Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
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1500 questions
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10 answers

Standard way for novice to prevent small round plug from rolling away while soldering wires to it

This very trivial task is to solder wires to the terminals of a small round 3.5 mm audio plug. I can do this myself, but I need to show to others and this is one of the first times they're trying any kind of soldering. The problem is the connector…
h22
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Circuit for measuring high voltage DC voltage (up to 1000V)

I am a final year E&E student and I am trying to built a power meter that must be able to measure quite high DC voltages, up to 1000 V DC. I am measuring with a simple 12-bit ADC that has an input voltage range of 0 - 2.5 V. Would a simple voltage…
Eduan Shuda
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6 answers

Do manufacturers lie about the specifications of their components?

These days misleading commercial practices are not uncommon despite the presence of laws and regulations designed to protect consumers. It should not be impossible for electronic component manufacturers to provide misinformation about their products…
user120905
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2 answers

Extra bare wire in USB cable

Whilst cutting up a USB cable for a project I noticed this extra bare wire within the insulation. Now I'm assuming the foil is shielding of some sort, but do I need to connect this bare wire to ground? Or should it be left disconnected?
Calco
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3 answers

How does data travel inside a wire?

I know this is a very basic question but the answers returned by google are way too complicated for me to understand. I am not asking about modulation here. What I want to know is what exactly is carrying the data. Please let me explain my…
Sunshine
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What can I put a kilowatt into? (Or: help me save my hairdryers)

TL;DR: I need something to discharge roughly 160A at 14V into, or 2.24 kilowatts. Any comments, or answers, with either a) something I can dump a kilowatt into, b) some way I can modify a common item to take 2kW DC at 160A, or c) another way to…
Owen Versteeg
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4 answers

Are there reasons *not* to have a copper-pour ground plane on a PCB?

I am taking a first stab at designing a PCB from scratch. I am considering using a CNC mill fabrication process, and it seems like with this process I would want to remove as little copper as possible. A copper-pour-style ground plane would seem to…
Kaelin Colclasure
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How do I know if which leg is the emitter or the collector? (Transistor)

I'm new to electronics and here's a newbie question that I would like to ask: How do I know if which leg is the emitter or the collector in a Transistor (For both PNP and NPN) using only an analog multimeter?
Raven
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4 answers

What does RU (UR) label on DC power relays mean?

I'm trying to figure out what does RU or maybe UR label mean on the body of many many relays. It's labeled almost on all (I've seen so far) DC relays which make me very curious :). Any suggestions?
Timur Fayzrakhmanov
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When is using latches better than flip-flops in an FPGA that supports both?

The Question: When is using latches better than flip-flops in an FPGA that supports both? Background: It is a well-known principle that level-sensitive transparent latches should be avoided in FPGAs, and edge-sensitive flip-flops should be used…
wjl
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How do I plan a long range product with microcontroller that needs long term support?

I need to use a microcontroller on a system that must stay working without major changes for a long time (decades). To ensure that there always will be replacement parts, I need a microcontroller that will be long run produced or produced by some…
user3368561
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5 answers

Resistor Mounted On Top of IC?

Recently, I've been working to repair a broken 1980 "Arp Solus" synthesizer that I acquired from a friend. I have, however, found myself confronted by an unfamiliar arrangement: some kind of resistor fixed (glued? melted?) firmly to the top of a…
bleep
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How do you build a machine in a solid block?

I'm aware that a number of mass produced electronics are embedded in a solid thermal resin of some form. How reasonable is that for the home hacker? What materials are used? How do you do it? Are there resources and examples available on the…
Suni
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Address Spaces in PCIe

There are four address spaces in PCI express: Memory Mapped I/O mapped Configuration Space Message Can anyone please explain significance of each address space, and it's purpose in brief ? As per my understanding, These all spaces are allocated…
ronex dicapriyo
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What is the difference between operational, differential, and instrumentation amplifiers?

RS Components lists three categories of similar amplifiers: Operational Amplifiers, Differential Amplifiers, and Instrumentation Amplifiers. I think that there should be a single section called Operational Amplifiers. Why do these three separate…
quantum231
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