5 ms·

The more I think about it, no - it's not. For one thing, many of my professors (in fact, probably all of them) were very theory focused, and had very little ex

The more I think about it, no - it's not. For one thing, many of my professors (in fact, probably all of them) were very theory focused, and had very little experience implementing electronics. I think they figured that practical topics like this were too specific to lecture about, and we'd pick it up on the job anyway. I'd have to assume that mindset is not wholly exclusive to my undergraduate degree. For another thing, I find that commonly, large employers are frequently not doing much to train their new grad EEs, or even let them near much design work. As a result, they miss out on practical experience that would teach them about concepts like decoupling.

kragen 7y ago
Well, I've definitely taken a pre-EE class where we breadboarded a bunch of logic circuits without decoupling caps. But #electronics on Freenode, Horowitz & Hill, and EEVblog are all pretty emphatic about them, so I figured everybody would know by the time they considered themselves a junior EE.
- cushychicken 7y ago
  >I've definitely taken a pre-EE class where we breadboarded a bunch of logic circuits without decoupling caps Same! I didn't realize you needed them until I entered industry. I think that's a little disappointing - it's a very simple explanation, just one that most professors don't choose to spend time on. I'm trying to put together a good demonstration of why you need decoupling capacitors in a lab setting. Best one I can think of is paralleling a bunch of inverters with no decoupling caps, and then measuring the current draw on the rail using a shunt resistor.
  - kragen 7y ago
    Breadboard parasitics don't help. Or, rather, they do.
    - cushychicken 7y ago
      They help, until they don't. Or they don't until they do! XD
      - kragen 7y ago
        Maybe you should involve an ADC or DAC in your demo. Shitty audio is a more convincing problem than a VCC current measurement, and even tens of mV of ground bounce should be quite audible.

kragen 7y ago

Well, I've definitely taken a pre-EE class where we breadboarded a bunch of logic circuits without decoupling caps. But #electronics on Freenode, Horowitz & Hill, and EEVblog are all pretty emphatic about them, so I figured everybody would know by the time they considered themselves a junior EE.

cushychicken 7y ago
>I've definitely taken a pre-EE class where we breadboarded a bunch of logic circuits without decoupling caps Same! I didn't realize you needed them until I entered industry. I think that's a little disappointing - it's a very simple explanation, just one that most professors don't choose to spend time on. I'm trying to put together a good demonstration of why you need decoupling capacitors in a lab setting. Best one I can think of is paralleling a bunch of inverters with no decoupling caps, and then measuring the current draw on the rail using a shunt resistor.
- kragen 7y ago
  Breadboard parasitics don't help. Or, rather, they do.
  - cushychicken 7y ago
    They help, until they don't. Or they don't until they do! XD
    - kragen 7y ago
      Maybe you should involve an ADC or DAC in your demo. Shitty audio is a more convincing problem than a VCC current measurement, and even tens of mV of ground bounce should be quite audible.