![\"Coil](\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/burned-contactor-coil.jpg\")
<\/a>Many times, however, there is no smoking gun. Those situations require a bit of investigative work. The first step in troubleshooting is developing a history:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Has this failed before<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Is there a history of failures<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Has it been worked on recently<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Is it new<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Has it been installed properly<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- It is old<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Has it been affected by some outside force like lightning or a power surge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
This is where good maintenance records or maintenance logs come in handy. Recently, I have found many places that lack any type of maintenance documents, which means the repair history is unknown. This makes it difficult to find a good starting point and can greatly increase the amount of time required to troubleshoot a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the pertinent history is gathered, it can be organized and analyzed for clues.\u00a0 For example, if something has been worked on recently, that is a good place to start. If something has a past history of failures, that is a good place to start.\u00a0 Newly installed equipment is subject to early failures under warranty due to component failures.\u00a0 Old equipment may just be plumb-worn out.\u00a0 Improperly installed equipment can exhibit all kinds of bizarre failure modes.\u00a0\u00a0 That information coupled with known symptoms would indicate a good starting point for troubleshooting the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If no good starting point can be discerned, then the next step is to recreate the failure.\u00a0 This usually means turning the thing back on to see what it does.\u00a0 Chances are good that whatever the problem is, it will still be there.\u00a0 Once a good set of symptoms have been identified, then it is time to start working at one end of the problem unit once the failed component is isolated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oftentimes, equipment manuals will have troubleshooting guides.\u00a0 These can greatly speed up the process for large, complicated things like transmitters, generators, and so on.\u00a0 There is also the tried and true troubleshooting chart:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Generic](\"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/power-supply-trouble-shooting-chart.jpg\")
<\/a>Generic transmitter power supply trouble shooting chart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n This is an example of a troubleshooting chart for a transmitter power supply. Many equipment manuals will have this type of information in the maintenance sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is also important to note that when working on high-voltage systems, it is necessary to have two persons on-site at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good troubleshooting skills have many applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Good troubleshooters are becoming rare these days.\u00a0 To some, the idea of working through a problem, finding and then fixing an issue seems like a time-consuming, wasteful evolution.\u00a0 More often than not, it is easier to replace the entire assembly with a new one, throwing the old one away.\u00a0 This is especially true with computer … Continue reading Troubleshooting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,21],"tags":[46,206],"class_list":["post-4902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-tales-of-disaster","tag-repair-work","tag-trouble-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4902"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11616,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions\/11616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}