Magnus Danielson wrote: > Patrick wrote: > >> Hi Everyone >> >> I have consistently had success repairing laboratory instruments(my >> small business) when I have a schematic and I have consistently failed >> without one, lots of opportunities are slipping threw my fingers. >> >> I want to invest in tools that will help me troubleshoot without a >> schematic. I was thinking about getting a Huntron tracker. Has anyone >> had any experience with one? Could you feedback? >> >> Are there other tools that have helped you fix circuit boards without a >> schematic? >> > The Huntron tracker does not solve your basic problem of not having the > schematics, rather it helps you for some of the analysis when you do > have a schematic. We do alot of analysis at work and the trackers sits > there idling on a shelf, since we rarely have problems at which we have > a short on a power-plane or a slightly broken semiconductor. Only a > handfull of problem would apply. We have alot of other usefull tools > instead. > > For you to buy a Huntron tracker you should do it for the right reason, > that it applies to your kind of problems and would aid in locating > problems and measure basic semiconductor behaviour. > > Now, Huntron claims that it will aid on undocumented boards. It will to > a certain extent, since it is agnostic to the design as such, it just > measures electrical properties. However a Fluke multimeter is similarly > agnostic and may do similar but not all of the tests the trackers do. > Also, to some degree a tracker becomes somewhat difficult to use in some > cases without a functional board alongside for reference. > > I don't want to say it is a bad tool, it isn't. I just want to kill your > overly high expectations. Only then you can buy one and feel happy about > it in the long run. What the tracker does as a basic measurement tool is > to do I/V diagrams. You can make your own I/V setup by using an > (preferably analog) oscilloscope in X/Y setup, a simple diffrential amp > (4 resistors and an op-amp in a cook-book diffrential amp setup), a > resistor for current-to-voltage conversion and an audio generator > producing a sine. This is sufficient to get you started and try the > principle out. If you learn to use it and find it usefull, getting a > dedicated instrument might aid your work. If not you have not wasted as > much money and you only cry over the lost time. > > Cheers, > Magnus > > A link to a page claiming to have the circuit for a build your own version: http://www.davesplanet.net/tracker/
Bruce _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.