Are questions of the form 'How do I wire…' on-topic here?

Question

The Help Center defines a few on-topic subjects:

If you have a questions that addresses a specific Raspberry Pi topic, then this is the right Stack Exchange site for you!

For the most part this includes:

• Raspberry Pi hardware, including GPIO and other related electronics.
• Raspberry Pi peripherals
• Software that runs on the Raspberry Pi
• Operating Systems built for the Raspberry Pi

Suppose I have a question on how to wire a specific component, but that component is not specific to the Raspberry Pi (even though the Pi is being used to control it). Is such a question on-topic?

Example:

How do I connect a PIR motion sensor to the Raspberry Pi?

_{This isn't an example out of thin air; you can assume that some tutorials have been worked through unsuccessfully.}

Answer 1

I'm afraid there's no clear answer to this question. All I can say is that it depends.

This would be my general test for off-topic'ness:

• If the Raspberry Pi is involved in your question in such a way that knowledge of the Pi, not just of the sub-topic (in this case electronics), would benefit the answer then this is probably the right place for that question.

• If the question could be better answered by someone with a more in-depth knowledge of the sub-topic (such as Electronics.SE for this), then you're probably better off asking it there.