Anything else I should check?

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    22 hours ago

    you can sometimes use these as a stud finder, depends on the wall

    If you ever do electronics repair and are good at soldering these are a lifesaver for quick diagnosis if the resolution is high enough. Look at the board, apply power, and the part that is shorting out will often quickly get stupid hot. Sometimes it will be a complex repair you can’t easily do like a bga chip but you’d be surprised how often it’s just a random capacitor that went bad in your phone or switch or whatever and swapping it out (or even just getting rid of it if it’s an extra filter) fixes the issue. The hard part is finding out the value bc there are never schematics

    A less easy to use alternative to this that I use bc thermal cams are expensive is squirt isopropyl alcohol or flux on the board and apply power. It’ll boil at the point where the part is shorting. Harder to determine but much cheaper. If you already have the camera though