Collin's Lab: Schematics 

I realize this video is 11 years old, but I still wanted to say thank you. Thank you for not assuming too much, for explaining it simply and clearly. And for anyone reading this who is trying to teach themselves electronics but is feeling intimidated, keep at it. You CAN get it. Don't be afraid to make a mistake, you will burn up some components and release the magic smoke, but before you know it, things will start to click and it will start making sense.

Collin: Thanks for sharing. You and others like you have helped me pass my truck coach exams. You have helped me provide a better life for my family and for that I thank you. Keep up the good work.

Hi Collin! I've just started learning electronics, and thanks to you, it's becoming a lot less intimidating. Thank you for all that you do. Your videos are excellent. Cheers!

I love how you simplify everything. Your tutorials make my brain swell like a balloon.

This helps A LOT to those of us who wish we could do half of what people like Collin can do, but have no idea where to start! It has always been something that scared me, but him simplifying and explaining each of these things makes them seem kinda easy.

Fantastic explanation, I like how you focus on just a few core elements and give the audience time to absorb the lessons.

I'm just getting started in Electronics as a hobby. I am really enjoying your videos, thank you for making them.

I look forward to your every video, Collin. You certainly have a gift for teaching. If I had a teacher like you back in college, I might have not gone into Accounting.

Gosh that man must be one of the most rated teacher of all times ! God knows how well he explains things !

I love this Channel a lot. Its very informative and Collins make sure the viewer understands the subject discussed in the video. Keep it up ☝. Thumbs up. Love watching every videos you make.

Watched in slow motion to take notes, I LOVE YOU MAN

I'm loving these. Stumbled upon them from the electronics intro Maker vids - but this guy is a legend. Lovin' it.

It may have been helpful to note that an IC has a dot in the "top-left", or where you would start counting pins on the physical piece.

A true testament to Collin's great teaching and videography skills: Every Collin's Lab video has at least (if not two) one top comments that call for the return of Collin. p.s. Collin come back. we all miss you.

I just started reading Make: magazine and saw some schematics. Even though I didn’t plan on building the project I still wanted to know how to read it. So thankful for this video!

I work in electronics everyday and I still learned things. Great vid.

You're awesome, love your simplistic method of explaining complex ideas; if only more lecturers had your flair!

Thanks Collin your video gave a detailed explanation for electronic schematics. Awesome job!

really smooth and nice editing! really great job!

It would have been nice having something like this when I was a kid. I had to come up with my own allegories. Good job! I like this video.

Thank you so much for this! Finally someone to explain things without his audience falling asleep.

I think I just found my inner nerd... Throughout the whole video, I felt so excited to learn about all of these. Thanks for this.

haha dude you are strange and very different but thats why you make learning extremely fun and easy. Just want to say thank you, keep up the good work, and most importantly dont change because if i had teachers like you in school i would actuallly have learned stuff while enjoying it.

This was incredibly helpful. Thank you.

Object lesson in the idea of not knowing how much one does not know. I didn't think I was going to learn anything from this vid. I did. I suspect now that if I were to re-check a 3-watt amp I made, which ended up distorting badly, I will find that they are all backwards. I very much appreciate your comparing the look of schematic symbols to their real-world components. I've always thought that was the best way to learn them. Well done.

Cheers Colin! Your a legend! please dont stop making these vids!

Collin should have his own channel for his lab videos, he is the reason I've watched half the Make videos.

I love your video and your pace/cadence of communication. I was hoping to see the inductor symbol explained before or after the capacitor.

wow this is the clearest explanation of schematics i have ever heard!

Excellent video. I like the no bs approach.

Awesome vid! I finally understand how to actually read schematics now.

Collin's Lab was the only reason, why I subscribed.

Nice set of videos! One thing that makes diodes and transistors easier to understand is to think of positive current. Have you done a video about that?

I miss projects from collin. these are great

Thank you. That was every so helpful.

thnx Mr.Collin you deserve every like and subscribe

Loved it! How about a nice follow up video with more detail. May I suggest the bandpass filter schematic used for the background. Possible tips in follow up: Explain how the virtual ground connects, How & where to save ground connections on a breadboard, how the schematic directly compares to breadboard and PCB. I think many like my teenage son would gain a better understanding of this information with your methods of teaching and demonstrating. I will keep watching for more tips and ideas!

Awesome video for beginners! How much time you spent planning and making this video?

Thank you so much. You make me to understand very well. I have job interview. You r very helping

Learned more in 5 min than I did in high school about diagrams. Maybe because I was interested today :)

Thank you for explanation.. very easy to understand

Very informative. This video is quite helpful.

Very nice! I will be placing a reference to this video in a video series I am creating.

I do think, when talking about electronic circuits and schematics, people should get comfortable with the conventional current. Even though it is a scientifically incorrect way in looking at the electron flow, most of the, if not all, schematics are drawn having conventional current in mind. I remember first learning about this in school. Pissed the hell out of me. When you're dealing with + and - in the circuit, it really is not a big deal, but once common grounds and power supplies come into play, I just found conventional current to be more useful when reading schematics.

Another great video. Simple, informative, inspiring, and effective!

Thank you, great show!!!

La verdad es muy educativo el señor collins,saludos chicos

Very well done...simple...thanks!

good job Mr. collins. appreciable for learners. love you hehe.

i love this guy collin you are the man,wish you can teach me how understand circuit board,and how they work.and understand more.if you could

nice i am the one who chatted with you of facebook and this is great to help me out sometimes.

I really liked this video it's quite good. A lot of the stuff would only make sense if you took physics but it's still a great video (IE capacitor parallel plates). The only downside is that actually analyzing circuits gets waaaaaay more complicated, especially when you start getting into non-steady state stuff and using the calculus. I'd love to see a video about the different methods of determining voltage drops, amps, power, etc etc. Like using KVL, KCL mMethod, mesh node.

Awesome video. Thank you!

Great video man, thanks

Great vid! 👍

Thanks I now have interest. I will learn more about this .

Thank you. Very much you explain slowly and step by step and also the function😊🙂🙂 thank you...4x

Great Video!

Thanks a lot! Great channel :)

Very good. Informative..

Well done, thank you!

Grate video but are you agent Smith from the matrix?

@rydude998 If you are talking about two-color diodes, these are actually two diodes wired internally in parallel. So, no matter which way you try to pass current, one or the other of the diodes will conduct, getting, say, red light in one direction and green light in the other. (By quickly switching directions, your eye sees two colors at once, giving, in this case, yellow.)

Another thing to note when reading schematics, is generally signal traces run left to right, and power traces run top to bottom.

Collin creeps me the fuck out but gives me so much knowledge at the same time.

Great video, ty! Cheers

great explanation

Thank you great video!

Once again thank you Mr. Cunningham

anyone know what kind of vice he's using in this video? I'm looking for one like that...

Nice video!

can you please keep explaining more about schematics its really interesting

Coolest dude...and good teacher!

@rekinu5 That's Ground (GND). It's connected to Earth ground, digital ground, or the negative side of your supply.

terrific... keep it up. Bob

Collin vid showed in subscription notice. WOOT! Collin for president.

This is great!

thank you for your videos ,, they are great!!! :)

Great video as always Colin. The only thing which could have been improved is the diode section, which very quickly brushed over the fact electrons flow from negative to positive and not from positive to negative as was presumed. You weren't wrong in what you said, just that it could be a point for confusion :)

the only reason i still subbed ;D

thank you for this useful video,,, hope to see a video of how to determine if the shematic is working,,

Well done!!

Good vid I learned a lot

Thanks for this video.

Thanks for the video sir

Great as usual. It would be more helpful, as if there were some links in the description for Fritzing and other free/open-source CAD applications.

You are such a legend

Ey, any simple program to draw schematics? Thanks.

I now want the big schematic as my desktop!

keep up the good work :)

U need your own channel u are so awesome

@modgemtb One end (the end of maximumness) goes to the signal/voltage source. The other end (of minimumness) goes to ground or the return. The center (the wiper) is connected to the circuit that is being fed by the pot. When the shaft is turned to some point, the wiper is positioned at some voltage point between that of the source and zero. Pots have power ratings and the current drawn from them must not exceed them, which is not usually a problem for signals like audio or small DC controls.

I MISS YOU COLLIN SWAAAAN

Thank you sir ....

Very good step

I like this guy...

@3Deity I am not so sure you were wrong. Collin's explanation is describing electron flow, conventional current would flow in the direction the arrow points.

@3Deity The same here! I always thought the diode functioned the other way round... I have to do some research now :)

@number0IX Yup, right on. In fact, many LEDs have a relatively low peak reverse voltage specification. Most of the ones I use are rated around five volts, IIRC. If you push them too hard in reverse bias, they *will* fail. It's not an LED if it conducts in both 'directions'; that would be a light bulb, neon bulb, or other device where polarity doesn't matter.

@Yvessam The flow of electrons is the opposite direction to the flow of current.