Our very first post at Circuit Board Problems was about an application note created by Huntron that is a basic flowchart of the electronic circuit board troubleshooting process. We thought the chart was spot-on and asked for permission to share to which they granted.Lo and behold, we see that Huntron has posted a new article […]
Using V/I Signature Patterns to Troubleshoot Bus Circuitry
One of the more difficult types of electronic repair tasks is troubleshooting bus structures on complex digital microprocessor based circuit boards. Many identical address and data bus lines share the same electrical characteristics and make the fault finding process a challenge. However, you can use the repeating nature of this digital structure to your advantage. When […]
Interesting Addition to Gallery of Bad
Most images in the Gallery Of Bad are pretty obvious as far as why they are included in the Gallery. However, we thought this example warranted being singled out for a bit further discussion. This BGA device looks normal at first glance but take a closer look or better, feel the top of it with your […]
Look Close then look CLOSER! The Importance of good Circuit Board Inspection.
One of the first steps in troubleshooting an electronic circuit board is to perform a visual inspection. We did this with a recent stepper motor driver that had failed and did not see any issues. The next step involved building a signature analysis test to perform some power-off diagnostics. This process took about a half-hour […]
Updates to the Gallery of Bad – Letting the Smoke Out!
We recently had a circuit board come in that had been subjected to some SERIOUS over-voltage stress. Needless to say, there were blown and fried components a-plenty. The board itself is probably not repairable but we did take the opportunity to take several images and post them in the Gallery of Bad. The Gallery of […]
Troubleshooting a Switching Power Supply – Part 2
In Troubleshooting a Switching Power Supply – Part 1, we had replaced U1 and CR12 based on the analog signatures from the Huntron Tracker showing them as bad. On the rescan, the unit (for practical purposes) passed when compared against our known good reference signatures. There were no catastrophic problems indicated that would make us […]
Troubleshooting a Switching Power Supply – Part 1
We recently received a switching power supply that failed in the field so we took the opportunity to do some troubleshooting and discuss the process here on CircuitBoardProblems.com! Of course, like any good troubleshooters (and according to the PCB Troubleshooting Flowchart) we gave the power supply a good visual inspection. On the bottom side of […]
Problems with Counterfeit Components
As a follow up to our last blog past which discussed sources for replacement parts, there can also be issues with getting what you paid for. Counterfeit parts are becoming a serious problem plaguing contract manufacturers and board repair services alike. Again, research your sources, ask questions and maybe even request a sample or two. […]
Electronic Parts Sources
You have discovered a bad component on a PCB and now you need to replace it. Where do you go to get electronic replacement parts? A quick Google or Bing search will likely find you many of the major resellers of electronic parts but we thought we would list some of them here. This list […]
Solder Balls!
Here is a manufacturing process issue that turned out provide an interesting insight into how hot, liquid solder can react if it gets out of control. Initial testing with analog signature analysis shows a resistive difference on only one pin of a transistor (top image; top row of signatures, far right signature; green is good, […]