Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [design]

The process of creating electronic products, including components and end-user devices.

Electronic design is the application of electronic principals to create specifications, schematics and practical implementations of electronic systems and circuits.

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Ceramic caps vs electrolytic. What are the tangible differences in use?

A quick google around and all I seem to be able to find are people talking about the physics & the chemistry of the capacitors but not how this affects choosing which to use. Avoiding talking about the difference in their make-up, and the larger…
James T
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Stripboard/veroboard/matrix board design software

I'm prototyping a simple layout for a small project on matrix board, but figured there must be a better way than drawing it all out on paper. Are there any aimed at matrix board? I've found the following software for stripboard, but nothing…
Mat
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What's this importance of datasheets?

As someone starting with electronics I keep hearing, "Check the datasheet!" Why are datasheets so important and what information can I expect to find in them? It seems like a large amount of information would come from experience and know how, not…
stevenvh
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How to go from a development board to a production board?

Ok, I am a software guy and new to electronics. My product needs a small computer and currently I have developed everything on development boards like raspberry pi and such. As the development board does not have all the hardware that I need, I have…
iCode
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How do you document your hardware design decisions?

How do you document your hardware decisions in the design phase? How do you avoid having to ask yourself the following questions while reviewing an hardware design that you made in the past: Why did a choose this component? Why/how did I choose…
m.Alin
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What are low cost circuit and PCB design software?

Do you know of any freeware or low cost circuit / PCB design software? I know a few which I have listed below but I was wondering if there were more of its kind. Please mention the good features and issues you've faced with the software.
Edward
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What are good microcontrollers available today?

I have experience with assembly and C programming for microcontrollers, but I'm not familiar with the various MCU and DSP families offered by today's companies. (eg: Texas Instruments, Atmel, Renesas) I'd like to know about the good microcontrollers…
Edward
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Why is open hardware so rare?

I'm trying to understand why open hardware is so much harder to come by than software. I've tried looking around online and I couldn't find as satisfactory explanation. I understand that hardware is so much easier to keep proprietary and so much…
Caustic
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Make a custom plastic case

I have worked on many electronic DIY projects like MIDIbox (http://www.ucapps.de/), it always was fun and working but at the end, the problem was that I ended with a cool gear, but in a poor casing, for example : wood very roughly cut (by…
Basj
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Is circuit design based on min/max values good practice?

Time and again I am arguing with a colleague of mine about the question above. When I design a circuit for mass production (> 10k/a) I want to make it robust against every possible variation of component parameters that I know about. This means for…
christoph
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What is the most amazing PCB artwork you've ever seen?

Have you ever looked at a PCB and burst out laughing? Have you ever looked at a PCB and said "Wow, that is amazing"? Have you ever seen a PCB that artistically expressed criticism of society's treatment of the poor? I'm focusing here on the PCB…
davidcary
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Why do some EMI/RF shields have holes on the top and some don't?

I am not talking about cutouts for tall components. I don't think they are for ventilation as they are often covered with manufacturer labels.
Dojo
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Design Calculations for the Seasoned EE

Do seasoned designers tend to do a fair amount of calculations or are large parts of circuits designed intuitively? I'm asking because it seems like design engineers tend to have a sense of what value cap you want to have here, resistor there, for…
inbinder
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How do I power/wire something that is rotating constantly WITHOUT extra batteries?

So I want to make a Lazy Susan that is rotating constantly in one direction. I also want to have some other things on top such as neon signs, moving things, and etc. Problem is I want this to all run off of one DC source. Problem is I cannot figure…
Sie
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One large microcontroller, or lots of small microcontrollers?

I'm used to doing basic and straightforward things with microcontrollers, relatively speaking. Things such as driving LEDs, running motors, basic routines, GUIs on character LCDs, and so on, but always just one key task with at most a few little…
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