diff --git a/boards/doc.txt b/boards/doc.txt
index a984a687677b..609b709f2f50 100644
--- a/boards/doc.txt
+++ b/boards/doc.txt
@@ -15,4 +15,57 @@
  * configuration of a controller and some external devices such as sensors or
  * radios. All aspects concerning configuration of GPIO pins, MCU clock and
  * device drivers should go into this module.
+ *
+
+Guide to board pinouts {#pinout_guide}
+=====================================
+
+The following are the steps to take to locate specific pinouts on boards.
+This is useful when connecting external hardware to RIOT supported boards.
+
+1. Check the [board documentation](http://doc.riot-os.org/group__boards.html)
+to see if the pinout is available
+2. If the pinout is not available or up to date check the following:
+    - `boards/<BOARD>/include/periph_conf.h` for board specific
+peripherals such as UART or SPI pins
+    - `boards/<BOARD>/include/board.h` for GPIO specific pins such
+as `LED0` or `BTN0`
+    - `boards/common/<COMMON_BOARD_OR_CPU>/include/periph_conf_common.h`
+for shared pins that are the same for many different boards (board_common.h
+or others will be available too)
+    - `boards/common/<COMMON_BOARD_OR_CPU>/include/<PERIPH_DECLARATION>`
+also may contain specific periphirals such as
+`PERIPH_DECLARATION = cfg_i2c1_pb8_pb9.h` which indicates I2C pins are on
+pb8 and pb9
+3. Once the needed pins are determined with either a port where
+`PORTA = PORT_A = PA = 0` or `PORTB = PORT_B = PB = 1` and pin
+number, such as `PA, 1`, correlate that to the board (the board
+may either have the designators or search online to find which GPIO
+corresponds to physical location on the board)
+4. Match the `GPIO` with the specific pin and connect the wires
+
+### Examples of finding pinouts
+The following will be different examples of how to find pinouts
+
+#### Finding pins of the I2C device 0 on samr21-xpro
+1. The documentation says I2C is supported but does not say the pinout
+2. Checking the pinout in `boards/samr21-xpro/include/periph_conf.h` the
+`scl_pin = GPIO_PIN(PA, 17)` and the `sda_pin = GPIO_PIN(PA, 16)`
+3. Since the board has the GPIO port and pin printed on the board the
+physical location is `PA16` and `PA17`
+
+#### Finding pins of the UART device 1 on nucleo-f103rb
+_The dev number is only the location in the array and does not mean the
+number of the peripheral_
+1. The documentation says UART is supported but does not say the pinout
+2. Checking the pinout in `boards/nucleo-f103rb/include/periph_conf.h` the
+`rx_pin = GPIO_PIN(PORT_A, 10)`, the `tx_pin = GPIO_PIN(PORT_A, 9)` and the
+`dev = USART1`, though device 1 can equal any USARTn number
+3. Since the board does not have information on where these pins are
+physically located it is recommended to search
+[online](https://os.mbed.com/platforms/ST-Nucleo-F103RB/) for that board
+4. After locating the physical layout the rx_pin can be found on CN9-1
+using either `PA_10` or `UART1_RX` and the tx_pin can be found on CN5-1
+using either `PA_9` or `UART1_TX`, it is recommended to use the GPIO pin as
+sometimes the peripheral may be using an alternate pin
  */