Arduino and Electrical Engineering

Question

So recently a Arduino stack exchange has been created, meaning all any question concerning the microprocessor should be moved to there. While I'm all for that, I'm certain that many of you would agree that there is a lot of overlap between the two SE's. Many EE projects probably use an Arduino.

Now, my actual question is: how do we know what should go where? In this question the author states that he's using the Arduino in his project. The actual question was about selecting a good implementation method for his circuitry, but it was moved to the new SE. So any kind of hardware interfacing with the microcontroller goes there? Wouldn't this mean that for example, any ADC circuit connected to an Arduino gets moved there? Or am I missing some nuance here? Where are the lines between the two?

Answer 1

This has been discussed before.

If the question is about a general EE topic that just happens to be in the context of an Arduino project, it stays here in EE.SE.

If the answer to the question requires knowledge that is specific to the Arduino hardware or software development environment, it gets migrated to Arduino.SE.

In some cases, it's a judgement call, but I do my best (and I'm sure the other moderators do, too) to make sure I understand the question before deciding whether to migrate it.

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That said, in the specific case of the question you cite, the fact that the OP would even consider packaging a breadboard as a permanent solution was a big red flag that he is a complete beginner to begin with. This indicated to me that the answers he would get from the Arduino community would be a much better match for him than the answers he would get here. I'm pretty sure that they have already addressed the issue of making an Arduino project "permanent" many times before, and that there are products specific to that environment that make it easier.

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Keep in mind that in some senses, Arduino is the opposite of EE. EE is all about understanding the low-level details of how a circuit and the associated firmware works, so that you can build similar, but different functionality in the future. On the other hand, Arduino is all about hiding those low-level details so that a developer can focus on the high-level functionality of his project.

Some people start on Arduino and then try to bridge the gap to EE. It's possible to do this, but it can be somewhat of an uphill battle until that person has a good grasp of basic principles of electricity and digital logic.

Answer 2

Basically, if its not necessary to know that the microcontroller development board is a arduino, then it's probably OK here. In other words, if you have to say "arduino" in your question for it to make sense, then it doesn't belong here. If you can say "microcontroller" or "microcontroller development board" instead, then there should be no need to migrate to the arduino site.

Sometimes people babble on, and you can't expect those who come here for good quality Q+A about electronics to wade thru a long rambling post to decide whether its really about electronics or just a arduino user issue. It is therefore a good idea to not mention "arduino" in your question, and absolutely never mention "sketch" or "shield" assuming the arduino usages of those words. If your question still makes sense after removing arduino references, post it here. You are safe from migration because nobody will know it has anything to do with arduinos. If your question doesn't make sense without "arduino", "shield", and/or "sktech", then it's a strong clue that it doesn't belong here. Even if it does, it may get booted because people see the buzzwords and don't want to bother reading the rest.