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The biggest change in my shop came from a $20 tool I bought on a whim
About three months ago, I picked up a cheap thermal camera that plugs into a phone. I thought it was a toy, but it changed how I find problems. Before, I'd spend an hour chasing a random shutdown, checking logs and swapping parts. Now, I just scan the board for a hot spot. Last Tuesday, I found a failing voltage regulator on a gaming PC in under two minutes because it was 30 degrees hotter than anything around it. It's cut my guesswork time in half on power issues and weird crashes. I still do the full check, but this gets me to the right area fast. Has anyone else found a simple tool that changed their whole process?
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betty_ward18d ago
My shop tried that exact same thermal camera last year. It gave us a ton of false positives on modern, dense boards where everything runs hot. We wasted more time double checking its readings than we ever saved. I'm back to trusting the multimeter and a good old fashioned systematic check.
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milam4218d ago
Ugh, same here. We just spot-check hot zones now.
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