# Notes on electronics troubleshooting

**URL:** <http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/t/notes-on-electronics-troubleshooting/190>\
**Category:** Electronics\
**Created:** [March 24, 2024, 7:38am UTC](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/t/notes-on-electronics-troubleshooting/190 "2024-03-24T07:38:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![0xDBFB7](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/user_avatar/forum.0xdbfb7.com/0xdbfb7/32/7_2.png) [@0xDBFB7](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/u/0xDBFB7)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 7:38am UTC](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/t/notes-on-electronics-troubleshooting/190/1 "2024-03-24T07:38:06Z")

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So many issues I’ve made have been fron mechanical issues while probing. Board not properly screwed down in the housing amd grounds ount agains a chassis. A panavise with metal jaws shorts out the pcb. Test probes slip and short things out. confusing intermittent p

Heck, our facility was was taken down because someone had use a multimeter lead to probe the female side of a BMC connecrtor. now I always use a bnc adapter to bana probe lead and do things right

if you can put a bit more effort into yourbsetup to make even a quick troubkeshooting step a bit. The signal path is a master of this

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**Author:** ![0xDBFB7](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/user_avatar/forum.0xdbfb7.com/0xdbfb7/32/7_2.png) [@0xDBFB7](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/u/0xDBFB7)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/t/notes-on-electronics-troubleshooting/190/2 "2025-05-16T23:01:12Z")

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Evaporating alcohol trick to find shorted components as an alternative to thermal imaging camera.

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**Author:** ![0xDBFB7](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/user_avatar/forum.0xdbfb7.com/0xdbfb7/32/7_2.png) [@0xDBFB7](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/u/0xDBFB7)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 10:20pm UTC](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/t/notes-on-electronics-troubleshooting/190/3 "2026-03-07T22:20:02Z")

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> I normally have the majority of power rails on my boards default to the off state, then turn them on one at a time under control of a supervisor MCU which functions as a PMIC (in this case a STM32L031). This is great for prototypes and small-run boards because it lets me change rail sequencing dynamically with a software patch, as well as automating bringup one rail at a time with instant panic-shutdown within milliseconds if a rail doesn’t stabilize when and where it should. This minimizes the chance of hardware damage in case of solder defects or PCB design bugs on a hand soldered prototype.

[https://serd.es/2025/09/14/Trigger-crossbar.html](https://serd.es/2025/09/14/Trigger-crossbar.html)

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**Author:** ![0xDBFB7](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/user_avatar/forum.0xdbfb7.com/0xdbfb7/32/7_2.png) [@0xDBFB7](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/u/0xDBFB7)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2026, 4:58pm UTC](http://forum.0xdbfb7.com/t/notes-on-electronics-troubleshooting/190/4 "2026-04-04T16:58:34Z")

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light bulb in series