Muddy​​​​​​​​ tags

Question

And you thought microchip might be bad? (I forgot, was it?)

• assembly (Ed: since fixed)
  • something that's been assembled, or
  • a low level programming language
• controller
  • something that controls a system (e.g. using PID)
  • something that accepts user input
  • something that provides low level control over a component (motors, LEDs)

These tags aren't (necessarily) bad, but they have very different meanings which are all somewhat correct, so the point of using a tag to group them seems pointless.

Unresolved tags:

• timing
• modulation, fm, psk, fsk, pwm
• low-battery, aa-battery, cell-battery, battery-charging, battery
• controller, pid-controller, speedcontroller, speed-controller
• components
• veroboard, stripboard, matrix-board
• processing, arduino-processing

Resolved tags:

• designformanufacture, dfm
• assembly, mechanical-assembly
• fuses

Answer 1

veroboard, stripboard, matrix-board: can all of these be squashed into something like prototyping-board or proto-board? Stats:

• matrix-board: 1 use
• stripboard: 2 uses
• veroboard: 2 uses
• Total number of questions using the above: 2; and they are basically the same thing.

Answer 2

The tags need to have wikis, and places where the tag has multiple meanings, lets expand it. I made pid go to pid-controller, both PID related questions also has a controller tag.

On tags like assembly, for what our site does, I think the programming language makes more sense, but making the language assembly-language is an easy fix.

Answer 3

Thought I'd bring this up, as it's a popular tag (23 uses).

components : seems ambiguous to me. The only one with this tag alone is here. The others seem like they would be more effectively identified with different tags. E.g.:

• Why do Solid State Relays cost so much? : replace with relay

• Small SOT-23 transistor markings : replace with transistor

Otherwise they're really not needed. One that is on the fence, IMO, is this one: What's the best way to store and categorise resistors/capacitors/ICs/etc? It seems like components fits.

Answer 4

controller

Yeah, this has to go, or at least be split up into more descriptive tags. Maybe some the following: electronic-speed-control, esc, [tag:proportional–integral–derivative], pid, pid-controller, user-interface, control-system. control-system is quite general, and would often be added to any of the other terms, but I'm not sure how else general software control algorithms could be tagged (control-system & software).

Answer 5

timing? This one seems way too context dependent.

Used in these threads:

• Stepper Motor Control Timing
• DS1302 Real Time Clock Question
• Debugging LPC23XX canbus sniffer
• Is it worth worrying about propagation delay differences when dealing with relatively slow protocols like I2C @ 400kHz?

Answer 6

assembly Resolved

This may be a case where a bit of heavy-handed policing, as well as a wiki (see Kortuk's answer), would be most beneficial. I think it's a valid and important tag, and should relate only to machine code. Perhaps the term mechanical-assembly (syn.: assembly-mechanical) could be used for its mistaken uses?

- tyblu

---

I retagged assembly questions:

• Changed to mechanical-assembly
  • How to assemble male USB A connector?
• New tag pcb-assembly
  • Best practices for production programming of data/NAND flash devices
  • Sizing SMD components for Hobbyist Kits
  • Methods for batch populating PCBs without a pick and place
• Removed (no replacement)
  • Help fix or ignore aliasing warning in gcc

I guess you could make assembly-mechanical a syn. for mech-asm, but I think with the dashes it should give you the suggestion all the same when you start typing a..s..s..e..

- Nick T

Answer 7

fuses Resolved

It has been used for both current-limiting fuses and fuse bits. I made a new tag: fuse-bits, and stuck it on this question. If there's no objections, the rest of the qualifying fuses questions can be edited to fuse-bits (unfortunately only leaving 1 fuses question). If there is objection, feel free to edit the offending tag to follow the old use.

Answer 8

Obviously low-battery, aa-battery, and cell-battery have to go, but what about battery-charging? I think it fits. Anyway:

• battery fine
• battery-charging fine
• low-battery vs. undervoltage vs brownout (no uses) -- thoughts? I like brownout
• aa-battery delete!
• cell-battery --> coin-cell (1 use... oh well)

Answer 9

modulation can encompass these tags: fm, fsk, psk. Although pwm is technically a modulation scheme, it is most often used for its RMS properties instead of information transport, so it should stay separate. If someone uses PWM to send information, they can also use the tag modulation.

Answer 10

resolved _(ignored)

dfm

Why was designformanufacture replaced with dfm? The original is more clear. I didn't know what dfm meant until I saw its edit history. Can it be changed back?

Answer 11

processing

This applies to the general definition of the term, the use for which I think is a bad idea in the first place, as well as the name of an Arduino programming environment. It has been used for both. Perhaps we can retag relevant questions with arduino-processing, and remove other uses (replace if relevant)?

Answer 12

How about:

• power-supply x77

which, arguably, overlaps all of the below:

• buck x8
• sepic x2
• boost x1
• smps x13
• voltage-regulator x30
• regulator x1
• ldo x7
• battery-charging x5

I would argue that the second list could be made synonyms of power-supply.