TROUBLESHOOTING

[ODIN'S DEN]

I'm posting this topic after searching the site i notice that there are a lot of projects, but not enough 411 on how to fix things. So to any one out there please feel free to to add your 2 cents about troubleshooting electronics. It can be anything from fixing a cd player to reapairing a sattelite communications dish. happy posting(s) 8)

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Re: TROUBLE SHOOTING

I'm posting this topic after searching the site i notice that there are a lot of projects, but not enough 411 on how to fix things. So to any one out there please feel free to to add your 2 cents about troubleshooting electronics. It can be anything from fixing a cd player to reapairing a sattelite communications dish. happy posting(s) 8)

It's basically down to understanding how things work, then it's down to personal experience - often you find similar faults occuring for similar reasons.

There's NO simple shortcut to troubleshooting equipment!.

One simple suggestion that may help, if to use the 'half split' method, where you repeatedly test in the middle of the faulty unit. If signal tracing, you test in the middle, and then you know if the fault is before that point, or after that point. You then move to the half that you now know is faulty, and apply the same 'half split' method again. After only a few of these tests you have the fault located to a very small section of the unit.

 

[mstechca]

TROUBLE SHOOTING

haha you come to this forum to let us know you are having trouble shooting something? This is an electronics site! LOL

anyways, if you meant troubleshooting, then use this forum to ask questions. I think Nigel and Audioguru are the two top electronic troubleshooters here.

 

[stevez]

The best wisdom ever offered to me in terms of electronics troubleshooting is to check and double check the power supply. That could be the batteries or the AC supply. On some things voltage is critical - as with many ICs. My recollection is that a nominal 5 volts can only vary by 0.25 volts before affecting things. Ripple is another culprit - the voltage may indicate ok but if filter capacitors have failed the ripple goes up and that screws things up.

Another bit of valuable wisdom - if things are out of spec don't try to make sense of what they are doing. An example might be the 5 volt IC again - if the supply voltage is out of spec you should consider the behavior of the IC as entirely unpredictable. Another example is an air conditioner that would start sometimes yet not at others. At first I thought the compressor was starting to fail - in the end it was the supply voltage - it was outside the normal tolerance - not by much but by restoring the voltage to within specs the problem went away.

A broader bit of wisdom that's along the same lines is that all of the basics must be taken care of before going to the complicated stuff. My automobile is a good example. If I am having some trouble with driveability I've learned to verify that things like the fuel supply is correct (and no water), that ignition wires haven't failed, that it's not long past due for a tune-up, that sufficient coolant is in the system, that the air filter is clean, etc. Quite often with larger more complicated systems there can be several areas where things have deteriorated over time resulting in odd symptoms.

All of the above applies if the troubleshooter isn't someone who might be experienced with the kinds of things that are likely to fail on a given kind of equipment. Quite often the experience mechanic or technician will recognize a common failure by the symptoms and will go straight to the problem area. Many of us describe our problems here - probably in hopes that someone with experience will share a commonly found problem.

 

[MARINE1142]

Well they are right there is no easy way to learn how to troubleshoot, but exp and knowledge of what you are working on help. I have found that when I troubleshoot machines I start with the problem like what is this machine is not doing, then I start with the simple stuff first after that I get more in depth such as input voltages,feedback,sync,conn,etc. Then if I really get stuck I would come here and see if someone could help me here. Chances are they could steer you in the right direction.