[ARC5] SCR-522 Project: Finding Bad Bypasses in 20 Minutes.

[Robert Nickels]

On 6/29/2018 3:57 PM, Michael Clarson wrote:
> has any thought been given to using a temperature gun to see if there 
> is any heat rise on the caps?

I did that last week when trying to identify which of multiple tantalum 
caps from a 12 volt bus to ground was shorted in a marine radio.   I 
powered the bus up through a current-limited power supply which was able 
to put out a couple of volts before limiting, and the shorted cap was 
notably warmer than the others.   If you use this technique just be sure 
to set the maximum voltage to a safe value so that if the cap or short 
does go open you won't be overstressing anything else.

Leaky bypasses in tube gear can be more readily found by just measuring 
the values of the upstream resistors and of course the shorted ones tend 
to self-identify ;-)

I've found the IR thermometer to be a useful tool.

73, Bob W9RAN