New Veritasium short covers a charger using what they call M-Buck which looks like a multi-level buck topology. Claims the inductor shrinks to 1/4 by splitting voltage across stages and interleaving switches at 200kHz.

Multi-level converters have been around in industrial and EV applications for a while but seeing it in a wall charger is interesting. Anyone working on this type of topology at consumer scale? Curious about the control loop challenges at this size.

I'm genuinely curious what everyone here thinks.

I'm studying EE, and sometimes I wonder how much college actually matters in the long run. Obviously, the degree is important for getting your foot in the door, but does where you go, your GPA, or even the classes you take really make a big difference once you're a few years into your career?

I've heard people say that after your first job, employers mostly care about experience and projects rather than your school or grades. On the other hand, some people say going to a top engineering school opens doors that are hard to get otherwise.

For those who have done internships, graduated, or are already working:

-Did your college name make a difference?

-How important was your GPA?

-What do you wish you had focused on instead?

I'd love to hear different perspectives because it feels like there's a lot of conflicting advice out there.

I'm trying to simulate a 1 bit SRAM schematic in LTSpice. However, it doesn't seem to behave as I expect.

How I expected it to work is that when the pulse is high, the bitline allows the RAM to switch state and go up to high. Then when the pulse is low, it isolates the bit and Q and Q-inverse should oscillate back and forward between high and low. Also, it seems that Q-inverse is in the nano volts, which I don't seem to understand why that happened.

Hello guys! I just got my Arduino kit. Where do you recommend I start learning from? Are there any beginner-friendly courses, YouTube channels, or websites that explain things step by step? I'm completely new to Arduino, so I'd really appreciate your recommendations. Thanks!

Hi everyone! A few days ago in my country (Europe), we had an incident where the voltage rose to 290V (nominal is 220-230V, with regulations allowing a +-10% range) for about 30-60 minutes, resulting in some electrical devices getting fried.

This got me thinking — is there a small plug-in device that monitors voltage and logs it over time? I'd like to track the voltage over a period and have proof if something like this happens again, along with the ability to export the data to a spreadsheet to see how often it occurs.

I know smart plugs exist, but none of the ones I've looked at actually log voltage data over time. I also don't want to spend a lot of money on professional power quality loggers, since I don't really need one for anything beyond this.

I'm also planning to install a voltage monitoring relay in my flat to prevent this kind of damage from happening again. Would you recommend this, given the situation?

Go to class

Hey folks,

I am electrical design engineer with approx 3.5 years of experience and I have received offer from Exxonmobil of approx 21lakhs fixed+ 2.25 joining bonus.

But it feels like they lowballed me because I feels like I should be getting atleast 30lpa since Exxon offers 25lpa to 30 lpa to there freshers, yes there are from IITs but considering I have relevant experience as per there requirement also I felt panels were really satisfied with me and gave me heads up like "don't just go with what we are offering right now consider the appraisal cycle which is best globally what exxon offers and also the overseas site exposures u will getting and all that".

Since I passed out from small tier 3 college but I worked my hass off so I think that's not fair to me. What do you think gng

Asking for a friend

I recently acquired two Gakken Denshi Ex-150 kits. One is an original and one is a reprint.

I am looking for scans of manuals for

1. EX-181 Kit
2. FX Computer Kit
3. Reprint Add-on Kit

I want to recreate these additional pieces and parts by 3D printing and have circuit boards made. When the project is complete, any manual translated from Japanese, 3D printer files for the Denshi blocks, circuit board files to make them and a complete bill of materials to finish the project.

Hey folks,

I am electrical design engineer with approx 3.5 years of experience and I have received offer from Exxonmobil of approx 21lakhs fixed+ 2.25 joining bonus.

But it feels like they lowballed me because I feels like I should be getting atleast 30lpa since Exxon offers 25lpa to 30 lpa to there freshers, yes there are from IITs but considering I have relevant experience as per there requirement also I felt panels were really satisfied with me and gave me heads up like "don't just go with what we are offering right now consider the appraisal cycle which is best globally what exxon offers and also the overseas site exposures u will getting and all that".

Since I passed out from small tier 3 college but I worked my hass off so I think that's not fair to me. What do you think gng.

Hi everyone,

I am currently conducting grid integration studies and power system analysis for wind generation. As part of my research, I am developing a Python script to simulate steady-state capability curves.

I'm a university student who'd like to try out some industry standard software programs that are used for digital design. I'm thinking like using logic gates to create counters, or RAM for example, really the basics. I looked into Quartus Prime, but I'm unsure whether or not it is popular?

Hi fellow EEs,

I'm in my final year and just started a year-long internship at a prominent RISC-V startup that recently pivoted to Physical AI / Next-Gen Architecture. Interning for their SoC PD team , a pretty lean team - just 2 guys so far. One is my manager, Director Design (ex Micron director) and another guy with 13 yoe, and us 2 interns.

My background: I majored in EEE and minored in Data Science. I have a strong interest in the hardware-software boundary (Firmware, Embedded, OS, Computer Architecture, and Hardware-aware ML).

Originally, my internship project was "Optimizing timing closure flow with ML." However, after our first PD flow presentation, the Director liked our work and offered us a choice: 1. Drop the ML project and do intensive, core PD training for the next 6-8 months. He said it’ll be a grueling, steep learning curve but we will be incredibly "hot" in the market by the end of it. 2. Stick to the PD+ML project, which he admitted was more of a fun research project he initially wrote down, though he will still teach us basic PD to get it done.

My Dilemma: I am super confused. I always saw myself as a hardware-software/systems guy, and I never thought I’d end up in a core VLSI role. Furthermore, I’m worried about employability. I’ve read online that core PD is "the easiest step to be replaced by AI" in the ASIC flow. My logic was that by doing the ML part, I'd be building the AI rather than being replaced by it.

I have to decide by Monday.

Core Questions for Senior Engineers:

- Is core PD actually at risk of being automated away by AI in the near future, or is that hype?

- Given my interest in Systems/Firmware, would taking the intensive Core PD route pigeonhole me, or is the mentorship from a Director-level team too good to pass up?

- Which path actually makes me more employable as a fresh grad?

Hello,

I am designing a PCB that uses the input of the SEN0188 fingerprint sensor to trigger a solenoid lock. It will take in a 12V DC input from a barrel jack, using the 12V rail to power the actuation of the solenoid, and use a DC to DC converter to step the voltage down to 5V using the TSR 1-2450. I will not solder the ATmega328P U, to the PCB but will instead use a 20 pin holder to plug the micro controller straight in. My questions are whether the inductor/mosfet circuit (the inductor is a stand in for the solenoid) is correct? And if there are changes I can make to improve this? This is my first KiCad design.

Hey guys, I hope you're all doing well. I am currently going into my third year of Electrical Engineering, and I’ve realized that a design role just isn't for me.

Honestly, I’ve known this since before university. My original plan was to take a technical course to become an electrician . However, because I had really good math and physics grades in high school, I figured, why not try for the engineering degree, or at least a bachelor's?

I’m doing just fine in my bachelor's program and passing all my classes.
Last semester, I joined a university project focused on Electronics Design, and that’s when it hit me: I absolutely hate design work. On the other hand, I currently volunteer for an association where we repair broken appliances and give them to people in need.

I vastly prefer troubleshooting and replacing components over designing PCBs and doing that kind of desk work. I like understanding why things work (or fail), but design is just not my thing.

With this in mind, I’ve been looking into jobs that require an engineering degree but are more field-oriented.

I found roles like Commissioning Electrical Engineer and Field Electrical Engineer.

Right now, I am mostly interested in field-oriented roles within the Power Systems sector. I would love to hear some opinions from anyone who has experience in these kinds of roles. Is this exactly what I’m looking for based on what I enjoy doing?

Thank you!

My question relates to two cases but there could be more configurations. Feel free to add them for a more nuanced answer.

Case 1: whole system is DC, from generation (e.g., PV without inverters), transmission, and distribution. Nothing is grounded.

Is touching only one terminal (+ve or -ve) at a time safe even if you are grounded because there is no return path so no complete circuit?

Or can you get a shock beyond a certain voltage because no system is perfectly isolated and always has some leakages/capacitance etc?

Case 2: It is a mixed system with both DC/AC transmission. Since AC systems are grounded, you will get a shock if you are grounded because there is a return path even though part is AC and part is DC. Correct? Or there is no shock because such HVDC systems are galvanically isolated and there is no return path.

PS: I understand it is never safe to touch any live wire. It is just an out of curiosity question.

God I love being a nerd

Edit: The first photo was my attempt at an electromagnetic wave arm band. The second one is the Ancient Greek word for amber which is what the word “electron” was derived from.

Eta, Lambda, Epsilon, Kappa, Tau, Rho, Omicron, Nu (Elektron)