Earlier we covered a few very basic schematic symbols for several resistor types and a power source. Well, just like our Route Map, we're not going to get far with only one Bus station, so we need a vocabulary of symbols. When you walk into a new Bus Station, you instantly recognize the symbols for the Restrooms, Ground Transport, Baggage Claim, etc. It's really the same when looking at the schematic diagram for a new piece of equipment; once you begin to recognize the symbols, you quickly "get a read on the place", and know where you are going. I like to present electrical concepts using the schematic diagram as a guide to learning the concepts, our Instructional Map, so to speak. So let's get familiar with a few more schematic symbols and their various uses.

Battery

Let's start with one of our power sources, namely the battery. Below is a basic schematic symbol for a battery, you'll see the long side is the positive(+) side.

Series and Parallel

Now, when you wire a couple of batteries together, you have two options for connecting them together, called Series and Parallel, respectively.

First we will wire them together in Series (i.e. end to end), as shown below, with a single resistor acting as a load. What does this schematic do? Well nothing actually, the resistor would dissipate energy as heat. (okay so the "load" is just a heater, then...)

Now batteries wired in Series add their voltages together. So if the four batteries shown above are our normal AA,AAA, C, D, etc. battery cells, then each cell is 1.5 Volts - so together they would be 4 x 1.5 Volts = 6 Volts total.

The other circuit topology we can use wires our batteries in Parallel, as shown below.

So, if batteries in Series add their Voltages together, what do batteries in Parallel do? Well, they add their current capacities together. So if each battery could provide 1.5 Amperes of current, then four (4) of them in Parallel would provide 4 x 1.5 Amps = 6 Amps total, however at the single cell voltage of 1.5 Volts. (i.e. in Parallel, the currents multiply and the Voltage remains constant)

See, you are reading schematic diagrams already!

Sources of Electricity

Below are some of the more common schematic symbols for sources of electricity:

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Further (Links)

• Sparkfun - How to Read a Schematic