5.6 Building and repairing

Outcome 6 of 6 in domain 5 · Instrumentation and measurement

Soldering, desoldering, wiring, reading a schematic, troubleshooting by halving.

My targets

I declare:

Solder through-hole components, 0805 SMDs and a SOIC package, clean and without bridges, and judge your joints by their look.
Desolder a component without lifting the pad, with braid and pump, and with hot air for an SMD.
Crimp and wire power connectors (XT60, Anderson, JST) and say what each can carry.
Read a real appliance’s schematic, spot the supply, control and power, and follow a signal from start to end.
Troubleshoot by halving: start from the symptom, cut the circuit in two with a measurement, repeat, and note the path.
Build a circuit on a breadboard knowing its limits (parasitic capacitance, contacts), then move it to perfboard or a PCB.
Diagnosis: a "dead" appliance, the full method: supply first, fuse, then the first stage that doesn’t give what it should.