Lindy Mayfield wrote:
> But so far no one has
> answered my question on how/where to start.  Do I start at the +
> power supply and then make my way through all the components
> imagining in what "state" the current is in as it passes through

If you trust the circuit designer you can just assume the power supplies are
what they are labeled to be.  The real analysis is about the information or
signal flow.

Just like most programmers suck at comments to the point of crimnal
irresponsibility (if I was making the laws), unfortunately too many EEs are
just as bad at making schematics easy to understand.  I try hard to make my
schematics at least somewhat intuitive.  Power rails generally are
horizontal on a page, and higher for higher voltage.  I try to keep signals
flowing left to right, except feedback paths which loop back from right to
left.  Of course it's impossible to stick to these all the time, especially
with general purpose ICs like PICs.  I do what I can in those cases, like
put power leads at the top, ground at the bottom, and arrows on other lines
to give a clue which direction the information (not the current!) is
flowing.

So to answer your question with my schematics, start at the left side of a
page and work towards the right, in general.  For other schematics, try to
follow the signal or information flow.  For some parts, like opamps this is
easy since they have obvious inputs and outputs.  Other parts are not so
easy and you have to sit down and figure it out.  There is no magic method.

After a while you will recognize some constructs and won't have to analyze
their details every time.  Examples are emitter follower, voltage divider,
inverting and non-inverting opamp amplifier, simple single pole R/C low pass
filter, etc.


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