Is There a Tester That Can Test Entire Circuit Board?
I received two quite similar emails from two different ERG members whether is there a tester that can test the entire circuit board.? My answer to them- no there were no tester that can test the entire circuit board. I told them that different circuit and different components need different tester to check it. If you are troubleshooting TTL circuit then you need a logic probe and logic pulser to help find out the bad ic. En ESR meter or even multimeter can't do the job.
If you want to check a coil then you need a coil or a ring tester. Again, Ohmmeter would not be able to detect shorted winding in a coil. If you want to see the output waveform of an IC, an oscillscope will be helpful on this. Even a good digital multimeter would not be able to check such waveform. If you want to see which section of a PC mother board have problem then you need a PC post card to do the job for you. If there is a short circuit in a high density board then you need a short circuit finder to locate the shorted component.
I hope you are clear now why a successful electronics repairer have so many test equipment on their bench. Those testers on the repair bench are not meant to be shown off but a way to finding fault faster than just depending only on a single multimeter.
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Waleed Rishmawi
August 30, 2012 at 2:21 am
totally agree. though i have seen a computerized meter that can test digital cameras. plug the camera into it and it will tell you where the fault is and if does not, it will give you a choice where to look.
Jestine Yong
August 30, 2012 at 2:37 am
HI Waleed,
That was a real gem for those who repair Digital Cameras.
Jestine
jojogreg
August 30, 2012 at 10:54 am
i strongly agree.It's nice to have all that test instrument to do the repair quite easily in a short period of time compare to one multimeter..
PHILIP ODHIAMBO
August 31, 2012 at 2:08 am
I agree Mr jestine.We only need to look for all the testing equipments as you are helping us to do so.
mike
September 13, 2012 at 6:10 am
what about the faultfinder range.product of diagnosys(diagnosys .com)
Jestine Yong
September 14, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Hi mike,
Theybare good in locating shorted component in the high density board. They can't be used to check for shorted winding in transformer, bad ESR in electrolytic capacitor and etc.
Jestine
Rohmell Brills
September 18, 2012 at 7:11 pm
The Huntron Tracker seems to be a good unit to use as an 'Entire Circuit Board Tester", as long as you have an identical working sample board.
We have been using the Huntron tracker to detect shorts in pulse transformers. The transformer has 4 identical windings. When the Tracker is connected to any winding that is good, the display looks like the eye of a sewing needle. If the display shows a vertical line, then one of the windings is shorted, even one that is not connected directly to the Tracker! (the shorted winding is loading down the entire transformer)
While connected to one winding, by shorting the other windings with a pushbutton switch, it will show a vertical line on the display. This indicates that the other windings are good, .because you are now manually shorting the other windings via the pushbutton switch. if the button is pressed, and there is no change in the display, then that winding is open.
Thai method is much faster than using the HP LCR meter that we were tesing with before to chech each individual winding.
Mr. Yong, you have a Tracker, how do you like it? I think if you practice with it, you will find it to be a very useful tool.
Yes, it is an expensive piece of test equipment to buy, but you can build your own simplified version:
http://www.smcelectronics.com/CIRCUITS/OCTOPUS.PDF
Jestine Yong
September 19, 2012 at 12:46 am
Hi Rohmell,
Yes i have it and only use for comparison work. As for checking the winding I use Blue Ring Tester.
Jestine
mike
September 24, 2012 at 4:58 pm
which would u recommend for lcd/plasma tv,laptop faultfinding
Jestine Yong
September 24, 2012 at 9:48 pm
Hi Mike,
It depends on what components and section you want to check on those boards. For power section you need esr and ring tester. For smd board, you need huntron tracker, smart tweezers, digital scope, and etc.
Jestine