On Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:07:46 -0400, Meat Plow wrote:

On Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:03:41 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Sun, 4 Apr 2010 09:00:56 +0100, "N_Cook" wrote:

After a DVM the next most useful piece of test equipment is a crystal
earpiece with a high voltage cap in tow, for audio repair work . Next comes
a sig gen and then a scope (analogue not DSO and stand alone, not tied to a
pc). Other useful pieces of test kit is a nose, eyes (with good magnifying
inspection lamp) and ears.

For me, the most useful item is a schematic. I don't have an earphone
connector on my crystal ball, but I'll certainly check with my
consulting sorcerer if it's an available option. The video on my
crystal ball is working just fine and is able to devine the future and
troubleshoot problems with amazing accuracy. However, without audio,
the best I can do is lip read and guess what's happening. I'm not
sure the other accessories will be very useful. My nose is always
dripping. My reading glasses have morphed into surgeons glasses. My
ears are fine, but haven't been the same since I bought an iPod Touch.
I do have a magnifying glass, but find a microscope more useful for
PCB work.

I just use a Dowsing Rod, points out the bad parts every time.

Dowsing only works for detecting running water, such as a leaky
electrolytic. When I tried it, the rod would always point to my
coffee cup.

The crystal ball is far better for troubleshooting. I use a form of
"map dowsing" where the schematic acts as a map. I place the
schematic behind the crystal ball, and look at the highly distorted
future image. Failed components appear as soldering iron burnt areas
or are marked by red circles, which is what I sometimes do to mark the
schematic after I finish the repair.

A crystal ball will also work by viewing the device being repaired
through the crystal ball, but it's very difficult to distinguish the
original and the future replacement parts through the distorted image.
However, viewing the device in a magic mirror, which reflects the
opposite of what will happen is very useful. The reflection will show
a smoking ruin for all the components, except the defective part,
which will look perfect.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558