Aid to trouble shooting PCBs
 

When repairing PC boards, I find that with my eyes zipping backwards and forwards between the schematic and the board, I frequently lose track of the IC pin of interest. Now I mark that pin with a dab from a red Sharpie pen and then I can bring my scope or DVM probe to the correct place every time. Other pins - other colours.
John.

Re: Aid to trouble shooting PCBs
 

Neat, simple, I like it.

Re: Aid to trouble shooting PCBs
 

Use different colours to mark grounds and power supply rails. Tesco do a pack of 4 dvd permanent markers with nice fine tips.
Rob.

Re: Aid to trouble shooting PCBs
 

Too simple for me to think of!:dunce:
Nice tip.

Re: Aid to trouble shooting PCBs
 

That was a tip given to me during my training by Philips when I worked at CES. I often used to find coloured dots applied by other Philips trained service engineers when I was working on equipment in for another visit, gave me a hint what they had been up to !

Another tip, I often find that I need to attach a probe to a component so that I can have my hands free to use test gear or whatever and there is no space on the lead out, or access is limited etc. So, get a short piece of resistor lead out or similar and solder it to the required pad on the PCB and instant test point to clip a prod to !

Re: Aid to trouble shooting PCBs
 

This is a sensible idea that I could have done with today, tracing a fault on a board I'd just assembled. Turned out to be a track wrongly connected in one channel of a stereo device. Took some finding, naturally!
-Tony