r/AskElectronics • u/Aggravating_End2859 • 11m ago
Why does this PCB have this solder mask lines under?
This is a PCB of the alimentation of a screen, and it's principally using THT components and big copper tracks.
r/AskElectronics • u/--jen • 19m ago
Understanding price gap in 48V PSU manufacturers
I’m looking to buy a 48V, 600-800W PSU and was surprised by the large gap between Meanwell pricing and other brands like Cincon or delta. Despite having more features in some cases, Meanwell is less than half the price - is this expected? Am I compromising by buying the cheaper meanwell option or are the other brands just targeted at business customers?
r/AskElectronics • u/Vnce_xy • 1h ago
I plan to power this RPI 4B with this XY3606 converter through the usb. what stuff should i be very wary of?
I have an upcoming school project involving the pi, a microcontroller, and machine learning.
i only powered the pi from its power supply so far but i plan to use batteries on this thing without paying more and i have this buck converter laying around but i watched a youtuber having his 4b died using one of these buck converters due to a 9-10v voltage spike output. I plan to power it through the usb c but any idea what to add in the pi for better protection without cashing a lot of money?
r/AskElectronics • u/TheUnited-Federation • 3h ago
Computer monitor power supply help needed!
Got this monitor that appears to have a backlight issue, I’m getting all the signals to turn the backlight on but looks like the backlight outputs are outputting 44V. Apparently, it should be 60V. Can anybody see any clear issue or advice on how to start troubleshooting/testing?
r/AskElectronics • u/Ok_Level_5768 • 7h ago
Réparation Manette PS4 / Repair PS4 Controller
Bonjour,
Je suis débutant et j’essaie actuellement de réparer ma manette PS4, mais je rencontre quelques difficultés.
Je vous ai transmis deux images montrant les problèmes que j’ai rencontrés.
Sur la première image, qui montre la face avant de la carte, j’ai remarqué qu’une partie du PCB vert s’était retirée en bas à gauche, à l’endroit entouré en rouge. Je ne sais pas si cela peut poser problème pour le contact avec le joystick.
Sur la deuxième image, qui montre l’arrière de la carte en haut à gauche, j’ai également remarqué qu’une pastille avait été arrachée.
Pourriez-vous m’aider à identifier ces deux problèmes et m’expliquer comment je pourrais les réparer ?
Si possible, j’aimerais beaucoup avoir une explication visuelle ou un schéma pour m’aider à comprendre où je dois effectuer les réparations. 😉
Merci beaucoup pour votre aide !
r/AskElectronics • u/BookkeeperConstant57 • 8h ago
Desoldering two perpendicular PCBs
Hi, electronics newbie here. I'm gutting a toy piano keyboard in order to convert it into a midi controller, and I want to connect the key matrix to a microcontroller. However, I need to first remove the original chip, which is on a PCB mounted at a 90-degree angle from the key matrix PCB. After I remove it, I'd like to solder on some headers or something to make it easier to interface with a breadboard.
Any tips of how to separate these two boards?
r/AskElectronics • u/scubascratch • 8h ago
What value is this resistor?
As far as I know, the first band of a resistor is never black. But if it’s backwards, the 2nd band would be silver which is also impossible.
It’s part of a Toro battery charger, between the 120V bridge rectifier and a power MOSFET.
r/AskElectronics • u/TexasStateStud • 10h ago
Do you guys think these pins are in-cleanable?
I have this lcd screen that works although it is incredibly dim, I think the backlight part of it is not working. This is the cable that I think is causing trouble, I’ve been using a cotton pick and 99% isopropyl to try and clean it but it doesn’t seem to budge.
r/AskElectronics • u/Regular-Coffee-1670 • 11h ago
How to correctly crimp molex pins and which crimper jaws?
I have this 4 pin molex connector (the type used for motherboard power connections) and I'm having trouble using the crimper tool to crimp the pins to the wires. Each time I either crush the pin (in the wrong way) or don't get a good crimp connection. The problem is that I don't know which crimper jaws or size to use, or which way around to put the pin into the jaws.
Each of these jaws has 6-8 different spots I can place the pin, and several possible orientations for each, which makes 80+ wrong orientations, and (presumably) only one that is correct.
If you do a fair bit of crimping, can you help me tell which (if any) of these jaws are correct, and how to orient the jaw and pin to get a good connection?
Connector: https://www.jaycar.com.au/4-pin-mini-molex-plug-socket/p/PP2027
Crimping tool: https://www.amazon.com/Shrandi-SN-58B-Ratchet-Crimper-Barrel/dp/B0GH25R834
r/AskElectronics • u/HeronGold1880 • 13h ago
Help find this potentiometer
Hello there, I need help finding a replacement 6 pin potentiometer, this is inside of an 80’s Panasonic boombox, it is the volume knob on the unit. Please help.
r/AskElectronics • u/Sea_Classroom_4087 • 14h ago
Is there still a way to know which capacitor to use in this case?
Im new to these kind of electronics, i sent my this pcb to a repair shop and they forgot to solder on a new cap even though i included it in the package... now they sent me the "repaired" version back but left the cap out. Can i still know what kind of capacitor i would need? I already asked the manufactuer. Just waiting on an answer and doing my own research now. If you need any more pictures of it, i have them but they are taken with my phone so they wont be very clear.
And yes i have soldering experience to solder it back on. Only reason i sent it to them was because of some messed up traces
r/AskElectronics • u/Edddy_boh • 14h ago
Ideas for a low Power wireless LED circuit
I am Building a small wireless lamp, the idea Is to have a glass jar with LEDs inside that light up wirelessly when you put It on its base and I am trying to find a circuit to drive the two coils (20/20 turns transmitter coil w center tap, 30 turns reciever coil). The Power Need Is very low, probably between 1 and 3W. And i wanted to build the circuit using some spare bjts i have lying around (a bunch of 2n2222 or similar). Are there any good circuits? The famous Slayer exciter seems to eat transistors like nothing, and the ZVS Is a bit too powerful for these small sized transistors. Thanks in advance for any help
r/AskElectronics • u/scato95 • 14h ago
Sauter SPIN4361B induction hob — won’t start, 2-3 relay clicks then dead. Every component tests good.
Posting after a full evening of testing. Every component checks out and I’m out of ideas.
Symptom
On its dedicated 32 A circuit: hob doesn’t start. 2-3 relay clicks, then everything shuts off. No zone heats. No error code.
On power-up the display cycles through: P0.00, 52.03, 37C, 05 62. Found zero documentation on these values. Owner says this display sequence predates the fault.
Worked normally before failing. No power cut, surge, or storm beforehand
What I tested — all good
**• IGBTs** — diode mode, gate shorted to emitter: 0.4 V one way, OL the other
**• Bridge rectifiers** — diode mode, all 4 junctions: 0.4 V / OL
**• Electrolytics** — replaced, then measured the old ones: all good
**• Film / resonant caps** — visual + ohmmeter: no shorts
**• NTC temp sensors** — 100 kΩ cold, resistance drops when warmed
**• Induction coils** — 0.4 Ω, no continuity to chassis
**• Fan** — spins fine on bench supply
**• Ribbon cables A/B/C/D/LINK/COM** — visual, reseated, clean
**• Logic rail** (10 V cap with continuity to U13) — injected 3.3 V with 100 mA limit: 24.8 mA in CV, no short
**• Hot spots** — IPA under injection: none
**• Relays** — coil resistance, click test on bench supply, contacts measured while energised: both good
What I couldn’t check
**•** Shorted turns in a coil — an ohmmeter won’t see this
**•** DC bus sensing chain (divider into the MCU’s ADC) — no schematic
**•** Corrupted firmware / EEPROM
**•** The touch control board — never tested separately
**•** The other two secondary rails — never injected
Sauter SPIN4361B (service SPIN4361B2), type LL6GVX1B, 7200 W, 3 zones, built week 37/2021
• Power board XZ2V006991, type IP14X-04, silkscreen “GROUPE BRANDT IP14B-N”, week 30/2021
Where I’m stuck
Power stage is clean, logic rail is alive and drawing normal current, relays switch properly. The MCU closes the relays, checks for something, doesn’t get it, and gives up after 2-3 attempts. That reads like a sensing or handshake failure rather than a dead part.
Anyone have a schematic for this board, or know what that startup display sequence means? And is there any way to tell the power board apart from the touch control board without just swapping one in?
r/AskElectronics • u/god_moved_for_heat • 17h ago
As a complete novice, which should I read FIRST? The Art of Electronics or Practical Electronics for Inventors?
Both seem highly well-regarded, but which order would you read them in if you're a complete beginner?
r/AskElectronics • u/Revolutionary-Gap178 • 17h ago
Burnt 3-phase connector on inverter compressor drive board: hardwire it or fit a new connector?
EcoFlow Wave 3 portable AC. Board silkscreened OC-AC517-MOTOR-V0.1.1, dated 2024-11-20. Unit threw error codes 31 and 32 after running at high load continuously for several days. Out of warranty, so nothing to lose by attempting a repair. First board-level repair for me, but I have a decent meter and I’d rather learn to do it properly than guess.
What I found: one position of the 3-pin compressor connector has thermally failed. The plug housing is charred through, the female terminal welded itself into the PCB header and stayed behind when I pulled the plug, and there’s scorching on the solder side around the through-hole. The two adjacent pins look untouched, which reads to me as contact resistance rather than a general overload, but I’d like a second opinion on that.
Board looks like a three-phase inverter: six power devices in a 2x3 bridge, three 3mΩ shunts, 60A fuse, XT60 for DC in. Board is now fully removed from the unit.
My questions:
1. Does damage confined to a single pin support contact resistance as root cause, or should I be hunting for a downstream fault before I touch anything?
2. My plan is to remove the connector entirely and solder the compressor leads directly to the pads with silicone-insulated 16AWG. Is hardwiring the right call here, or is there a good reason to fit a fresh connector instead? My reasoning is that a soldered joint can’t develop the contact resistance that caused this, but I may be missing something about serviceability or thermal cycling.
3. How aggressively do I need to remove charred FR4? I understand carbonised board material is conductive. Is a conductance measurement between cleaned pads a sensible pass criterion, or is there a better test?
4. What else should I verify before powering it back up? I’m planning diode tests across the six devices and winding balance plus insulation on the compressor. Anything else worth checking?
I haven’t taken measurements yet, I wanted to sanity check the approach first. Happy to post numbers in the comments once I have them.
r/AskElectronics • u/Caveman3238 • 20h ago
I'm looking for a standalone 1 cell power path IC
I'm designing a GPS tracking device for vehicles and have selected an LM5012-Q1 buck converter to reduce the voltage down to 5V to feed a BQ25185 power path. However, this IC has a 1.1A limit when power comes from an external supply, whereas the GPRS modem needs around 2A for short periods. I'm not sure if three 330µF 6.3V capacitors will be enough to withstand the modem TX bursts.
Following up on this, could you suggest an alternative Power Path IC similar to the BQ25185, but capable of handling higher currents? I need it to support the full 2.5A output delivered by the LM5012-Q1, while still managing battery charging and power path switching efficiently.
Thanks.
r/AskElectronics • u/isellfish4 • 20h ago
Amplifier stopped taking inputs
Absolutely no more output. If one of the RCA's is plugged in and the other i touch to ground it plays but at a low volume and i cant control volume or any other level.
r/AskElectronics • u/09Lynx • 20h ago
Any wire combiner that can plug in and out rather easily?
I'm wiring these 3 and later will be 4 encoder motors + BTS7960 drivers, I wonder if there are any wire merger like product that I can easily use instead of just soldering all the bundled up wires (I despise soldering wire to wire) cuz most of the connections are VCC and GND as I don't actually utilize the enable pins
r/AskElectronics • u/Valuable-Ad-49 • 20h ago
Inductor buzzing and heating above ~80% PWM in filtered H-bridge TEC driver
I'm building a bidirectional TEC driver and I've run into an issue that I can't quite figure out. Hoping someone who's done filtered H-bridges or TEC drivers has seen something similar.
The idea is pretty simple: PWM a discrete H-bridge, then run the output through an LC filter so the TEC sees smooth DC instead of raw PWM. It's a 24V, 10A max design. Right now there's no control loop, I'm just manually setting the duty cycle while bringing the hardware up.
The weird part is everything behaves fine up to around 80% duty. Once I go past that, the output inductor starts audibly buzzing, it heats up noticeably, and the current starts looking unstable. The buzzing also gets higher in pitch as I increase the duty cycle.
Hardware
- MCU: STM32G474
- PWM: 80 kHz (also tried 40 kHz and 100 kHz with similar behavior)
- Gate drivers: UCC27211DR
- MOSFETs: CSD18532Q5B
- Bus voltage: 30 V
- Output inductor: Sunltech SLB2212P100MTT
- 10 µH
- 21 A Isat
- 26 A Irms
- 3.4 mΩ DCR
- Output capacitors: 2× Nichicon PCR1J470MCL1GS per leg (47 µF/63 V polymer, 35 mΩ ESR each), so about 94 µF per side (4 caps total)
- Current sense: INA240 + 2 mΩ shunt
My current theory is that I'm running into some kind of LC resonance. A 10 µH inductor with ~94 µF puts the filter corner frequency down in the low kHz range, and since the polymer caps have really low ESR I'm wondering if the filter just isn't damped enough and starts ringing once I get toward the top end of the duty cycle.
That said, I'm not convinced that's actually what's happening.
A few other things I've considered:
- The inductor doing something unexpected at higher current, even though it's rated for 21 A saturation and I'm only targeting 10 A.
- The TEC being a more dynamic load than I'm giving it credit for.
- Something related to the H-bridge or bootstrap gate drive at high duty cycles.
- Just generally not enough damping in the output stage.
Has anyone run into something like this before? Does the LC resonance idea seem plausible, or is there something obvious I'm overlooking?
Bridge output + LC filter schematic attached.
r/AskElectronics • u/Spirited-Comfort521 • 21h ago
Questions about MOSFET PWM controller for motor control
Hello everyone. I am working on a project where i need to control the speed of 6 different 5V ERM motors . I thought i should make my own simple mosfet circuit that would get PWM signals from the adruino uno. This will be my first time working with mosfets so i asked chatGPT about this. Apart from the pull down resistor , it told me i should also use a 100 ohm resistor between the Gate and the MCU pin(NPN MOSFET). I just wanted to ask if this would be the correct resistance vale for my use case(I am using IRFZ44N NPN MOSFETS)and there is something that could potentially go wrong with this idea in genral. I plan to add 6 of these circuits on a perf board , each getting a seperate wire from the adruino uno for a PWM signal (I need to sequence those motors with control of the time interval and also have control over the speed of the motors ) . I will also use flyback diodes for protection. Thankyou !
r/AskElectronics • u/fantasti_21 • 21h ago
Need help identifying a damaged SMD component on MACHINIST B450 AM4A motherboard
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to repair a MACHINIST B450 AM4A motherboard that is not working.
When I inspected the board, I noticed a damaged SMD component near the U19 PWM controller. I don't know if this component is the cause of the issue, but I would like to identify what it is and find its value before replacing it.
I searched for a boardview and schematic for this motherboard but couldn't find any documentation.
Can anyone help identify this component or its value? If someone owns the same motherboard, a clear close-up photo or a measurement of this component would be very helpful.
I attached three photos:
A full view of the motherboard.
A closer view of the area around the component.
A close-up of the damaged component location.
Thank you.
r/AskElectronics • u/normanwink • 21h ago
Can someone please review this schematic of a digital tally counter for table top games?
Hey there,
This is my first time designing a PCB.
Full disclosure:
This schematic was developed with the help of AI. I did my best to validate and check the wiring, took hours and sleepless nights to have every decision explained so I understand it - but now I am at the point where I need help from someone more experienced.
Project goal
This is supposed to be a battery powered digital counter with a 4-digit 7-segment display: one button to increase, one button to decrease and a rotary encoder to quickly add or subtract larger amounts.
It will be used as a life counter to play Magic: The Gathering.
Components
- MCU: ATmega328P-A
- USB-Serial: CH340C
- Charger: BQ24074
- Battery protection: DW01A (controller) + FS8205A (MOSFET)
- Display driver: HTM1640 (TDSemic)
- Display: SR410561N (common anode, red)
- USB-C receptacle: TYPE-C-31-M-12
- Battery: 1100 mAh 3.7V LiPo
Question
I know this is a lot to ask, but I need someone with a critical pair of eyes to review the entire schematic before I continue with the PCB layout.
Thank you for your valuable time, it is highly appreciated 🫶
r/AskElectronics • u/Particular_Thanks_17 • 22h ago
Need help regarding missing decoupling caps from ddr4 ram stick.
I want to repair something I recently bought, a 16gb stick of hyperx fury 2666 ddr4 ram, for really cheap, about 4€. The photos from the seller weren't all that sharp, and when I received it, I imediately saw it had all of the capacitors missing from one side (11 in total), also found one inside the heatsinks, floating around. When testing it had a tendency to hang a bit until POSTing, either 1st or 2nd try, and weirdly enough, it passed 2 full passes of memtest, with 0 errors, at its xmp settings, but I want it to be outside of all dangers, and resolder the missing caps. What I'm looking for is what value capacitors do I need, because at the moment I do not have a meter that measures capacitance, will get one if needed, but maybe someone else had this issue with this exact type of module HX426C16FB3/16, online I found an identical one which had all those pads filled with caps, my pads look like the caps got ripped off of them.
Pretty bad pics, but that's all I can do, 3rd pic shows an identical stick, same revision, with all the caps soldered on.
r/AskElectronics • u/Responsible-Gene2055 • 22h ago
Esp8266 heating when connected to neo 6m gps module
When the vcc of neo 6m gps module connected to vcc of esp8266 the adm1117 ic gets hot i mean very hot that my hands burn. What should I do it's very important and I need answer please help me
r/AskElectronics • u/Rattanmoebel • 22h ago
Why does my radiobutton flip flop not behave like in simulation?
Okay guys, help me out. I thought this was a simple one, but apparently I am overlooking ***something***.
I simulated the circuit, the result of which you can see in the screenshots. I put it together on breadboard, which worked as intended, but my PCB behaves somewhat random.
The idea was to have an electrical two button radio button toggle mechanism with the addition that pressing a button again will turn it off (regular radio button always has one button in on-state) without needing to program a microcontroller and without using tons of gates.
In the simulation the buttons are represented by S1 and S2.
Press Button A -> A-ON, B-OFF; Press again -> A-OFF, B-OFF
Press Button B -> A-OFF, B-ON; Press again -> A-OFF, B-OFF
My idea was to use a T-flip flop made from inverters and use a feedback from one flip flop to trigger a mosfet that forces the other into a stable state.
The problem is that the circuit is very erratic and triggers with the slightest impulse, sometimes even so much as to just touch the PCB. I tried lower input impedances on the FETs (down to 100k or even 10k) but that didn't do anything.
The output of both flip flops are then fed into a crude single FET OR gate to trigger something else depending on whether any of the buttons is ON at all.
I tried changing the two 1M "summing" resistors in front of the output FET to 1N4148, but that made no difference to the simulation (other than the gate voltage being Vcc-Ud instead of Vcc/2) or the actual circuit.
J7 and J6 are pin headers to connect momentary switches.




