I'm having trouble understanding this comment below this question. Of course we all strive to ask only on-topic questions, I've looked at the help center and so far I can't understand what "asking for a component" really means, or how it's listed as off-topic.
- Comments are for clarifications, NOT answering the question. 2. This question is obviously asking for a component, which is off-topic. Trying to get around it by wording it as a "set" of components doesn't avoid that.
Not at all! This accuses me of some nefarious behavior personally, while being simultaneously unclear about what it is in the post that should be improved. A helpful comment would be just the opposite.
I've asked the user for clarification but so far no answer. It's a little ironic to follow up the first comment with:
@[username] Indeed, a lot of users ignore the rules on EE.SE. I have some plans on how to improve the situation, just haven't got around to that yet. It's much better on a lot of other SE-sites.
A good plan might start with including some helpful explanations to at least go along with the accusations, no? When @pipe "gets around" to improving the EE.SE site for us, let's hope helpful explanation is part of it.
So if it's possible, can someone help me understand what "asking for a component" means, how it's off topic, and what I can do to better explain that I'm looking for a solution to build this circuit as simply and small as possible. One answer proposed a micro-controller but another answer proposed using an FPGA which I think is ingenious. A comment suggested going after basic TTL shift registers. There may be something even more elegant out there.
tl;dr: Is this question "asking for a component", what does that really mean, is it off topic, where can I read further about asking for a component being off topic, and should this question be closed on that basis?