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Huntron PCB Troubleshooting Start With The Connectors

The document discusses using PCB connectors as a starting point for troubleshooting circuit boards. It provides examples where faults were initially detected by comparing measurements from connectors on good versus faulty boards. In one case, signatures from a connector and IC pin matched, identifying a problem with that IC. In another example, burn marks on resistors were found by examining an area identified from different signatures on connector pins and resistor nets. The document concludes that checking connectors first is an easy way to start troubleshooting complex boards without documentation.

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Yeron Gelaye
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116 views3 pages

Huntron PCB Troubleshooting Start With The Connectors

The document discusses using PCB connectors as a starting point for troubleshooting circuit boards. It provides examples where faults were initially detected by comparing measurements from connectors on good versus faulty boards. In one case, signatures from a connector and IC pin matched, identifying a problem with that IC. In another example, burn marks on resistors were found by examining an area identified from different signatures on connector pins and resistor nets. The document concludes that checking connectors first is an easy way to start troubleshooting complex boards without documentation.

Uploaded by

Yeron Gelaye
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PCB Troubleshooting – Start with the Connectors!

Our thanks to Huntron for allowing us to reprint the following article.

If you have been troubleshooting circuit boards for a


length of time then it may come as no surprise that many
printed circuit boards (PCB) are damaged by surges,
spikes and torrents of nasty over-current eruptions coming
from the outside.

Of course, the connectors on the PCB are the interface to


that dangerous outside world so it makes sense to use the
PCB connectors as a starting place when troubleshooting.
This is helpful especially if you have no documentation
(i.e. schematics) or know little about the board. Here are
some great examples of PCB problems initially detected
by testing at the connector level first. The faults were
detected by comparing measurements from good boards
to bad boards. These examples used a Huntron Tracker
and Huntron’s Workstation software for the fault detection
but based on the severity of the faults, any decent power-
off test instrument would have probably detected
differences as well. Here is an image of the PCB with IC24 and J11 visible.
The red arrow indicates the faulty IC pin. The trace from
Yes, it IS that IC... the connector J11 goes only to pin 15 of the IC so we can
say with strong confidence that IC25 is the actual problem.
This example shows the Huntron Tracker signatures from This is a relatively complex PCB so it was a relief to be
J11 (which was scanned first) and IC25. The top row of able to spot an issue quickly from the PCB connectors.
signatures in each image shows each faulty pin in four
“Tracker” ranges. The point to note is that the signatures
for the faulty pins are same for the connector AND the
integrated circuit IC25 (although arranged differently in the
images). This leads us to believe that they are connected
to each other, which was verified by physically checking
continuity between the two points.

1547 N. Trooper Road • P. O. Box 1117 • Worcester, PA 19490-1117 USA


Corporate Phone: 610-825-4990 • Sales: 800-832-4866 or 610-941-2400
Fax: 800-854-8665 or 610-828-5623 • Web: www.techni-tool.com
Burns Mark the Spot...

This fault was detected from the connector and using a


CAD view and video microscope allowed us to quickly
isolate the faulty resistors. Here are the Tracker
signatures for two failed resistor NETs on a very complex
surface mount technology (SMT) circuit board:

Using a close-up video camera, we were able to see the


burn marks on the two faulty resistors. The damage is
somewhat difficult to see but if you compare to the two
resistors below you can get an indication on how they
should appear.

Note that the signatures for the two resistor nets are very In conclusion...
similar. While scanning the PCB connectors first may not always
lead you to the component faults, it is always an easy and
Using the CAD view data from the PCB layout helped us convenient place to start especially if the PCB has a lot of
zero in on the location of the faulty components. Note that small components that are difficult to probe manually.
both resistors connect to the 25 pin connector close by. Connectors are generally much more friendly when it
comes to hand probing.
1547 N. Trooper Road • P. O. Box 1117 • Worcester, PA 19490-1117 USA
Corporate Phone: 610-825-4990 • Sales: 800-832-4866 or 610-941-2400
Fax: 800-854-8665 or 610-828-5623 • Web: www.techni-tool.com
This article was written by Curtis Smith (Huntron
Technical Support) for the Circuit Board Problems web
site at http://circuitboardproblems.com

1547 N. Trooper Road • P. O. Box 1117 • Worcester, PA 19490-1117 USA


Corporate Phone: 610-825-4990 • Sales: 800-832-4866 or 610-941-2400
Fax: 800-854-8665 or 610-828-5623 • Web: www.techni-tool.com

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