Beginner's Guide to Reading Schematics, Fourth Edition

Reading schematics is a beginner's guide and is titled as such. The books offer's very good information for those who haven’t a clue about schematics or electronic symbols. After reading this book from front to back, one should have a very decent grasp on visually tracing circuits through a schematic. Being this book is designed for beginners, it should be used as a steppingstone and not mistaken for an encyclopedia on “everything schematics”. I have read through a few negative reviews, and I am baffled by many of the complaints. If you need specifics, such as tracing relay logic circuits, then one would be advised to do their homework and locate the specific material they require. This is a beginner's guide and doesn't hide that fact. Once you have grasped the information offered in this book, any novice would be more than comfortable picking up a more comprehensive book dealing with the subject, or perhaps taking a class geared at electronics. This is a very good jumping off point.

I like this manual.Easy to learn basics

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.

Another get your gear Book.

Excelent

super easy to learn with

I love the size and spiral bound construction of theirs manual, easy to carry and easy to whip out and read while you’re on your break, relaxing on the patio or waiting online at the DMV. The book is very informative and author makes it easy to read and yet covers technical aspect well. Recommend for anyone looking to expand their knowledge or just brush up on their electronic skills.

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.