintage electronics from the 50s to 80s with point to point wiring or single-sided circuit boards with acres of discrete components, stuff that's actually meant to be serviced.I would have liked if it went into more depth in explaining how the circuits actually operated. A bit of theory too. As it stands, this book will pretty exclusively teach you how to read a schematic, and only very basic schematics at a minimal level. It won't scale to even help you understand a transistor radio circuit, never mind a discrete color TV circuit. I would have appreciated if it at least offered a practical, schematic-based introduction to exploring a large system and navigating within it.

How many authors take the time to make a comprehensive video series that presents and supports their entire book? Stan Gibilisco does just that with the third edition of Beginning Guide to Reading Schematics. Both the book and video series start with an explanation of what is involved in understanding electronic schematics. Block diagrams, component symbols, simple circuits, and complex circuits are all chapter titles. Each of these subjects is dealt with in an easy to read (and view) format. I have read the previous versions of this book and Stan has rewritten many sections, redrawn all the schematics, and included a new section that explains how each circuit works. Combining reading with viewing the YouTube videos will give a beginner as well as an "old hand" a new understanding and appreciation for electronics! I built the test board in the "Let's learn by doing" chapter and completed all the experiments. I found this great fun and recommend that all readers try them. Yes, there are nice videos supporting this section of the book too! All in all a great book and video series that I give five stars! Well done Stan!!(Stan also has videos supporting his other books at sciencewriter.net. Check them out!!!)

I read the whole book and it's great! I mean, I've read mostly Navy Avionics schematics and a few schematics for components I've dealt with in flight simulation. So, my reading level is kind of limited. That's why I bought this book.The reviews of the previous Beginner's Guide to Reading Schematics were great. So, I was expecting big things. What I found was that the 3rd edition does a phenomenal job of explaining how to look at schematics. Gibilisco compares a schematic to a map and by using that analogy he really pulls together an understanding of how to generally follow a schematic. That's my favorite part of this book. It's also a great reference for illustrated components you might find common to most schematics. But the book doesn't go into detail of how to understand the functionality of components through reading a schematic. Toward the end of the book you are given an opportunity for hands on applications that I'm sure help better understand schematics. I didn't do these but I could tell by looking at the exercises and the required hardware that they were limited in scope. One day I will spend the money and do the exercises but no matter, I will still be missing a large portion of understanding that was hoping to get from this book.

This must be one of the best written books I've ever come across in general! The syntaxis, the use of everyday stuff as examples... I originally bought it to help me translate schems to layouts faster (which was the only feature least covered, for more complicated schems that is), but nevertheless this guy SERIOUSLY LOVES his job! Just in case anyone you know, "hates" electronics, this book will convert them. Some reviewers say "basic stuff" and blah blah blah but believe it or not, even though I know my electronics symbols, and have years of practice as an amateur tech who fixes all his friends' and family devices, reading through this book helped me relax and gave me more confidence for some reason. If you speak and write English, now you can LEARN the electronics' "tribe" language too!Kudos sir!

I have purchased this book because of very good review rating. But, I have been strongly disappointed by its structure and level of detail in explanation of reading schematics. I would not recommend this book to any beginner in the field of electronics. It can be strongly discouraging.I consider myself an intermediate in reading and building of electrical circuits. That means, I am able to understand functionality and meaning of simple circuits and build some of the too. In practice, I am using book ,,Practical electronic for inventors,, without large difficulties. Despite of this, I am struggling with reading and understanding of more complex circuits. Therefore, I have seen this book as an opportunity to overcome this drawback.First two chapters are devoted to philosophy of reading schematics and block diagrams. I have to admit, that these chapters have been the most beneficial for me. The third chapter familiars the reader with symbols of the most common electrical components. So far so good. The chapters four and five are devoted to reading the schematics of the circuits. From simple ones to more complex ones. The approach of the author is based on the ,,follow the flow of current,, rule. This chapters should have taught the reader how to read the schematics and should have made him confident about explaining of their functionality. After reading of these two chapters I did not learn anything. On the other hand, I was feeling that If I were a beginner I would not understood anything about functionality of the more complex circuits. The reason is, that the author uses the ,,follow the flow of current,, rule. But that approach lacks the main point : The current flows only through places, where is a voltage. Therefore, in my opinion the voltage analysis should be considered first and the current is only consequence of its presence. In order to make this analysis seriously, it requires knowledge of basic properties of all used components. This means for example voltage drops on all leads of the transistor. Nothing like this is mentioned as far as I remember. These are the details, that are missing and disable the reader to understand thef functionality of the circuits properly.In chapter five, the author shows quite complex schematics and uses a bit advanced components like bipolar transistors and bridge rectifiers. In order to keep reader confident about using these components, there should be at least a few examples of their usage alone. But there are none. There should be as well much larger emphasis on analysis, at which circumstances a transistor opens and when it closes. Especially in the example with the oscillator on p. 99.A last nail to the cough is chapter six. The author familiars the reader with Kirchhoff`s laws. I consider this a major fault of the author. If he considers their introduction to the reader important, he should have done this somewhere between chapter three and four. Since the author uses them for analysis of the circuits in chapters four and five.The over-simplicity at the cost of level of detail and disorder of the chapters are reasons why I cannot recommend the third edition of this book. Hopefully, the fourth edition addresses these issues. But this could be done only at the cost of addition of 100 or 200 pages.

I will give this book two stars as a lot of effort went into the design and production. It is written with care but the reader is treated as a beginner that is afraid to advance. And the book doesn't help towards that.

Very handy to have both for learning and for refer in to when you meet a new layout.

Great book for the beginer, really easy read and interesting. Mr Gibilisco has definitely written this book with the novice in mind. I'll most likely get more of his books as I delevope my learning. Catch him on YouTube.

Not overly impressed could have been clearer.