How to make the code of a circuitikz diagram more flexible?

Question

I am a beginner in LaTeX, and TikZ, trying to use them for industrial documents. The sample code below (largely made with previous help) shows a circuit made with circuitikz. However I have now the need to make some variants of this circuit, and wonder if the code could be made more flexible using another approach, such as \foreach or other solution, minimizing the number of hard coded coordinates, and therefore simplifying the adjustments of some dimensions. Any help appreciated.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{circuitikz}[scale =1]
% Side vertical lines
\draw [ultra thick, gray!50] (0,-5)-- (0,2);
\draw [ultra thick, gray!50] (5,-5) -- (5,2);
 % Black resistors
\draw (0,1) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (2,1);
\draw (3,0) to [R=$R_1$,*-*] (5,0);
\draw (0,-1) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (2,-1);
\draw (3,-2) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (5,-2);
\draw (0,-3) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (2,-3);
\draw (3,-4) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (5,-4);
 % Blue resistors
\begin{scope}[color=blue]
\draw (2,1) to [R=$R_2$] (3,0);
\draw (2,-1) to[R=$R_2$] (3,0);
\draw (2,-1) to [R=$R_2$] (3,-2);
\draw (2,-3) to[R=$R_2$] (3,-2);
\draw (2,-3) to[R=$R_2$] (3,-4);
\end{scope}

% the side messages
\node [anchor=south,rotate=90, gray] at (current bounding box.west) {\Large\textbf {Pin side}};
\node [anchor=north,rotate=90,gray] at (current bounding box.east) {\Large\textbf{Socket side}};

\end{circuitikz}
\end{document}  

Answer 1

It's hard to say what exactly you want to do. I made a few changes on the code and it looks now like this:

\documentclass{article} 
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{circuitikz}[scale =1]
% Side vertical lines with labels
\draw [ultra thick, gray!50] (0,-5) -- (0,2) node [midway, above, rotate=90, gray]       {\Large\textbf{Pin side}};
\draw [ultra thick, gray!50] (5,-5) -- (5,2) node [midway, below, rotate=90, gray] {\Large\textbf{Socket side}};

% Black resistors
\draw (0,1) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (2,1);
\draw (3,0) to [R=$R_1$,*-*] (5,0);
\draw (0,-1) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (2,-1);
\draw (3,-2) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (5,-2);
\draw (0,-3) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (2,-3);
\draw (3,-4) to[R=$R_1$,*-*] (5,-4);
% Blue resistors
\begin{scope}[color=blue]
\draw (2,1) to [R=$R_2$] (3,0) 
        to [R=$R_2$] (2,-1)
        to [R=$R_2$] (3,-2)
        to [R=$R_2$] (2,-3)
        to [R=$R_2$] (3,-4);
\end{scope}
\end{circuitikz}
\end{document} 

As you can see, i have moved the labes for the two vertical lines directly to the command where the lines are drawn. I have also altered the drawing of the blue resistors.

With this solution the coordinates are still in the code but with a lot less repetitions.