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What should we do with the 12V and 24V tags?

I can't see a reason to group questions with the same voltage because many different types of circuits could be defined by either voltage.

We seem to have people relating this most to automotive applications due to tag descriptions, but if you look at the questions listed, they have automotive or battery applications or even solar. Someone could be designing a circuit with a 12V Vcc and throw that on the 12V tag.

I think these tags should be deleted. The questions in each tag are smattered with different unrelated subjects.

People should come up with a tag for their specific application, if its automotive, then they should use an automotive tag. If its a battery tag, then use the battery-charging or battery-operated tag.

I checked the 5V and 3.3V tags before I wrote this, but they actually have titles. However, if we were to change the 12V and 24V tags we should look at them also. At least the 3.3V and 5V tags have titles and seem to be associated with level shifting:

"Questions regarding 5V level signals, level-shifting, and circuits."

3.3V has the same thing:

"Questions regarding 3.3V level signals, level-shifting, and circuits"

instead of an ambiguous title like the 12V and 24V.

I don't know if I'd get rid of the 3.3V or 5V tags as they actually have a title (although I'd be much happier if we split those tags into something more meaningful, like 3.3V-CMOS or 5V-usb power ect) or just kill them also.

Again the voltage level has little to do with the question if you look at the other tags associated with the 3.3V and 5V tags.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ There's a few things between the lines when talking about 12V and 24V specifically. In the branch of automotive electronics (truck/heavy machinery electronics in particular), those who are used to 24V battery voltages in vehicles tend to regard 12V systems as "fickle stuff that will always break". Mostly due to the voltage drop during ignition, but also since devices supplied from such 12V systems (hydraulic valves in particular) need twice the current to work. There may be a need for a tag that can communicate "Oh by the way, this is a 12V system." "Oh. Crap." \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 6:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ So why would you group solar and automotive and audio circuits that happen to run at 12v together? Did you look at the tags? \$\endgroup\$
    – Voltage Spike Mod
    Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 15:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ The 12V wiki is pretty good. 24V lacks a wiki. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 6:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ The tag does not necessarily need to have one single meaning. Perhaps it could be split in several, if that would be meaningful. Such as 12V-automotive. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 6:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yeah, but it needs to match up with the tag header, and none of them do. I can't go and write a description for 24V for example \$\endgroup\$
    – Voltage Spike Mod
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 15:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ Could we just add tags for all possible voltages? \$\endgroup\$
    – Hack-R
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 23:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @laptop2d I think you misread my comment. I was saying a tag for every possible voltage, which would be an infinite amount of tags. Also, it was sarcastic. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hack-R
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 23:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ There is no way to read sarcasm \$\endgroup\$
    – Voltage Spike Mod
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 23:24

3 Answers 3

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I second the removal proposed by @laptop2d.

Tags should help searchability. If they don't, or if people cannot guess how to use them correctly, they do more harm than good, since people will keep on sticking them to the most diverse questions.

I acknowledge the objections made by @Lundin, but they are not relevant enough to keep some trashbin tags around, IMO.

I do however propose to retag those questions that clearly refer to automotive 12V and 24V systems, which definitely are important EE subfields, with more explicit tags, for example automotive-12V-systems and automotive-24V-systems, or something like that.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ retagging sounds good to me except that might take some work \$\endgroup\$
    – Voltage Spike Mod
    Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 18:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ @laptop2d yep! That's definitely an issue. Sadly I have little spare time at the moment, so I cannot contribute. Maybe a task for low rep users that want to earn a little bit of rep with janitorial work. \$\endgroup\$
    – LorenzoDonati4Ukraine-OnStrike
    Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 20:13
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    \$\begingroup\$ I think re-tagging might be the proper action too. However, the tags should probably start with the voltage? 12V-automotive, 12V-home-electronics, 12V-battery etc. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 6:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Lundin nothing against putting the voltage first. I'm perplexed about 12V-battery: maybe too specialized. What's the difference between a 12V battery and another lead-acid battery or a 24V automotive battery? E.g., are 12V batteries used in UPS comprised too? Those cases are better handled by multiple tags IMO, i.e. 12V-automotive+battery, otherwise we risk an exponential explosion of mildly related tags, with no apparent advantage when searching. \$\endgroup\$
    – LorenzoDonati4Ukraine-OnStrike
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 12:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ Moreover, is 12V-home-electronics as a well defined application niche as 12V-automotive? I'm not sure about that. Again, it seems too specialized to me (but I may be proven wrong): isn't it better just home-electronics or, better yet, domotics or home-automation? \$\endgroup\$
    – LorenzoDonati4Ukraine-OnStrike
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 12:41
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These are standard voltages in many areas of application. If we are to remove them, then we would have to be consistent and remove all such voltage tags, such as and . I don't think we should remove any of them.

I think tags for industry standard voltages fill a purpose, as these come with a whole lot of components and products designed to work for that particular voltage. Products such as voltage regulators, logic level shifting buffers, transient protection etc. There are a whole lot of integrated circuits in general that are designed to work with a specific, standardized supply voltage in mind.

For specific areas of applications, such standard voltages also have lots of phenomenon associated with them. 12V versus 24V is a commonly encountered topic in automotive electronics and both voltages have various electronic components associated with them.

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    \$\begingroup\$ If there is a "standard" then people are not using them. We use tags here to group questions so they are searchable. If you click on the links above and look at the questions, there is no common subject between the types of questions listed. Since most circuits operate across a range of voltages and not at a fixed voltage, it would be better to define them by the type of circuit they are. \$\endgroup\$
    – Voltage Spike Mod
    Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 15:09
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    \$\begingroup\$ Questions which really need a voltage tag (so that answers for a different voltage won't fit), have a good chance to be either product recommendation questions or a questions about the use of existing electronics. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Commented Aug 17, 2017 at 7:37
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I don't think the voltage is important enough to be a tag - yes, it should generally be specified in the question, but asides from maybe high-voltage (over 50-60 volts), I don't think there is much benefit from having those as tags (even 3V3 and 5V), as most devices have a tolerance range, i.e. maybe 4.5-6.5V and 4.75-5.25V would both be classified "5V", but those are a bit different and the nuance is better explained in the question rather than via tags - especially when you get into "automotive 12v" which generally means devices can handle spikes up to ~18V, but if you have a more sensitive 12V device, such as maybe a router or a switch, it's unlikely to be as robust.

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