Thanks, John. I'll take that algorithmic approach
John's point is exactly right.
But, of course, you also need to have at least some of the building blocks in
mind to do that, too. Once you pick up a few of them, you start seeing them in
places or you start seeing them slightly modified.
One thing that really threw me off when I was _first_ struggling (I still
struggle a lot as I'm just a hobbyist on this stuff) was that the published
schematics were poorly drawn for understanding. Lots of them, instead, were
drawn for helping you figure out the wiring as you soldered or connected the
parts. Or, sometimes it seemed, they were drawn to just make it really hard to
figure them out.
A class I took on electronic drafting at Tektronix in Beaverton really drilled
in a set of very simple ideas to help me unwind the Gordian Knot of a poorly
drawn schematic (the teacher kept throwing bad ones at us and making us redraw
them sensibly.) The idea was to have electron flow run like an upside down
waterfall from the bottom of the page to the top and to have signal flow go from
left to right. (The top edge is positive, bottom edge is negative, left edge is
where signals come in, and the right edge is where signals go out.) Also, the
teacher pointed out to NOT "bus" power rails around -- he said that all those
extra wires do is to distract you from the meaning. Yes, in a physical sense
those conductors will be needed when the circuit is built. But no, they do not
help you understand the circuit -- in fact, they tend to confuse you rather than
help. (This last rule isn't always exactly right, because there are a few times
in real circuits where it is IMPORTANT to show those lines explicitly -- but
that's an exception, not a rule.)
Now, keep in mind that there was NO prerequisite for this class that students
knew anything about electronic circuits. It was a drafting class and many of
them had only a glancing idea about it. So it's not like we were experts in
anything. We weren't. But just following these rules on schematics I found
that I was *much* better able to sit down and fathom their meaning.
Here's an example of a schematic that is VERY BADLY drawn. It works just fine,
though, and the wiring in the schematic is right. (What happens is... when you
press the BUTTON for a short time, it connects RLOAD to the battery and starts
the circuit so that it will keep the battery connected to RLOAD for some
designed-in time even after you release the button.)
http://users.easystreet.com/jkirwan/TimedHoldBAD.png
Now, take a look at the same circuit redrawn according to the above rules:
http://users.easystreet.com/jkirwan/TimedHoldOK.png
Exact same circuit, works the same, etc. See the difference?
Just some more thoughts to consider as you go.
Jon