Thursday, September 3, 2009

Troubleshooting And Repair Power Supply The Easy Way Part 4

Any SMPS that comes across my repair bench, I would not immediately repair it, in fact I will take couples of minutes to analyze the circuit design and see it from all angles before I begin to repair. Troubleshooting SMPS is not limited to only one procedure in fact many electronic repairers have their own unique ways and methods to solve SMPS problems. Some prefer to use light bulb to isolate SMPS faults while others like to use resistors. Troubleshooting SMPS is fun and flexible but in some cases could make you get very frustrated too.

Remember, don’t limit yourself to only one or two sources to get you understand and be able to repair SMPS. If you have the budget, get the books that have related to SMPS repair-study and start doing practical about it. Share your problems with other fellow electronic repairers and the most important thing is don’t give up. There’s lot of mountain in the journey of our live and you yourself have to climb and conquer it. All the best!

Troubleshooting And Repair Power Supply The Easy Way Part 3

Push yourself further by searching the internet for the datasheet of a PWM IC part number. For example, UC3842 PWM IC is mostly used in SMPS. Do you know what the function of pin 5 of this IC is? Do you know which pin the VCC supply enters? Do you know what the actual voltage that flow to the IC is? Do you know which pin that drives the power FET? Can I get a replacement for this IC? And so on………

Let’s take a soldier as an example. Soldiers not only good in handling rifle but also knows all the details about it. They know how to dismantle and assemble back their rifle fast (imagine in the middle of war the rifle jammed-they can repair it fast). They know how much each bullet cost, how far the shooting distance, how big is the diameter of the bullet, how many cm the length of the bullet and so on. Hope you don’t get bored with the soldier’s story, did you get the ideas?

Ghost