[Elecraft] OT: troubleshooting "gotcha's"

[Matt Zilmer]

There is/was a flowchart for this type of troubleshooting.  It used
coarse language, but followed this same type of logic.

73,
matt W6NIA

On Tue, 07 May 2013 12:17:05 -0700, you wrote:

>That observation extends to a variety of "things that should work but 
>don't," not just electronics.  Over the years, I've noted several 
>troubleshooting rules in my engineering notebooks.  Some examples:
>
>1.  Unless there was a fire, and sometimes even then, it usually is 
>*not* the worst possible problem although that seems to be a common 
>assumption at first.  "Nuts!  I must have blown the PA's," when the fuse 
>to the PA power supply just quit [they actually do that].
>
>2.  If it worked fine for a long time, and no one changed any of the 
>code, it is very unlikely to be a programming bug so don't start 
>tweaking and recompiling.
>
>3.  If it worked fine for a long time and "no one changed anything," the 
>odds are very very high it's pilot error.  If your K3 receiver seems 
>dead on one band, check the ANT 1/2 switch setting on that band first. 
>The radio remembers it by band, you may not.
>
>4.  If someone gave me a buck for every time I spent days or weeks and 
>exhausted every source trying to debug a function, only to ultimately 
>discover that the code actually doesn't call that function anymore, I'd 
>have retired much earlier.
>
>5.  Is it plugged in?
>
>73,
>
>Fred K6DGW
>- Northern California Contest Club
>- CU in the 2013 Cal QSO Party 5-6 Oct 2013
>- www.cqp.org
>
>On 5/7/2013 3:32 AM, Edward R Cole wrote:
>> AS I read "Re: [Elecraft] KAT100 project - removing the control board",
>> Stan related his troubleshooting adventure and found that his
>> assumptions led him astray.  That is one of the cardinal issues with
>> troubleshooting - do not assume.  As soon as you assume soemthing is OK
>> that will be what you eventually will find wrong.
>
>
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