what’s the best way to find a short on a circuit board?
Monday, July 27th, 2009 at
4:27 am
i was trying to circuit bend my omnichord, i touched the board in one place and lost the strumming sound and the chord sounds..the drums still work so i’m sure it’s just a cap or a resistor that’s fried…will a volt meter do me any good in finding the burnt component?
Tagged with: drums • omnichord • resistor • volt meter
Filed under: Circuit Boards
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Yeah, if you know how to use it. Those little stripes indicate resistances.
If it’s a low voltage circuit you can touch the components and the one that’s hot is the one with the short.
If you have burned components that are questionable, check them with the resistance setting on your meter. A bad resistor will appear open. Caps are semi-conductors so they’re harder to check. Some meters have a capacitor setting, however if they’re still in circuit you won’t get an accurate reading.
Remember the equation v/i=r, Keep the voltage constant over all the areas. If the resistance goes up, then the current goes down.
If you have zero ohms, you have a short. IF you have infinite resistance, you have a break. This seems general, but this is a great help for most of the electronics applications you will need.
If you want more you will need to give us more info.
try checking the ICs, transistors, and capacitors..
it is so sensitive to surge currents.
If the board was working until you just touched it, it’s probably damage caused by ESD (Electro Static Discharge), and in which case, it will be one of the semiconductors that’s damaged, like a chip. That’s a lot more difficult to diagnose, unless you have a schematic, and are familiar with troubleshooting techniques