this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Hello everyone! First off, I need to mention that my background is in Computer Science (this project is actually for my thesis) and not in Electrical or Computer Engineering. As such, everything I've learned has been largely on my own, within the past few months.

That being said, I would feel more confident if an experienced set of eyes could take a look at my schematic and let me know if anything pops out as wrong/bad practice. Furthermore, with regards to the decoupling capacitor on the DS3231M RTC module (C1 on the schematic) I have a question: Would there be any problem if I use an electrolytic capacitor instead of a ceramic one? I read some stuff about the topic and people recommend using ceramic capacitors most of the time (I think) but others say that there shouldn't be a problem to use an electrolytic capacitor. I'm asking because I've already placed an order for parts, and one of them is this assorted set of electrolytic capacitors.

Please if you notice any mistakes or things that are not done the best way let me know, and try to explain why as simply as you can. As I said, I don't have a background in EE, even though it highly interests me and I want to learn.

Here is the schematic:

Many thanks in advance!

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[–] besselj@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Usually the datasheet has some guidance for the type/value of decoupling capacitor to use.

Electrolytic is probably fine as long as you get the polarity right.

[–] promitheas@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

The datasheet just has this:

DC Power Pin for Primary Power Supply. This pin should be decoupled using a 0.1µF to 1.0µF capacitor. If not used, connect to ground.

But if it really is OK to use an electrolytic one given the polarity is correct, then thats still good. Ive been looking on online stores for 1uF ceramic capacitors and I couldnt find any.