Hi everyone, I'm starting my EE degree next February. Seeing how fast ai is growing, I'm a bit anxious that basic tasks for junior engineers will be automated by the time I graduate and making the entry-level bar much higher. Do you think it will be harder for new grads to get hired in 4 years, and what should I focus on in uni to stand out? Thanks!

Hey everyone!

I'm looking for some really cool interactive websites or animations that explain how different electric motors work (DC, AC, BLDC, induction, etc.).

I'd love to actually see magnetic fields, currents, and their interactions to understand how they generate torque and rotation.

Bonus points for interactive simulations where you can play around with parameters!!!! I will love it!

Any awesome resources you'd recommend?

Disclaimer: only one motor is used to turn the sides of the cube (which is why I would argue this only uses one motor to turn the cube), another servo is used to move the first motor, I couldn’t really figure out an effecient way to so it with just one unfortunately.

The idea was to see if I could build a Rubik's Cube solver with as few motors as possible, whilst also not reorienting the cube which turned out to be a much bigger mechanical challenge than I initially expected. These constraints were completely designed as a challenge, not trying to break any records or anything.

The robot uses a custom-designed, 3D-printed mechanism to manipulate the cube, along with electronics and programming to detect the colours, calculate a solution and execute the moves.

This is the final result after quite a lot of designing, experimenting and troubleshooting!

I've also just uploaded my first-ever YouTube video documenting the whole project, from the initial idea and CAD design to the electronics, programming and final solve. It's my first time making a YouTube video, so I'd genuinely appreciate any feedback!

The Channel is called DrewPScrews

How do I wire this properly?

I’m seeing 2.3 resistance across the coils but I’m not sure what I need to do.

The person who sold it to me said they hooked it up with a normal 120v line but to be careful and not press it for too long. This seems wrong.

Hello all, I am in my last semester considering taking an RF class (Antennas and Radiation) to perhaps open up a future path to Master's in the field. However, I noticed that the class has an extremely low average grade over the past years, and my GPA ain't stellar anyway so it sort of worries me. However, my university allows students to register as "free listeners", basically granting you access to all of the course material during the semester, just without grading or examination.

Now I have a dilemma if I should actually register to the class or take it as a free listener. Will not having a grade in this class be problematic if I want to continue to Master's in this field? Or should I risk potentially getting a bad grade but a grade nonetheless?

What would you do? I would love to hear your input.

Any youtube channel that gives more importance to the mathematical analysis of electrical machines ( like in depth which can be useful for projects too)

Hello everyone! I am 13 years old and joining from Türkiye. I am designing a development board based on the ATmega328P. As you can see in the second image, the design was quite complex initially; however, after simplifying it, I arrived at the version shown in the first image. To briefly touch upon the technical details: The board takes a 9V input, which is stepped down to 5V via an AMS1117 voltage regulator. It then passes through a load capacitor and a filtering capacitor before reaching the power indicator LED. The VCC and GND pins are connected directly to their respective rails. For the USB-to-serial (CH340) connection, I followed the standard configuration: connecting the D+ line to ud+, the D- line to ud-, GND to GND, and VCC to VCC. I connected the XI and XO pins to crystal oscillators—using a 16 MHz crystal for the Arduino and a 12 MHz crystal for the CH340. Additionally, I included an auto-reset circuit by connecting the DTR pin to the RESET pin through a 100nF capacitor. There is also a manual reset button, with one side connected to GND and the other connected to the RESET pin via a 10kΩ resistor. Digital pins 1–5 are mapped to the PB pins, while the analog pins are mapped to the PC pins. I connected AVCC directly to 5V, and AREF to GND through a 100nF capacitor. I plan to have this board manufactured by sending the design to JLCPCB and ordering the necessary components. I managed to save up $20 over the course of four weeks; so, if I’ve made a mistake, that money will go to waste. I initially shared this within some Turkish developer communities, but I was met with some truly harsh and unfair insults😢. That’s why I’ve decided to share my design with an foreign community instead. What do you think of my design? If you happen to spot any short circuits or errors, I would be very grateful if you could let me know!

I see a lot of posts about the struggles of finding an entry level job after graduation. I just started my freshmen year at uni and the competition is only going to increase. Should I be worried?

ShortCircuit is a text first digital logic language and simulation studio for designing, compiling, testing, and visualizing digital circuits.

I’m currently working on making the language more robust and developing a VS Code extension for it. The compiler is written in TypeScript, and I’m also preparing an npm package for the project.

Here are some additional snippets demonstrating the language.

the code in the video

IMPORT "@shortcircuit/gates"
IMPORT "@shortcircuit/arithmetic"
IMPORT "@shortcircuit/comparison"
IMPORT "@shortcircuit/selection"


// ADD SUB AND OR XOR NOT A PASS A PASS B


CIRCUIT ALU8
    INPUT A: BUS(8)
    INPUT B: BUS(8)
    // 2^3 -> 8
    INPUT op: BUS(3)



    and_result = AND(A, B)
    or_result = OR(A,B)
    xor_result = XOR(A, B)
    inverted_a = NOT(A)


    add_result = ADD8(A, B, 0)
    sub_result = ADD8(A, NOT(B), 1)
    compare = COMPARE8(A, B)


    // first layer
    logic_0 = MUX(and_result, or_result, op[0])
    logic_1 = MUX(xor_result, inverted_a, op[0])
    math_result = MUX(add_result.sum, sub_result.sum, op[0])
    pass_result = MUX(A, B, op[0])


    carry_  = MUX(add_result.carry_out, sub_result.carry_out, op[0])
    arithmetic = AND(op[2], op[1])
    carry_out = AND(arithmetic, carry_)


    // second layer
    upper = MUX(logic_0, logic_1, op[1])
    lower = MUX(math_result, pass_result, op[1])


    // final layer
    result = MUX(upper, lower, op[2])
    zero_flag = NOT(OR(result[0], result[1], result[2], result[3], result[4], result[5], result[6], result[7]))
/*
000 AND
001 OR
010 XOR
011 NOT A
100 ADD
101 SUB
110 PASS A
111 PASS B
*/


    OUTPUT result
    OUTPUT carry_out
    OUTPUT compare.gt
    OUTPUT compare.eq
    OUTPUT compare.lt
    OUTPUT zero_flag

Hello guys, please share your thoughts in this

Please enjoy a picture of my cat, tofu.
Feel free to critique my simple circuit, haven’t had to draw one since uni.

I am seriously curious to know whether electrical engineers do get involved or even carryout photometric/illumination designs for road and street lighting. If yes, is it an added advantage and if not, why ? Thanks

I recently got a 300mm digital weiner caliper but it has a problem. Sometimes when i measure something it gets offset by 5.08 mm (sometimes it stacks and can be 10.16 or 15.24mm). I started to research how these capacitive displacement sensors work but honestly shi just too complex for me. It gets offset by the same amount every time so my guess woud be like a signal loss or overlap somewhere however im not able to consistently replicate this offset (it appears to be random) so i cant pinpoint it to a certain section or movement of the caliper. Im not at home currently so i cant disassemble it yet but im happily taking any ideas on what the problen coud be.

This a design by Advancer Technologies on instructables.com, though very much modified, i couldn't find the ina106 ic so i used two tl072 to compensate for that, add an extra capacitor to fix dc offset, added a divider with negative voltage protection+ divider to be able to connect it to an esp32, this signal will be used to controll a sg90 server that will close and open a model of a hand.

I spent a week troubleshooting because it wasn't working, turns out one of the ground pins was loose, so i just used a longer jumper wire(the red one) to make the connection, seems to be working now? Well i haven't tested it yet with my muscles yet, will do that tomorrow, i don't really have the energy to clean my skin, connect the electrodes, connect the esp32 etc together rn, its 3 in the morning, i gotta go sleep, ngl mildly infuriating that the cause was that

Hello! I just got my PE in power. Does anyone have any recommendations for PDH credits? I was looking at IEEE’s Power and Energy Society (PES) and Ohm gurus. Any experience with these?

I think it’s a pretty niche audience for this but I made a app to show the coverage of different bands. It’s called SkyPath HF in the Garmin connect iq store https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/69661676-5816-4ccc-b9c2-25442db43eec

I'm a junior year EE and I'm having a lot of trouble finding internships. A ton of applications, one smooth interview that ghosted me after.

I don't have any work experience, just really detailed projects like a guitar pedal or buck converter.

For some reason, construction/project intern postings seem to love me. I'm unsure if I should commit to these postings out of desperation, or keep trying to find something in EE. Does anyone have some honest advice for me?

so im building an electric go kart, i hoping ot go between 40 and 50 kph, this is the motor i chose, what battery can i use to power it, and how much would that cost and is there anything else i need other than the battery? i see the ESC and throttle and eveything i might need already in this kit

I mean the ones that are in the couple hundreds $$$ range while not using the wire method for navigation.

Like RTK gps modules that have a couple centimeters precision cost alone from 200$, how can manufactures create this mid range products from the 1000, $2000+ ones?

Some other technology, tricks etc?

Tldr: how many years of electronic design before you can look at an analogue circuit and intuit its behaviour?

I graduated a few months ago, and primarily did embedded systems projects and modules (firmware heavy, with a little bit of digital systems). Since graduating, I want to be able to design hardware through the full product life cycle, from schematic to assembly and firmware, so I’ve been looking to polish my circuits and systems knowledge from earlier in my degree. I’m also considering going towards consumer electronics career-wise if my current job doesn’t work out.

As I understand it, a “good engineer” isn’t a human simulator, but rather has the technical fortitude to look at an electronic circuit, intuit its behaviour and make qualified design decisions based on that knowledge, whixh I’m having a really hard time with.

My plan/roadmap to analogue excellence was to

1. Build a simple analogue project that would let me design, simulate, and test, while gradually moving onto higher frequency, more complicated projects. I’ve started with a simple analogue synthesiser project. The idea: 12 VCO’s for each key in an octave, then some frequency division, mixing and signal processing to try get a clean output for a full keyboard. (I’ve only just begun and barely made progress beyond comparing some vcos and simulating them)
   
2. Polish my analogue knowledge by reading The Art of Electronics and following the examples to reach a point whereby I can make an intelligent assumption about a system response, and only use the simulator to verify or get specific values. The same way any first year EE can look at a voltage divider and know the behaviour at the centre node, I want to be able to look at an opamp chain or multiple transistor circuit and understand the flow.

I feel as though I’m spending so much time working the problems in the book by hand, and by the time I solve it, I haven’t really internalised anything beyond the numerical result. I’ve only been working through it for about 3/4 weeks so not very long to be fair, and I wasn’t the strongest at electronic systems in uni, but I’ve been putting about an hour a day after work because I really want to improve. It just feels as though I always need to start from first principles because I can’t SEE it yet.

I am currently on the transistor chapter, and I struggle to figure out where to start and end when trying to see what a circuit does. I’m ashamed to admit that the circuit that prompted this 2AM post is a very simple differential amplifier (which I haven’t managed to solve by hand yet). I KNOW it’s an amplifier because thats what the literature says, but my goal isn’t to memorise every configuration.

I suppose my questions are:
1. Am I wasting my time? In a world of simulators and AI, is this even a necessary skill anymore?
2. Are transistors still relevant in consumer electronics, or should I would I be better if moving on to opamps and FETs revision? I get the feeling silicon has gotten so small, the only people really working with them are IC designers but I’m not sure.
3. If you have been in the industry, do you have the “eye” for circuit analysis, and if yes, how did you achieve it?

I’m probably gonna continue with the book because I do enjoy it, I guess I’d just like to know if I should stick to embedded where it makes sense in my head

No guitarist available? Build one!

What happens when a maker combines a development board with a guitar and a little creativity?

You get an automatic guitar-playing robot!

Not every hardware project needs to solve a serious problem. Sometimes, making a robot play guitar is a pretty good reason to build something.

What song would you like to hear this robot play next? Drop your suggestions in the comments!

context: i made an connector connect two 9v batteries so that it makes approx 18v volts. and it works.

what do yall think for one of my first serious electricity based project

Hi I’m a power engineer working in nuclear. I’ve worked here for 4 years. I want to switch into microelectronics/controls as I enjoy doing more hands on and technically work. My current role is mainly doing walk down to the field and doing troubleshooting for our operators and maintenance counterparts. I plan to do projects. I’ve brought function generator, a DC variable supply and oscilloscope. I’m reteqching my electronics 1/2 and power electronics and controls. But I don’t think this enough. I would appreciate input from you guys

I don't have a background in math, I think the highest math I've taken was Hs Algebra 2.

They offered 140k and 25k a year in stock. This is for a senior engineering position. I guess im trying to understand hoe far to push. Pay range is 110k-165k.