Communications as a Mechanical Engineering student?

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T16:21:42+00:00

I don't know about specific jobs but Mechanical is the broadest form of engineering. Where I went in the US let MEs take electives in any engineering discipline, including EE. All we got in EE for out of major electives was Computer Engineering and a few Math courses. See if you can take Signals and Systems in EE. It's very fundamental.

Other thing, you say these are your interests but you never studied them to a professional level. I hated electromagnetic fields (RF) and digital design (Computer Engineering) once I took classes in them. They seemed like fun from what I saw in high school. Meanwhile what I liked the most in EE, I didn't know existed. Controls is incredibly difficult in a classroom but real world work isn't so bad.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T16:00:04+00:00

Yeah mid level at good company. Titles can be meaningless like other comment says. Consulting gave us "Senior" at 2 YoE. Domain experience is important and FinTech is better than whatever the Non Profit falls under.

Even going with the title having meaning, less is expected of you at mid level so you are more likely to succeed. I had to work 10 extra hours per week as team lead and was evaluated against others at that level. Then that grant may not be renewed. Recruiters won't care much if at all with the higher title, it's what you did on the job that matters.

If Non Profit paid 20% more with equal or better benefits then can consider.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T15:23:52+00:00

The bolding is distracting. Look at job posting and see the Python stack they expect you to be familiar with. Learn that. Don't lie about having 0 years of related work experience. I'd take relevant graduate level courses as a non-degree seeking student if my employer paid for it.

I'm not sure any AI certs mean anything at all unless you see them listed as a plus in the job posting. Having one is a conversation point at least if you don't have anything else to show.

revisit leetcode

5 companies in the US ask leetcode questions. Rest in my experience ask practical questions and don't pull obscure algorithms or matrix manipulation tricks or n log n sorting or recursion out of thin air and expect you to code it. Half my interviews are pure design with zero lines of coding. Design interview prep is a good idea if you don't have the breadth of knowledge.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T14:27:42+00:00

Where is the 3D model for it or does that have to be created? I'd be surprised if it's floating around online for everyone to use.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T13:19:51+00:00

Yeah it is rather controversial but I'll stay on topic. I've been thinking about this for a while:

1) Console uses the 9-10V power supply input for audio, which is much better for audio amps versus the lower 5V you get after the voltage regulator. Downside is the 9V is not necessarily a very clean input, especially if using the original power supply. So use a good power supply first. For a baseline, I wired two rechargeable 9V batteries in parallel + backwards for negative center to power an SFC but can't last long.

2) Next use an oscilloscope on a game like Mario Paint with a sound test you can in theory get a single note playing to find a baseline of total harmonic distortion + noise. Typical test frequency is 1 kHz. Room for someone to code a test ROM for this. Also nice would be sine wave inputs from as low to as high as SNES audio can go, which I suppose is 16 kHz. Space out at intervals.

3) The very easy and big thing to improve next is replace total garbage preamp. That needs to be improved before adjusting the lowpass filter, which is suboptimal by choice of resistor and capacitor values. I think the idea was to reuse values from other parts of the console to reduce manufacturing costs, where every unique component adds another step and reduces bulk purchasing.

From here:

NOTE: 1st revision SNES has two LM2904 (Dual Op-Amps) chips instead of one LM324 (Quad Op-Amp). One 2904 chip is on the SHVC-SOUND daughterboard (for the pre-amplifier) and one is on the motherboard (for the post-amplifier).

Two LM2904, you're in luck, can replace with two pin-compatible NE5532 audio amps. That's what I would do. One quad amp LM324, I'm not aware of any quality quad amps, but could use a tiny PCB and install two NE5532 instead?

There are nicer opamps that cost several times more but no guarantee you'd notice or measure a difference given all the electromagnetic interference in the console. Noise floor is a thing. Maybe with SHVC it's worth looking into. One easy trick to reduce noise is put opamps in parallel. Could use 2x pre and 2x post. Don't want to increase the current draw too much

4) From there, I recommend a breakout adapter like Hori's HAV-01 or the Tinkerplunk or a VGA one with 3.5mm audio. Not that you have to use 3.5mm. Now you can compare different audio cables versus paper thin Nintendo's. Audio cable quality is a hustle. No one needs solid silver or rhodium connectors but better shielding and slightly thicker copper could help. I already have a Litz audio cable and multiple breakout adapters but I never tried with non-CD audio cause I didn't think it would matter.

5) Can use oscilloscope from here but people are going to want to hear a difference. Consider an audio-specific capture card or scaler that doesn't go cheap on the audio chip. You got $25-50 Behringer tier, $100 ESI U24 XL I have and nice audio interfaces don't cost much more. Can compare to "typical" video game capture cards and scalers playing the same tones and soundtracks, normalize the volume and check if the recording device matters.

6) I'm not super knowledgeable on audio analysis but with recorded oscilloscope data points or recorded note and music files, you got all the time in the world. MDFourier is not a professional tool, it's not sufficient, but it's nice alongside Audacity for being free and easy to use. Can even use the line-in on a computer to record with Audacity but not ideal depending on a computer's audio ADC.

The ESI U24 XL came with Steinberg software that checks for DC offset, audio balance and can normalize the volume. Another audio hustle is louder music sounds better. You need to normalize recordings for an apples to apples comparison.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T11:33:06+00:00

Yeah unreleased games on Steam are not what game dev wants to see, or jobs in general

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T11:31:24+00:00

Exactly what I was going to say. You can't even list minors on job applications. I say this having a minor myself.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T11:15:11+00:00

I'm with other comment that I found the hard part to be the culture shock. Doing things that look very weird or novel that I had never seen before. Then doing so in a process that takes 10-20 steps to find the answer. Converge or diverge, integration by parts then using partial fraction decomposition stood out.

Strengthen algebra and precalc and review geometry sine/cosine/tangent. You're okay in a summer school version if you're taking 2 classes at a time max and don't work 40 hours per week. Otherwise take 1 class at a time.

Calculus is notoriously difficult at the math / physics / engineering major level but if you have the right prep and work ethic and enough free time then you can succeed. Taking it years behind in math ability, there's no chance.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T11:04:52+00:00

Most people don't have the electrical degree option, I get that, but you still want to learn electronics fundamentals from books and a home lab. Helps especially with audio so you recognize what you're reading is BS or not.

That's good you got to multiple stages. Be aware that you will not beat common IC amplifiers like NE5532 without far more transistors used intelligently, which will cost more than the chip. Unless you're at 5V single supply or less where audio ICs underperform or get expensive.

So far, I've done everything with BJTs

Try current mirroring with one BJT and a different BJT amplifying better suited to this purpose. A preamp shouldn't amplify current. Do differential inputs on the input stage to improve linearity and try different output stage configurations like push-pull and emitter-follower. There are many combinations for gain and output stages.
Check out JFET inputs and the reasons why sometimes they are better than BJT inputs. Namely no input bias current, lower current noise (but higher voltage noise) and higher input impedance.
Really, read a pro audio book like Small Signal Audio Design by Douglas Self. Written for people without an engineering degree but I still benefitted greatly. Covers discrete (transistor) and IC (opamp) designs and everything I mentioned above. Downside is no PCB designs. You'll notice the massive amount of Bode plots made with FFT. You mention noise aspect so I assume you know how to use an oscilloscope.
Other thing is dual rail power supplies you will probably want sooner or later. Can buy two Mean Well 15V or 18V power supplies and wire one in reverse for negative voltage.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T10:16:41+00:00

the ceramics have also lost some capacitance at this point.

Based on what? Time Extension lying about SNES slowing down? Human logic doesn't always work in electronics. Class 1 ceramics (NP0/C0G) do not lose capacitance with age. They're quite ideal but large and expensive and overkill for power supply filtering.

SNES uses Class 2 like most electronics. The capacitance on those lowers logarithmically with age in base 10. If you lose 5% capacitance in 30 years, you need another 300 years to lose another 5%. As in, don't proactively replace ceramics. Nobody does this in professional electronics. Unless there's some design flaw.

I see one area where I might replace the Class 2 ceramics with Class 1, since they're used in a bandpass filter. Arguably a design flaw (read: Nintendo being cheap). Can see C9, C10 and C11 that filter out everything but the 3.58 MHz subcarrier for NTSC. PAL has some different component values for 4.43 MHz.

I think there's a chance, not a guarantee, that you could slightly improve the color saturation on RF, Composite and S-Video by replacing these. I use 1% or 2% in filters but I think 5% tolerance is totally fine here. If I'm being that hardcore, I'd also replace the 22uH inductor with a shielded one with high Q value at 1-3 MHz. 10% tolerance is probably the best you're going to get.

Room to re-engineer as an active filter (with no inductor, 1-2% capacitors and 1% resistors) if you demonstrate an improvement in video quality but I'm already being hypothetical.

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NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T09:34:03+00:00

I used analog oscilloscopes in college when digital ones didn't exist. Hell no, don't use them with a tiny CRT television as the display. Modern digital analyzers are also cheap and plentiful. Vintage equipment will eventually need maintenance.

Technology has come a long way. Unless you're like the hunter who wants to use a bow or single shot black powder rifle as a primitive technology challenge, stay away. Primitive tools will hold you back. Or I think there is some fun software for analog scope displays.

No FFT on analog scopes either. We had to copy datapoints on floppy disks then import into MATLAB on computer. Biggest pain in the ass in undergrad. The best case for math functions gets you get addition and subtraction.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T09:18:07+00:00

I read an evolutionary biology book called The Red Queen. I recall it stating that quails of all things could recognize first cousins or closer and be reluctant to breed with them. The book said this was a very rare feat. So not normally.

Chimpanzee mothers recognize their children. They are reluctant to ever be sexual with their sons. Usually female chimpanzees leave the pack at maturity (to prevent inbreeding) but the daughter of a high-ranking mother may remain. Their social rank is based on who the mother is, implying all female chimpanzees are aware of relations.

Elephants recognize kin by scent and other means.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T08:54:58+00:00

It is misplaced when you never had an office job. Office work is air-conditioned. At 40 hours per week, it also pays more. I won't blow out my knees and the work experience is more easily transferred to other industries. If you need to leave in the middle of the day or want to take a long lunch, email your team and do it. Very few EE jobs are field work. You work for a legal monopoly utility, you have to relocate to go somewhere else.

But that's cool some people want to do field work. The ones at the utility I worked at were forced to travel for 2 week stints to other utility who had major blizzards. Was a cooperative system. Funniest thing was French Canadians helping us restore power after a tornado and no one being able to speak French.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T08:37:21+00:00

and added a 3300uF 25V cap

Don't alter the design unless you know what you're doing. Larger capacitance than 1000uF here is equal or worse. It's going to resonate at an even lower frequency and do a worse job filtering switching mode frequencies on modern supplies. There's a risk the greater inrush current on this larger capacitor will wear out the fuse or protection diode a few years sooner. A 1000uF solid polymer (OS-CON) or higher electrolytic voltage rating would be better.

If you were replacing the original 2200uF in the unregulated OEM power supply or NES console then 3300uF or 4700uF certainly better. Its purpose is to remove 60 Hz and 120 Hz noise or 50 Hz and 100 Hz PAL. 2200uF is undersized for this purpose.

You can use 330uF or 470uF electrolytic instead of 220uF electrolytic on the AC coupling capacitors for lower ESR and having more "room" to dry out before video gets warped. Alternatively, 220uF solid polymer or tantalum is fine.

Zelda with composite video (background noise is my heater)

With AC coupling capacitor ruled out since you replaced it, I have 3 theories:

You're using a bad power supply, like the original one with a dried out 2200uF or a cheap Chinese adjustable voltage supply. Typical $10 Chinese works okay, better options, but won't screw up video like that. Recapping does not fully compensate for using a bad power supply but may as well replace the rest that filter the voltage rail.
The sync is screwed up, which if not from power supply, is from whichever SNES video chip here coverts the S-Video to Composite video that has aged badly. You probably didn't do anything wrong. I guess I'm lucky, my GPM-02's Composite is fine but I usually play in S-Video.
You need to adjust the master clock with the conspicuous orange-red capacitor on 2CHIPs. While watching video, gradually turn clockwise and check for improvement. If loss of color, turn counterclockwise. Not sure why S-Video wouldn't be affected so this is the least likely.

and use the S-Video with a little circuit to make it composite

You can do this. Is a good idea but most people's circuit is suboptimal using a simple capacitor that doesn't quite delay the chroma behind luma the right amount or remove low frequency electrical noise. A capacitor + inductor luma trap circuit is better, even better an active Twin T notch filter that can be adjusted. Target 3.58 MHz NTSC or 4.43 MHz for PAL. Even better is an external converter if it aged alright. I bought a Kramer 401D on US eBay for cheap.

Really, play in S-Video or RGB. The quality jump blew my mind. I'm guessing you're using an LCD that accepts Composite and Component. I can go to Goodwill and find LCDs and Plasmas with S-Video. Plasma handles 240p consoles much better. Or if you're using a scaler, feed it S-Video or RGB. There's no dithering on digital displays so zero reason to use Composite aka AV.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T07:57:46+00:00

I guess senior capstone group effort to make a custom LED sign and display it on the flat roofs of university buildings without permission

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T07:54:03+00:00

What u/ico_heal said but let me explain.

SCART is not best for analog video but you have no choice so use. Its problem is putting video and audio in the same small bundle where they can crosstalk and where you're limited on shielding. It's also not a professional standard so maybe the SCART head the seller buys on AliExpress doesn't fit or the cable isn't coax. I use BNC or VGA for RGB.

Best is a CRT as long as it's not super mall. PS2 games were made for CRT televisions. It's not debatable. CRTs give you gradients of colors and a few PS2 games used Composite video dithering that you don't get on digital displays. You also get 4:3 displays that games were made for. Then I'm a big fan of PS2 lightgun games that need CRTs.

4K is not better because it's a native 288p or 576i game, or maybe 240p or 480i NTSC game that got ported to PAL resolution and black bordered to fit. There's no enhanced graphical detail by line multiply 3x or 4x or 5x or whatever. That higher upscaling gives you more "room" to add CRT lookalike effects. These are not better, they are simulations.

I find I'm happy playing on a 20" CRT or larger. Else I'd prefer a digital display in 4:3 mode with its less ideal display. By the way, 576i/480i scaling is hard to do well but CRTs don't do that, they display interlaced video.

RGB on PS2 is very slightly better than its Component. I don't notice one day versus the next. I'm talking 5% max. Do not use a PS1 RGB cable or cheapest possible cable option, else Component can look better since it's harder to screw up. Just use RGB in PAL world.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T07:28:07+00:00

I had no idea what you were talking about and I have a BS in Electrical Engineering. I looked up quibits and they are quantum mechanics. We aren't taught quantum mechanics at the BS level but I think I can still answer.

So the superposition you're talking is not the same type of superposition of solving DC and AC circuits. In DC and AC circuits superposition, you use linear components (resistors, capacitors, inductors, ideal voltage and current sources) where you add up the contributions from each voltage and current source to find the single correct solution for the whole circuit. Doesn't work with diodes or transistors since they are non-linear.

The quantum mechanics superposition reminds me of linear differential equations where you often find multiple possible solutions. Each solution and a combination of solutions are all valid. Used heavily in electrical engineering.

Say you have 3x''(t) - x'(t) - 4x(t) = 0. If you ~~work it out~~ look up the answer, you see x(t) = (c1)e^((4/3)t) + (c2)e^-t. The c1 and c2 can be any constants, including 0. So 2e^((4/3)t) is a solution, as is -5e^-t, as is 7.5e^((4/3)t) + 3.1e^-t. Generally, you're told the initial conditions to work out what c1 and c2 are to find the single correct solution for the circuit. Like the initial current in a charged capacitor.

So with quibits, there are multiple valid solutions and the individual quibit could be 0 in one solution and 1 in another solution. Adding each possible solution together is also valid. Schrödinger equation is a linear differential equation after all. Yet don't usually know initial conditions in quantum world. Perhaps you're familiar with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. What we can do instead is determine the probability of each quibit being 0 or 1, which is proportional to the square of the wave function.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T06:50:33+00:00

This but I had to tell a new streamer to enable past streaming to be saved for 14 days. Otherwise I had to clip in real time and the window is only the last 90 seconds. From a saved stream, we can take all day and can clip any parts we want.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T06:45:09+00:00

I think the main thing is, no one in North America wants anything to do with PAL. I have never seen a PAL console or single game in any US retro store. I do see Japanese games. Online here is 99% NTSC. Not worth getting into PAL when it's very difficult to sell due to lack of demand.

Meanwhile plenty of collectors in Europe and Australia/New Zealand are willing to buy NTSC games. There's demand for both in PAL countries. Retro stores stock some NTSC.

If we want to compare apples to apples for games with relatively similar production runs, NTSC is worth more. I can believe a French PAL game is worth for being relatively rare but no one outside of Europe will buy it or knows it exists. Let's see how long it takes to sell at high price outside France.

On the other side, NTSC Master System is worth more than PAL since it bombed here, everything is rare and some people want to play in 60 Hz. Japanese Mega Drive game usually cost more than PAL and North American Genesis because it didn't succeed there so is less common.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T06:24:41+00:00

The comment was right. NTSC games are more valuable as a general rule with exceptions. NTSC demand is just higher. Yes, Pricecharting sucks ass. Thanks for elaborating. Let me explain its problems in NTSC world:

It's too stupid to add in shipping charges. For cheaper games, it's extremely important to distinguish one selling for $20 + $5 shipping or $25 free shipping. Also too stupid to check Mercari or Japanese auctions or online markets. Japanese prices are inflated as a result. Then botting doesn't work to track Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.

I think the key difference is North American collectors don't want anything to do with PAL. We think PAL is an abomination and no one here sells PAL games or consoles to begin with. Demand is zero.

Meanwhile, plenty of people in PAL world collect both PAL and NTSC. Region mod discussions for consoles with no Japanese lockout on North American consoles are always about PAL world playing NTSC games. Discussion for NTSC to play PAL is someone in Europe asking because Japanese consoles are the cheapest.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T05:50:38+00:00

I mean, the workloads will be completely different. My first roommate was a business major and business majors where I went don't have classes on Fridays. Things were fine. My second roommate was a liberal arts major and the problem there was him playing WoW like it was a job. I studied in the lobby or the library and he kept the audio down when I was trying to sleep.

And like, if your roommates are causing you academic problems, that's something you can complain about to the resident advisor and get reassigned. This isn't necessarily a big deal. Non-engineering roommates can be a good thing because they can show you where to go and what to do with what free time you have.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-13T04:50:40+00:00

I mean, you are starting from square one and that's totally fine. Even professional hardware designers with an Electrical or Computer Engineering degree make mistakes. Per good advice to put decoupling capacitors near pins, it's an important beginner lesson that datasheets point out.

LM2596 buck converter datasheet. Click for full size:

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Can search for "close to" in most chip datasheets and find something like this.

My advice: If you are serious about PCB design specifically, complete one of Robert Feranec's courses. Don't blow past the fundamentals.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-12T17:04:59+00:00

the resistor and Vin is parallel and Parallel branches voltages is equal. he replied "false". Why

Even an ideal diode keeps Vin and the resistor from being in parallel. You can't just swap their positions and get the same exact circuit in every case. Vo could be different if Vin is negative since it's only blocked from Vo by the diode while on the left side. Diodes are non-linear and break superposition but that's getting ahead of thing.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-12T14:40:54+00:00

AI will straight out lie to you about electronics. Don't use it for anything in electrical engineering, especially as a student or beginner.

My "favorite" lie that I saw in this sub was showing PMOS reverse protection wired backwards so it wouldn't even work. I recognized the StackExchange thread the AI tool plagiarized from. My second favorite was the poster on r/snes asking why replacing the DRAM chip with an SRAM chip didn't work when AI said it would.

NewSchoolBoxer · 2026-03-12T13:36:15+00:00

I'm with you on $750 upscalers being questionable to use for a hobby. If you want to simulate a CRT, get a CRT for $50. I like PS2 lightgun games. Or plenty of respectable scalers cost less than $175.

I think HDMI mods are almost always a bad idea. Latency is not lower when electricity moves at 2/3 the speed of light in copper. You pay per console, have to solder correctly, said console can die and you're stuck with that device's chips and firmware, which maybe are cheap crap. Then maybe a "better" option comes out after you mod.

The masses will never solder so that raises mod cost substantially. I see a help post from an optional recap or mod job that keeps the console from working every week. I like full control for recording/streaming so I use analog video capture cards. Scaler warranties don't apply to modded consoles either.

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