Source: https://mokxi.com/teachers/plans/datasheets-and-schematics Updated: 2026-11-11 Lesson plan # Read datasheets and schematics lesson plan The skill every hardware job asks for: schematic symbols, a first page, absolute maximum ratings, timing diagrams, register maps and pinouts, each checked on real parts. Ends with a sensor brought up from its datasheet alone. 4 chapters, 7 lessons, about 6 hours, on the Arduino Uno R3. Every lesson runs in the browser, with nothing to install. Start a class from this course The unit ## Objectives and materials ### By the end, students can - Schematic symbols, and what page one of a datasheet tells you. - The numbers that keep a part alive, and the diagrams that say when. - Register maps, pinouts and packages, mapped onto real hardware. - A new sensor brought up from nothing but its datasheet. ### Materials for the whole unit - 74HC595 shift register - Accelerometer and gyroscope, MPU6050 - Ambient light, VEML7700 - Arduino Uno R3 - BMP180 pressure sensor - Capacitor - Full-size breadboard - Half breadboard - LED x 8 - Pushbutton - Resistor x 8 - Temperature sensor, TMP117 - Transistor (NPN or PNP) Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too. Chapter 1. About 1 h 45 min ## Read the drawings Schematic symbols, and what page one of a datasheet tells you. Lesson | Time | What students do Schematic symbols Resistor, capacitor, diode, LED, transistor, rails, ground, nets and junctions: read a real schematic, find every symbol on the breadboard, and probe each part to prove it. | 55 min - Run it: a schematic on a breadboard - Resistors and the LED - The transistor - Rails, ground and the capacitor - Nets and junctions - Switch it from code - Starve the base Reading a datasheet's first page The BMP180 barometer against the first page of its own datasheet: what the part is, the supply range, the interface and address, the block diagram and the modes, each checked on the bus. | 50 min - Run it: who is on the bus - What is it, and will it survive? - The chip id - The block diagram - The modes - What to read next ### Materials - Arduino Uno R3 - BMP180 pressure sensor - Capacitor - Full-size breadboard - Half breadboard - LED - Resistor x 2 - Transistor (NPN or PNP) ### Check for understanding Each student finishes "Reading a datasheet's first page" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 6 of its 6 steps as they go. Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "What to read next". Chapter 2. About 1 h 45 min ## Limits and timing The numbers that keep a part alive, and the diagrams that say when. Lesson | Time | What students do Absolute maximum ratings Absolute maximum against recommended operating conditions: an LED and an ATmega328P pin, a resistor chosen from the numbers, a pin budget, and one LED burnt out on purpose. | 55 min - Run it: an LED on a pin - Two tables, two meanings - Measure it - Choose the resistor yourself - Too small - Past the limit - The whole chip has a budget too Timing diagrams A 74HC595 driven bit by bit from its timing diagram: data set up before each rising clock, a latch that moves eight bits at once, a byte in the order the diagram says, and a setup violation on purpose. | 50 min - Run it: one byte, by hand - Read the diagram - Setup, hold and pulse width - Send your own byte - Which bit goes first? - Break the setup time ### Materials - 74HC595 shift register - Arduino Uno R3 - Full-size breadboard - LED x 8 - Pushbutton - Resistor x 8 ### Check for understanding Each student finishes "Timing diagrams" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 6 of its 6 steps as they go. Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Break the setup time". Chapter 3. About 1 h 40 min ## Registers and pins Register maps, pinouts and packages, mapped onto real hardware. Lesson | Time | What students do Register maps An MPU-6050 by its register map: WHO_AM_I first, the reset value that leaves it asleep, a read-modify-write, a two-bit field, a signed 16-bit reading high byte first, and a read-only register. | 50 min - Run it: who are you? - The reset value - Read, modify, write - A bit field - Two bytes and a formula - Read only means read only Pinouts and footprints Pin 1 markers and counting round a DIP, package names from DIP to QFN, a 74HC595 pin table mapped to breadboard holes with two pins left to wire, and the ATmega328P under the Uno. | 50 min - Run it: a chip with two pins missing - Find pin 1 - Wire MR - Wire OE, and light it up - Same chip, other packages - The chip under the Uno ### Materials - 74HC595 shift register - Accelerometer and gyroscope, MPU6050 - Arduino Uno R3 - Full-size breadboard - Half breadboard - LED x 8 - Resistor x 8 ### Check for understanding Each student finishes "Pinouts and footprints" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 6 of its 6 steps as they go. Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "The chip under the Uno". Chapter 4. About 55 min ## Boss A new sensor brought up from nothing but its datasheet. Lesson | Time | What students do Boss: bring up a new sensor A TMP117 temperature sensor with nothing but its datasheet: find the address, prove the identity, write a configuration word for 125 ms conversions, and turn counts into degrees. | 55 min - Run it: a part you have never used - Blank 1: the address - Blank 2: the identity - Blank 3: the configuration - Blank 4: counts into degrees - Below zero - Your bring-up checklist ### Materials - Ambient light, VEML7700 - Arduino Uno R3 - Temperature sensor, TMP117 ### Check for understanding Each student finishes "Boss: bring up a new sensor" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 7 of its 7 steps as they go. Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Your bring-up checklist". Your class ## Teach this unit as a class Start a class from this course and its 7 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you. The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way. Start a class from this course See the demo class More units ## Other lesson plans Electronics basics 20 lessons, about 10 h. Embedded on the Arduino Uno 16 lessons, about 12 h. Embedded on the ESP32-C3 13 lessons, about 11 h. Embedded on the Raspberry Pi Pico 7 lessons, about 6 h. Build your own fight stick 5 lessons, about 4 h. Embedded on the STM32F411 6 lessons, about 6 h. C++ on a board 13 lessons, about 10 h. Digital logic and memory 4 lessons, about 4 h. Interactive devices on the Uno 9 lessons, about 8 h. From gates to a computer 23 lessons, about 16 h. Build a claw machine 8 lessons, about 6 h. Every unit All the courses as ready-made units, on the teachers page.