Comments on Homework questions / "ask an engineer".
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Homework questions / "ask an engineer".
Our on-topic page currently lists homework questions as mostly off-topic, in the following manner:
No interest in understanding or learning, "Just gimme da anser!"
There has to be some element of engineering, theory, underlying physics, etc, in every question. This is why most Arduino questions are off topic.
URGENT!!!
Not our problem.
What's the answer to this homework?
Again, this site is about learning. Just giving you the answer to a homework question defeats that, and is not allowed.
It is possible to ask about a homework question, explain what your thought process is, and where exactly you are stuck. If done right, we can try to guide you to discover the solution yourself. This is tricky. Be careful.
Always be honest about it being a homework problem. Most people you are asking have taken the same course you're taking and have done the homework. We know what homework looks like. Trying to disguise it is a great way to eliminate any good will that might have come your way.
While I agree to the essence of most of this, I think it is needlessly confrontal. But also, we really don't care about the reason why someone is asking, but rather about the quality of the question and if the poster knows enough of the topic to understand answers, or if they have the interest and ability to trouble-shoot the issue themselves.
I propose that the above quoted parts are replaced with this:
Electrical Engineering is about engineering - the development of electronics, the theory behind it and the tools used in the development process. You don't have to be an engineer to ask a question here, but you are required to have some minimum of knowledge about the topic you are asking about.
If you are merely curious about some electronics topic that you don't know anything about and want to ask an engineer about it, this site might not be the best place. When uncertain, you could ask on meta if your question would be a good fit for the site before posting it.
For example, if the question is that you suspect the wrong output voltage from your regulator. Then can you provide a basic schematic and the link to the datasheet of the part used? Can you measure the voltage with a volt meter? What steps of trouble-shooting have you done so far? What do you suspect could be the problem? Why are you making this regulator, what will it supply, how much current is expected and what is the intended environment and application? Mention all these details in the question.
That is, good questions demonstrate some effort by the poster and a willingness to do their part to find the answer. If you get comments prompting for more information, try to respond to them and edit the question as you come up with more information.
This means that homework questions that are not much more than a copy/paste of the homework assignment, with no effort by the poster, will not get welcomed here. Expecting unpaid volunteers to do your whole homework for you is simply rude.
But if you have done some attempts to solve the homework (or other) problem on your own, the question is probably just fine if you provide your research effort so far: your thought process, any calculations/schematics/etc that you have tried, even if they have the incorrect result.
Open for discussion! (And proof-reading too, please!)
If anything should be phrased differently, please post an answer with your proposed alternative.
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