On 14/01/2012 12:42, NT wrote:
On Jan 14, 5:20 am, John wrote:
On 14/01/2012 03:32, NT wrote:



On Jan 14, 12:21 am, wrote:
In , John
writes

I was toying with doing a wiki article on component level repair of
electronic stuff, since there seems to be so much otherwise decent kit
that dies these days for silly reasons like failing capacitors etc.

A few random thoughts - more to follow

Repair would entail correct diagnosis of the fault

exactly, and thats where ukdiy often falls down, and beginners cant
generally do it on their own.

I don't think that anyone is suggesting detailed fault finding
techniques for digital electronics.

any fault finding for any electronics would be a move forward for the
beginner

Perhaps there are two articles here - one on fault finding and one on
service technique?

(which while not actually a massively difficult task with the right
equipment, its very easy to find yourself twiddling knobs on several
hundred grands worth of it in the process, which tends to put much of it
beyond most folks DIY budgets)

At the simplest level, a hell of allot of kit can be saved just by
spotting the caps that are bulging and spewing electrolyte all over the
place. If you want to get a bit deeper, then you can do plenty with a
multimeter, and even relatively specialist bits of kits like LCR
component analysers or ESR meters are not that expensive.

(I don't agree that ukdiy falls down on diagnosis either particularly -
we have some very good engineers here with plenty of experience in
relevant fields. That does not mean that all contributions or all advice
will be spot on, but its no reason to write it off either)

A problem I see here too often is a series of people simply taking
wild guesses. Its an approach that simply doesnt work often when
you're faced with an electronic system using 100s of parts.

Perhaps not, but we are talking about a guide to method and technique
here, so that does not need to apply!

For beginners to electronic repair I'd suggest
1. getting a multimeter
2. understanding that both power and signals flow through the circuit
stage by stage
3. Using the meter to spot where power or signal fails to be there,
thus narrowing the fault down to a specific small area of circuit.,
usually. I say usually as eg CRT TV PSUs can be extremely interlinked
with other parts of the tv.

Indeed, and probably a good example of kit one ought not encourage the
inexperienced to go poking about in since they can bite...



--
Cheers,

John.

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