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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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#1
Posted to alt.nl.electronica.zelfbouw,sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
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Adding "debug" electronics to electronics to quickly diagnose and repair.
Hello,
I had an idea how electronics might be diagnosed and repaired more quickly. The idea is to add "debug leds" to electronics, and some kind of "debug circuitry". The designer knows what kind of inputs and outputs are expected for certain components. The designer then adds the debug circuitry to be able to measure if the inputs and outputs correspond to what is expected. The debug circuitry could be attached to special power lines or so to be able to turn them on and off. So during a repair session an electronics repairman could turn on the "debug circuitry" and quickly get an idea of how many components are potentially dead... because the debug leds don't come on. All good electronics would have the led on. All bad electronics would have the led off. Now the repairman can quickly proceed to the dead electronics and replace them. However there might be a problem if certain components depend on the inputs and outputs of other electronics. Then a cascade of "false" failures could happen. To prevent this all electronics would have to be tested seperatedly by the seperate "debug circuitry"... As to be able to "debug" all electroncics individually. So the debug electronics could have two modes: 1. "Cascade mode" where the inputs and outputs are compared to values which corresponds with a correctly working circuitry. 2. "Individual mode" where the inputs and outputs are compared to individuel values which correspond with a correctly working component when it's individually powered on/tested. Adding this kind of debug electronics would add to the cost so this should be able to be done cheaply... with some kind of cheap debug electronics. What do you electronics experts think of this idea, is it feasible or not feasible ? please motivate your answers ! Bye, Skybuck. |
#2
Posted to alt.nl.electronica.zelfbouw,sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
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Adding "debug" electronics to electronics to quickly diagnoseand repair.
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:32:43 +0200, Skybuck Flying wrote:
Hello, I had an idea how electronics might be diagnosed and repaired more quickly. The idea is to add "debug leds" to electronics, and some kind of "debug circuitry". The designer knows what kind of inputs and outputs are expected for certain components. The designer then adds the debug circuitry to be able to measure if the inputs and outputs correspond to what is expected. The debug circuitry could be attached to special power lines or so to be able to turn them on and off. So during a repair session an electronics repairman could turn on the "debug circuitry" and quickly get an idea of how many components are potentially dead... because the debug leds don't come on. All good electronics would have the led on. All bad electronics would have the led off. Now the repairman can quickly proceed to the dead electronics and replace them. However there might be a problem if certain components depend on the inputs and outputs of other electronics. Then a cascade of "false" failures could happen. To prevent this all electronics would have to be tested seperatedly by the seperate "debug circuitry"... As to be able to "debug" all electroncics individually. So the debug electronics could have two modes: 1. "Cascade mode" where the inputs and outputs are compared to values which corresponds with a correctly working circuitry. 2. "Individual mode" where the inputs and outputs are compared to individuel values which correspond with a correctly working component when it's individually powered on/tested. Adding this kind of debug electronics would add to the cost so this should be able to be done cheaply... with some kind of cheap debug electronics. What do you electronics experts think of this idea, is it feasible or not feasible ? please motivate your answers ! Bye, Skybuck. Google is your friend, even if you're a USENET troll. Search on "built in test" or "BIT" for the military/high-end usage, and "power on self test" or POST for PC usage. And get a life. -- www.wescottdesign.com |
#3
Posted to sci.electronics.repair
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Adding "debug" electronics to electronics to quickly diagnose and repair.
"Skybuck Flying" wrote in message
.home.nl... Hello, I had an idea how electronics might be diagnosed and repaired more quickly. The idea is to add "debug leds" to electronics, and some kind of "debug circuitry". The designer knows what kind of inputs and outputs are expected for certain components. The designer then adds the debug circuitry to be able to measure if the inputs and outputs correspond to what is expected. The debug circuitry could be attached to special power lines or so to be able to turn them on and off. So during a repair session an electronics repairman could turn on the "debug circuitry" and quickly get an idea of how many components are potentially dead... because the debug leds don't come on. All good electronics would have the led on. All bad electronics would have the led off. Now the repairman can quickly proceed to the dead electronics and replace them. However there might be a problem if certain components depend on the inputs and outputs of other electronics. Then a cascade of "false" failures could happen. To prevent this all electronics would have to be tested seperatedly by the seperate "debug circuitry"... As to be able to "debug" all electroncics individually. So the debug electronics could have two modes: 1. "Cascade mode" where the inputs and outputs are compared to values which corresponds with a correctly working circuitry. 2. "Individual mode" where the inputs and outputs are compared to individuel values which correspond with a correctly working component when it's individually powered on/tested. Adding this kind of debug electronics would add to the cost so this should be able to be done cheaply... with some kind of cheap debug electronics. What do you electronics experts think of this idea, is it feasible or not feasible ? please motivate your answers ! Bye, Skybuck. I think the engineers would never do this unless it would tend to make a fool of electronics experts. Very likely, bean counters would throw it out before it got that far. In my experience, it is business as usual to perform repairs in spite of the manufacturer rather than at the direction of the manufacturer unless you are somehow underwritten by the sales dept. Internal diagnostics schemes like these typically assist in manufacturing or sales and are only found in expensive high end equipment.. |
#4
Posted to alt.nl.electronica.zelfbouw,sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
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Adding "debug" electronics to electronics to quickly diagnose and repair.
"Skybuck Flying" wrote in message .home.nl... Hello, I had an idea how electronics might be diagnosed and repaired more quickly. The idea is to add "debug leds" to electronics, and some kind of "debug circuitry". The designer knows what kind of inputs and outputs are expected for certain components. The designer then adds the debug circuitry to be able to measure if the inputs and outputs correspond to what is expected. The debug circuitry could be attached to special power lines or so to be able to turn them on and off. So during a repair session an electronics repairman could turn on the "debug circuitry" and quickly get an idea of how many components are potentially dead... because the debug leds don't come on. All good electronics would have the led on. All bad electronics would have the led off. Now the repairman can quickly proceed to the dead electronics and replace them. However there might be a problem if certain components depend on the inputs and outputs of other electronics. Then a cascade of "false" failures could happen. To prevent this all electronics would have to be tested seperatedly by the seperate "debug circuitry"... As to be able to "debug" all electroncics individually. So the debug electronics could have two modes: 1. "Cascade mode" where the inputs and outputs are compared to values which corresponds with a correctly working circuitry. 2. "Individual mode" where the inputs and outputs are compared to individuel values which correspond with a correctly working component when it's individually powered on/tested. Adding this kind of debug electronics would add to the cost so this should be able to be done cheaply... with some kind of cheap debug electronics. What do you electronics experts think of this idea, is it feasible or not feasible ? please motivate your answers ! Bye, Skybuck. Many pieces of electronic equipment already have 'debug' modes. Almost everything from toasters to your car now have anything between 1 and 50 supervisory processor ICs in them, and it is a comparitively simple job for the programmer to build monitoring and testing routines into his code. The results of these may be accessible to the service engineer via several different routes, including some kind of 'standard' serial computer interface - RS232 or USB etc - or the unit's user display, or in its simplest form, by different flash sequences of the standby LED. Yamaha AV amplifiers, for instance, have a very comprehensive monitoring and diagnostic tool built in, complete with memory to tell you what events have happened leading up to the failure. Your car also has very comprehensive monitoring of just about everything electrical and electronic on the car, and also most if not all of the electromechanical systems, again, complete with storage to tell the mechanic just exactly what went wrong. Most (decent makes of) TV sets have had the flashing LED type diagnostics for many years now. Doing it by way of the system control processors is cheap for the manufacturers, as there is only a one-time investment in code writing overhead. No, or very minimal, additional hardware support, is needed. Arfa |
#5
Posted to alt.nl.electronica.zelfbouw,sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
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Adding "debug" electronics to electronics to quickly diagnose and repair.
I was thinking about "simple" hardware like audio hardware (simple?).
Where there are many little simple components ? Bye, Skybuck. |
#6
Posted to alt.nl.electronica.zelfbouw,sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
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Adding "debug" electronics to electronics to quickly diagnose and repair.
Yes but how usefull are current systems for actually repairing hardware ?
Time-wise too. Repairman should be able to very quickly spot the defect and replace it... I am even thinking about easy to remove and plug back components so that even non-eletronics experts could repair electronics by simply going to a store buying the necessary little components and simply stick them into place without any soldering... that would be cool ! Bye, Skybuck. |
#7
Posted to alt.nl.electronica.zelfbouw,sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
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Adding "debug" electronics to electronics to quickly diagnoseand repair.
On 8/11/2009 1:01 PM Skybuck Flying spake thus:
Yes but how usefull are current systems for actually repairing hardware ? Time-wise too. Repairman should be able to very quickly spot the defect and replace it... You're assuming that manufacturers of such devices would actually want to make them easily repairable. The opposite is in fact the case. Almost everything today is made to just be ****canned and replaced if it stops working. Repair? What's that? -- Found--the gene that causes belief in genetic determinism |
#8
Posted to alt.nl.electronica.zelfbouw,sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
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Adding "debug" electronics to electronics to quickly diagnose and repair.
"Skybuck Flying" wrote in message
b.home.nl... Yes but how usefull are current systems for actually repairing hardware ? Hardware "repair" these days usually just means board swapping -- it's rather more expensive (in most cases) to perform component level troubleshooting/repair anymore, so few companies bother. I am even thinking about easy to remove and plug back components so that even non-eletronics experts could repair electronics by simply going to a store buying the necessary little components and simply stick them into place without any soldering... that would be cool ! Ask your grandparents about their old tube radios some time... they occasionally came with replacement parts provided inside. I'm young enough that while I grew up seeing the ubiquitous "No user serviceable parts inside" disclaimer on everything I bought new (and would wonder, "Why do they even print that when it's the same for everything?"), one day I was astonished to come across an old radio of my mother's that said something like, "Serviceable parts inside: Two fuses, alginment tool, etc..." Besides just the cost factor, another factor that led to electronics no being user serviceable include the vast improvement in reliability that come as IC manufacturing processes matured -- in many cases by the time the electronics in a widget fail, the widget will be obsolete anyway and the customer will just use the failure as a reason to upgrade to something newer/fancier. Indeed, other than "infant death" and "abuse," most remaining electronic failures are due to poor designs (see, e.g., the Xbox "ring of death" debacle... or Jan's post about his USB plugs) and not transistor/IC technology relability problems. ---Joel |
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