Making a PCB board is not simply about following the process to complete the board, just drill a hole and insert the components. The production of PCB boards is not difficult, but the difficulty lies in troubleshooting after completion. Whether it's individual enthusiasts or industry engineers, encountering problems while debugging PCB circuit boards can be quite a headache, just like programmers encountering bugs.

Some people have a strong interest in debugging PCB circuit boards, just like programmers solving bugs. There are many common PCB circuit board problems, including circuit board design, damage to electronic components, circuit short circuits, component quality, and PCB circuit board breakage.

The common faults of PCB circuit boards are mainly concentrated on components such as capacitors, resistors, inductors, diodes, transistors, field-effect transistors, etc. The obvious damage to integrated chips and crystal oscillators can be judged intuitively through visual observation. There are obvious burn marks on the surface of electronic components with obvious damage. A fault like this can be solved by simply replacing the faulty component with a new one.

Of course, not all electronic component damage can be observed with the naked eye, such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, etc. In some cases, damage cannot be seen from the surface and requires the use of professional inspection tools for repair. Commonly used inspection tools include multimeters, capacitance meters, etc. When the voltage or current of a certain electronic component is detected to be outside the normal range, it indicates that there is a problem with that component or the previous component. It can be directly replaced and checked to see if it is normal.

If a component is broken, it can be detected through visual observation or instrument testing. However, sometimes when we attach components to a PCB board, we may encounter situations where the detection fails but the circuit board cannot function properly. Many beginners encounter this problem and have no choice but to make a new board or buy one. In fact, when encountering such situations, it is often due to the coordination of various components during the installation process, which may result in unstable performance.

In this situation, the instrument is no longer helpful. You can try to determine the possible range of the fault based on the current and voltage, and try to minimize it. Experienced engineers may be able to quickly identify the fault area, but the specific component that is broken cannot be 100% determined. The only way is to try replacing the suspicious component until the problem component is found. Last year, my laptop motherboard was flooded with water. When I was repairing it, I encountered a problem where the fault could not be detected. During the repair process, I replaced three components, including the power supply chip, diode, and USB charging component (which is the blue socket of the laptop and can charge the device when turned off). Finally, after waves of testing and troubleshooting to replace the suspicious chip, it was finally determined that a component next to the south bridge chip was short circuited.

The above is actually a problem with electronic components. Of course, since the PCB circuit board is the foothold of the components, circuit board faults must also exist. The simplest example is the dead tin plating area. Due to manufacturing process reasons, wire breakage may occur during the PCB corrosion process. In this situation, if it is not possible to repair the wire, then the only solution is to use a thin copper wire to fly the wire.

PCB circuit board faults can be very troublesome to investigate without obvious damage. During the troubleshooting process, there is a sense of focus, and once the problem is identified, there is an inexplicable sense of achievement. Programmers solve bugs in this way. I often like to troubleshoot difficult to repair boards, and I find it a pleasure.