ESeriesRounding

Introduction

This package implements functions to round given values to the nearest E-series value. From wikipedia:
"The E series is a system of preferred numbers (also called preferred values) derived for use in electronic components. It consists of the E3, E6, E12, E24, E48, E96 and E192 series, where the number after the 'E' designates the quantity of value "steps" in each series. Although it is theoretically possible to produce components of any value, in practice the need for inventory simplification has led the industry to settle on the E series for resistors, capacitors, inductors, and zener diodes."

The use case

You use theory and math to calculate a set of components to be used in some circuit, e.g. a control system. But producers only manufacture components at certain values, which are unlikely to match your calculations. This creates two problems:

1. Your calculated components are nowhere to be found among your real components. You then need to somehow figure out what is the best alternative.
2. If you simulate the system with your calculated values, it will use different parameters than your physical system, because the calculated values are not physically available.

To remedy the situation, simply round your calculated values to the nearest standardized ones. This is done with the round function from Jula base. The returned values can be directly plugged into your simulation, or the output can be formatted to better match common component labels.

Examples

Lets start with loading the package.

Julia> using CircuitComponentRounding

And lets round a single value to the E12 series:

julia> round(E12, 266)
270.0

The input can be a vector of values:

julia> vals = [3, 7e-7, 14e-2, 17e7]

julia> round(E12, vals)
4-element Vector{Any}:
 3.3
 8.2e-7
 0.15
 1.8e8

When having very large or very small values, some formatting would be nice. This is supplied by the NumericIO.jl package. The format is set with the third and final positional argument. Reccomended formats are :SI or :ENG:

julia> round(E12, vals, :SI)
4-element Vector{Any}:
 "3.30"
 "820n"
 "150m"
 "180M"

julia> round(E12, vals, :ENG)
4-element Vector{Any}:
 "3.30×10⁰"
 "820×10⁻⁹"
 "150×10⁻³"
 "180×10⁶"

The E-series variables

This package defines all E-series as variables E3, E6, and so on, up to E192. To see the values in any series, you can:

1. Evaluate the variable, e.g. E6, and the values will be shown in your default IO stream, which changes depending of where you are excecuting your code (VSCode, Pluto, the REPL etc).
2. Call print on the variable, e.g. print(E6), and the values will be printed in the REPL:

julia> print(E6)
Values in E6:
100   |   150   |   220
330   |   470   |   680

You can also access the values directly as a vector, by calling the vals field of the E-series:

julia> E3.vals
3-element Vector{Int64}:        
 100
 220
 470

But what series should I round to?

To determine what series is available to you, you can do two things:

1. Manually check for matches between the available components and a list of E-series values. To see all values in a given series, see the paragraph above.
2. Use the function determine_E.

Here is an example of how to use determine_E. Let's say that I can see a few component around, and I will use those to determine which E-series would contain them all:

julia> determine_E(220, 470, 680)
3-element Vector{Symbol}:
 :E6
 :E12
 :E24

There are 3 series that contain all the values given. Let's add some more information, and see if we can narrow it down to one:

julia> determine_E(220, 470, 680, 910)
1-element Vector{Symbol}:
 :E24

Great! Now the determined E24 series can be used for future rounding.

How the rounding is implemented

The rounded value has the smallest percentage error possible. This is done by finding the geometric mean of the two numbers in the given E-series ajecent to the given value (one smaller, one larger), and returning the E-series value on the same side of the mean value as the input value.

In other words, if the input value is larger than the geometric mean, the returned value was rounded up. If the given input is smaller than the geometric mean, the output was rounded down. Rounding in this case means taking the first bigger/smaller value in the E-series.

Where do the values come from?

The values rounded to are found in the wikipedia list of E-series values. While this list ranges from 1 to 10, the values used are multiplied by 100 and converted to integers. The advantages are that integers are exact, in addition to being (opinion) faster and easier to read than floating point values.

Feedback

As this is the first package of a relativly novice programmer, feedback and input on ways the package could be better are very welcome!