TROUBLE SHOOTING AND TESTING ON ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

Troubleshooting is the process of isolating and identifying a fault in something so that it

can be repaired. There are lots of variables to consider when troubleshooting a faulty
electronic circuit.

Look: Most problems can be found by just having a thorough look at the problem. This
may include loose, missing, or misplaced components, burned components, solder
splatter, loose bits of wire, and broken printed circuit board (PCB) traces.

Feel: Feel for any excessively hot components. Be careful not to burn your finger though.
If anything is so hot it burns you, it is probably a problem.

TROUBLESHOOTING TOOLS:

1) CONTINUITY TESTERS

A continuity tester (found on most multimeters) will allow you to check if there is a break
or short in the circuit. Continuity testers apply a voltage across a pair of test probes and
measure the current in the circuit. If no current is detected (indicating a short circuit), the
continuity tester sounds an audible alarm.

2) MULTIMETERS

A multimeter is used to measure voltage, resistance, and current. It’s good to have both
a digital multimeter and an analog multimeter on hand, as they each have different
applications.

3) OSCILLOSCOPES

An oscilloscope is almost indispensable. Oscilloscopes let you to get high resolution look
at the electronic signals flowing through your circuit.

4) SOLDERING TOOLS

A soldering station or soldering iron is needed to repair solder joints and replace
damaged components. A solder sucker or a solder wick can be used to remove the solder
joints of faulty components.

5) OTHER TOOLS

An X-Acto knife with sharp blades is useful for cutting wires and PCB traces.
HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT A CIRCUIT

These are the things to check before diving deep into troubleshooting a circuit:

• Does the PCB or breadboard match the circuit diagram?

• Does the circuit have power?
• Is the circuit getting the correct voltage?
• Is the power supply connected the right way around?
• Are all ICs, transistors, and diodes the correct type?
• Are all resistors and capacitors have the correct value?
• Are all polarized components (electrolytic capacitors, diodes, LEDs, etc.)
connected the right way around? (i.e positive and negative position)
• Do all of the solder joints have a good electrical connection?
• Are there any broken traces on the PCB?

Suspect any component that moves or has an interaction with a user. For example,
components like potentiometers, switches, and push buttons can become fatigued at the
solder joint to the PCB.

Motors have brushes and commutators that wear out.

Look for and test any fuses in the circuit. A fuse may look okay, but you can never be sure
until you test it with a continuity tester.

Look for any cut, cracked, or burned PCB traces. Hold the PCB up to strong light to help
identify these.

If the device is older than 30 years and has electrolytic capacitors, it is likely that they
have dried out and become shorted. Replace them with equivalent values.

Older semiconductors (ICs, transistors, and diodes) are usually okay unless they have
been stressed by lightning or overheating.

All of the above troubleshooting is purely visual, and you will often find the problem quickly.
But if the circuit still does not work, it’s time to engage your main tools—logic and reason.

ADVANCED TROUBLESHOOTING

• A good place to start is by powering the circuit with a bench power supply with a
current limit control. Set the voltage to the right amount and set the current limit to
100mA. Power up the circuit. If the current goes up to 100mA and the voltage goes
to zero, you have a short circuit.
 • Next, check the transistors. Measure the voltage between the emitter and the base.
The voltage should be close to 0.6V. The voltage between the collector and ground
should be between half and full voltage if the transistor is off. The voltage should
be close to zero if the transistor is on. If this is not the case, there could be a
problem with the transistor.

• Check the power supply. Measure the power supply output voltage with a
multimeter to make sure it’s providing the correct voltage. Connect an oscilloscope
to see if there are any hums, spikes, or glitches. Make sure there are adequate
power supply decoupling capacitors for both high and low frequencies (0.1 uF and
100 uF capacitors).

• If the circuit is digital, check that the logic levels are correct for the logic family in
use. If the circuit has a CMOS chip, make sure all of the unused inputs are
grounded.

• If the circuit is still not working, it’s time to recheck if you understand how it was
supposed to work, and if there could be some higher level design flaws.

• If you have done all the above diligently and the circuit still won’t work, pack it away
and come back tomorrow. Remarkably, this often works—taking a step back for a
while gives your brain a chance to mull over the problem and think outside the box
for a solution.

• Often getting a new project to work will need patience and perseverance. Repairing
previously working devices is more difficult, especially if the device has complex
electronics and you cannot find a circuit diagram. But remember these two rules:
suspect the power source first, then look, smell, and feel.

TROUBLE SHOOTING OF ELECTRIC COMPONENTS

Capacitors.

A capacitor is a small, most of the time, electrical/electronics component on most circuit

boards, that can perform various functions. When a capacitor is placed in a circuit with an
active current, electrons from the negative side build up on the closest plate (the negative
flows to the positive, that is why the negative is the active lead, although many capacitors
are not polarized). Once the plate can no longer hold them, they are forced past the
dielectric and onto the other plate, thus displacing the electrons back into the circuit. This
is called the discharge. Electrical components are very sensitive to voltage swings, and
as such a power spike can kill those expensive parts. Capacitors condition DC voltage to
other components and thus provide a steady power supply. AC current is rectified by
diodes, so instead of AC there are pulses of DC from zero volts to peak. When a capacitor
from the power line is connected to ground and the DC will not pass, but as the pulse fills
up the cap, it reduces the current flow and the effective voltage. While the feed voltage
goes down to zero, the capacitor begins to leak out its contents, this smoothes the output
voltage and current. Therefore a capacitor is placed inline to a component, allowing for
absorbing of spikes and supplementing valleys, this in turn keeps a constant power supply
to the component.

There is a multitude of different types of capacitors, they are often used differently in
circuits. The all to familiar round tin can style capacitors are usually electroltyic capacitors.

They are made with one or two sheets of metal, separated by a dielectric. The dieletric
can be air (simplest capacitor) or other non-conductive materials. The metal plate foils,
separated by the dielectric, are then rolled up similar to a fruit roll-up, and placed into the
can. These work great for bulk filtering, but they are not very efficient at high frequencies.

Ceramic disk capacitors are great for higher frequencies, but are not good to do bulk
filtering because ceramic disk capacitors get to big in size for higher values of
capacitance.In circuits where it is vital to keep a voltage source stable, there is usually a
large electrolytic capacitor in parallel with a ceramic disk capacitor.The electrolytic will do
most of the work, whereas the small ceramic disk capacitor will filter off the high frequency
that the big electrolytic capacitor misses.
Then there are tantalum capacitors. These are small, but have a greater capacitance in relation to
their size than ceramic disk capacitors. These are more costly, but find plenty of use on the
circuit boards of small electronic devices.

HOW TO CHECK A CAPACITOR TO SEE IF IT NEEDS REPLACING?

To perform a check on a capacitor while it is still installed in a circuit, an ESR meter will
be necessary. If the capacitor is removed from the circuit then a multimeter set as an ohm
meter can be used, but only to test an all-or-nothing test. It will only show if the capacitor
is completely dead, or not. It will not determine if the capacitor is in good or poor condition.
To determine if a capacitor is functioning at the right value (capacitance), a capacitor
tester will be necessary. Of course, this also holds true to determine the value of an
unknown capacitor.
ESR in Capacitors
An ideal capacitor in series with resistance is called Equivalent series resistance of the
capacitor. The equivalent series resistance or ESR in a capacitor is the internal resistance
that appears in series with the capacitance of the device.

Let's see the below symbols, which are representing ESR of the capacitor. The
capacitor symbol is representing the ideal capacitor and the resistor as an equivalent
series resistance. The resistor is connected in series with the capacitor.

An ideal capacitor is lossless, meaning the capacitor store charge and delivers the
same amount of charge as output. But in the real world, capacitors have a small value
of finite internal resistance.

This resistance comes from the dielectric material, leakage in an insulator or in the
separator. Adding to this, Equivalent series resistance or ESR will have different values
in different types of capacitors based on its capacitance value and construction. Hence
we have to measure the value of this ESR practically to analyze the complete
characteristics of a capacitor.

Measuring ESR in Capacitors

Measuring the ESR of a capacitor is bit tricky because the resistance is not a pure DC
resistance. This is due to the property of capacitors. Capacitors block DC and pass the
AC. Therefore, standard ohms meter cannot be used to measure the ESR. There are
specific ESR meters that are available in the market which can be useful to measure the
ESR of a capacitor.

These meters use Alternating current, such as square wave in a specific

frequency across the capacitor. Based on the change in frequency of the signal the ESR
value of the capacitor can be calculated. An advantage with this method is that, since the
ESR is measured directly across the two terminals of a capacitor it can be measured
without de-soldering it from the circuit board.
Another theoretical way to calculate ESR of the capacitor is to measure the Ripple
voltage and Ripple current of the capacitor and then the ratio of both will give the
value of ESR in the capacitor. However, a more common ESR measurement
model is to apply alternating current source across the capacitor with an additional
resistance. A crude circuit to measure ESR is shown below

The Vs is the sine wave source and R1 is the internal resistance. The capacitor C is the
Ideal capacitor whereas the R2 is the Equivalent Series Resistance of the ideal capacitor
C. One thing needs to be remembered is that in this ESR measurement model, the
capacitor’s lead inductance is ignored and it is not considered as a part of the circuit.

The transfer function of this circuit can be depicted in the below formula-

In the above equation, the high pass feature of the circuit is reflected; the approximation
of the transfer function can further be evaluated as –

The above approximation is suitable for high-frequency operations. At this point, the
circuit starts to attenuate and act as an attenuator.

The attenuation factor can be expressed as –

This attenuation factor and the sine wave generator’s internal resistance R1 can be used
to measure the capacitors ESR.

Therefore, a function generator can be useful to calculate the ESR of the capacitors.

Normally, ESR value ranges from a few milliohms to several ohms. Aluminum electrolytic
and tantalum capacitors have high ESR compared with the box type or ceramic capacitors.

However, modern advancement in capacitor manufacturing technology makes it possible

to manufacture super low ESR capacitors.

HOW ESR AFFECTS THE PERFORMANCE OF CAPACITOR

ESR value of the capacitor is a crucial factor for capacitor output. High ESR capacitor
dissipates heat in high current application and the capacitor life decrease eventually,
which also contributes to the malfunction in electronics circuits. In power supplies, where
high current is a concern, the low ESR capacitors are required for filtration purposes.

Not only in power supply related operations but low ESR value, is also essential for the
high-speed circuit. In very high operating frequencies, typically ranging from hundreds of
MHz to several GHz, ESR of the capacitor plays a vital role in power delivery factors.

ESL in capacitor

Same as like ESR, equivalent series inductance (ESL) is also a crucial factor for
capacitors. As discussed before, in real situation capacitors are not ideal. There is a stray
resistance as well as stray inductance. A typical ESL model of capacitor shown below.
The capacitor C is the ideal capacitor and the inductor L is the series inductance
connected in series with the ideal capacitor.

Normally, ESL is highly dependable on the current loop; increase in current loop also
increases the ESL in capacitors. The distance between the lead termination and circuit
connecting point (including pads or tracks) also influences the ESL in capacitors because
increased termination distance also increases the current loop resulting in high Equivalent
series inductance
Measuring ESL of a capacitor

The measurement of ESL can be done easily by observing the impedance versus
frequency plot given by the capacitor manufacturer’s datasheet. The impedance of the
capacitor changes when the frequency across the capacitor is changed. During the
situation, when at in a specific frequency the capacitive reactance and the inductive
reactance are equal, it is called as the ‘knee point’.

At this point, the capacitor self resonates. The ESR of the capacitor contributes to flatten
out the impedance plot till capacitor reached the ‘knee’ spot or at the self-resonating
frequency. After the knee point, the capacitor impedance starts to increase due to the ESL
of the capacitor.

The above image is an Impedance vs Frequency plot of a MLCC (Multi layer ceramic
capacitor). Three capacitors, 100nF, 1nF X7R class and 1nF of NP0 class capacitors are
shown.

The ‘knee’ spots can easily be identified across the lower point of V shaped plot.
Once the knee point frequency is identified, the ESL can be measured by the below
formula

HOW ESL AFFECTS THE CAPACITOR OUTPUT

The capacitors output degrades by increased ESL, same as like ESR. Increased ESL
contributes to the unwanted flow of current and generates EMI, which further creates
malfunctions in high-frequency applications. In power supply related system, parasitic
inductance contributes to the high ripple voltage. Ripple voltage is proportional to the ESL
value of the capacitors. Large ESL value of capacitor can also induce ringing waveforms,
making the circuit to behave odd.

PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE OF ESR AND ESL

The below image provides the actual model of ESR and ESL in capacitor.

Here, the Capacitor C is an ideal capacitor, the resistor R is Equivalent Series

Resistance and the inductor L is the Equivalent Series Inductance. Combining these
three the real capacitor is made.

ESR and ESL are not so pleasant characteristics of a capacitor, which cause a variety of
performance reduction in electronic circuits, especially in high frequency and high current
applications. High ESR value contributes to the poor performance due to the power losses
caused by ESR; the power loss can be calculated using Power law I 2R where R is the
ESR value. Not only this, noises and high voltage drop also occur due to high ESR value
as per the Ohms law. Modern capacitor manufacturing technology reduces the ESR and
ESL value of the capacitor. A huge improvement can be seen in today’s surface mounted
device (SMD) versions of multilayer capacitors.

Lower ESR and ESL value capacitors are preferred as output filters in switching power
supply circuits or SMPS designs because the switching frequency is high in these cases,
typically close to several MHz ranging from hundreds of kHz. Because of this the input
capacitor and the output filter capacitors need to be in low ESR value so that the Low-
frequency ripples has no effects in the overall performance of the power supply unit. The
ESL of the capacitors also needs to be low, so that the impedance of the capacitor does
not interact with the power supply switching frequency.

In a low noise power supply, where the noises need to be suppressed and the output filter
stages should be low in numbers, high quality super low ESR and low ESL capacitors are
useful for smooth output and stable power delivery to the Load. In such an application,
polymer electrolytes are a suitable choice and commonly preferred over Aluminum
Electrolytic capacitors.
Electronic Oscillator:

An electronic oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces a

periodic, oscillating electronic signal, often a sine wave or a square wave or a triangle
wave.[1][2][3] They convert direct current (DC) from a power supply to an alternating
current (AC) signal. They are widely used in many electronic devices ranging from the
simplest clock generators to digital instruments (like calculators) and complex computers
and peripherals etc.[3] Common examples of signals generated by oscillators include
signals broadcast by radio and television transmitters, clock signals that regulate
computers and quartz clocks, and the sounds produced by electronic beepers and video
games.

Oscillators are often characterized by the frequency of their output signal:

• A low-frequency oscillator (LFO) is an electronic oscillator that generates a

frequency below approximately 20 Hz. This term is typically used in the field of
audio synthesizers, to distinguish it from an audio frequency oscillator.
• An audio oscillator produces frequencies in the audio range, about 20 Hz to
20 kHz.
• An RF oscillator produces signals in the radio frequency (RF) range of about
100 kHz to 100 GHz.

Crystal oscillator

There are two main types of electronic oscillators: the linear or harmonic oscillator and
the nonlinear or relaxation oscillator. The most common linear oscillator today is
the crystal oscillator, in which the frequency is controlled by a resonator consisting of a
vibrating quartz crystal. It is ubiquitous in modern electronics, used to generate the clock
signal in computers and digital watches and radio frequency signals in radio
transmitters and receivers.

Harmonic Oscillator

The harmonic, or linear, oscillator produces a sinusoidal output. There are two types:
Feedback oscillator

The most common form of linear oscillator is an electronic amplifier such as

a transistor or operational amplifier connected in a feedback loop with its output fed back
into its input through a frequency selective electronic filter to provide positive feedback.
When the power supply to the amplifier is switched on initially, electronic noise in the
circuit provides a non-zero signal to get oscillations started.[5]: p.113-114 The noise travels
around the loop and is amplified and filtered until very quickly it converges on a sine
wave at a single frequency.
Feedback oscillator circuits can be classified according to the type of frequency selective
filter they use in the feedback loop:

• In an RC oscillator circuit, the filter is a network of resistors and capacitors. RC

oscillators are mostly used to generate lower frequencies, for example in the audio
range. Common types of RC oscillator circuits are the phase shift oscillator and
the Wien bridge oscillator. LR oscillators, using inductor and resistor filters also
exist, however they are much less common due to the required size of an inductor
to achieve a value appropriate for use at lower frequencies.

• In an LC oscillator circuit, the filter is a tuned circuit (often called a tank circuit)
consisting of an inductor (L) and capacitor (C) connected together, which acts as
a resonator.[2][4] Charge flows back and forth between the capacitor's plates
through the inductor, so the tuned circuit can store electrical energy oscillating at
its resonant frequency. The amplifier adds power to compensate for resistive
energy losses in the circuit and supplies the power for the output signal. LC
oscillators are often used at radio frequencies,[2] when a tunable frequency source
is necessary, such as in signal generators, tunable radio transmitters and the local
oscillators in radio receivers. Typical LC oscillator circuits are the Hartley, Colpitts
and Clapp circuits.

• In a crystal oscillator circuit the filter is a piezoelectric crystal (commonly a quartz

crystal).[2][4] The crystal mechanically vibrates as a resonator, and its frequency of
vibration determines the oscillation frequency. Crystals have a very high Q-
factor and also better temperature stability than tuned circuits, so crystal oscillators
have much better frequency stability than LC or RC oscillators. Crystal oscillators
are the most common type of linear oscillator, used to stabilize the frequency of
most radio transmitters, and to generate the clock signal in computers and quartz
clocks. Crystal oscillators often use the same circuits as LC oscillators, with the
crystal replacing the tuned circuit;[2] the Pierce oscillator circuit is also commonly
used. Quartz crystals are generally limited to frequencies of 30 MHz or
 below.[2] Other types of resonators, dielectric resonators and surface acoustic
wave (SAW) devices, are used to control higher frequency oscillators, up into
the microwave range. For example, SAW oscillators are used to generate the radio
signal in cell phones.

Negative Resistance Oscillator

In addition to the feedback oscillators described above, which use two-port amplifying
active elements such as transistors and operational amplifiers, linear oscillators can also
be built using one-port (two terminal) devices with negative resistance,[2][4] such
as magnetron tubes, tunnel diodes, IMPATT diodes and Gunn diodes. Negative-
resistance oscillators are usually used at high frequencies in the microwave range and
above, since at these frequencies feedback oscillators perform poorly due to excessive
phase shift in the feedback path.

(left) Typical block diagram of a negative resistance oscillator. In some types the negative resistance device is
connected in parallel with the resonant circuit. (right) A negative-resistance microwave oscillator consisting of
a Gunn diode in a cavity resonator. The negative resistance of the diode excites microwave oscillations in the
cavity, which radiate out the aperture into a waveguide.

In negative-resistance oscillators, a resonant circuit, such as an LC circuit, crystal,

or cavity resonator, is connected across a device with negative differential resistance, and
a DC bias voltage is applied to supply energy. A resonant circuit by itself is "almost" an
oscillator; it can store energy in the form of electronic oscillations if excited, but because
it has electrical resistance and other losses the oscillations are damped and decay to zero.
The negative resistance of the active device cancels the (positive) internal loss resistance
in the resonator, in effect creating a resonator with no damping, which generates
spontaneous continuous oscillations at its resonant frequency.

The negative-resistance oscillator model is not limited to one-port devices like diodes;
feedback oscillator circuits with two-port amplifying devices such as transistors
and tubes also have negative resistance. At high frequencies, three terminal devices
such as transistors and FETs are also used in negative resistance oscillators. At high
frequencies these devices do not need a feedback loop, but with certain loads applied to
one port can become unstable at the other port and show negative resistance due to
internal feedback. The negative resistance port is connected to a tuned circuit or resonant
cavity, causing them to oscillate. High-frequency oscillators in general are designed using
negative-resistance techniques
Relaxation Oscillator
A nonlinear or relaxation oscillator produces a non-sinusoidal output, such as
a square, sawtooth or triangle wave.[4] It consists of an energy-storing element
(a capacitor or, more rarely, an inductor) and a nonlinear switching device
(a latch, Schmitt trigger, or negative-resistance element) connected in a feedback loop.
The switching device periodically charges and discharges the energy stored in the
storage element thus causing abrupt changes in the output waveform.

A popular op-amp relaxation oscillator.

Square-wave relaxation oscillators are used to provide the clock signal for sequential
logic circuits such as timers and counters, although crystal oscillators are often preferred
for their greater stability. Triangle-wave or sawtooth oscillators are used in the timebase
circuits that generate the horizontal deflection signals for cathode ray tubes in
analogue oscilloscopes and television sets. They are also used in voltage-controlled
oscillators (VCOs), inverters and switching power supplies, dual-slope analog to digital
converters (ADCs), and in function generators to generate square and triangle waves for
testing equipment. In general, relaxation oscillators are used at lower frequencies and
have poorer frequency stability than linear oscillators.
Ring oscillators are built of a ring of active delay stages. Generally the ring has an odd
number of inverting stages, so that there is no single stable state for the internal ring
voltages. Instead, a single transition propagates endlessly around the ring.
Some of the more common relaxation oscillator circuits are listed below:

• Multivibrator
• Pearson–Anson oscillator
• Ring oscillator
• Delay-line oscillator
• Royer oscillator
Voltage-controlled Oscillator (VCO)

An oscillator can be designed so that the oscillation frequency can be varied over some
range by an input voltage or current. These voltage controlled oscillators are widely used
in phase-locked loops, in which the oscillator's frequency can be locked to the frequency
of another oscillator. These are ubiquitous in modern communications circuits, used
in filters, modulators, demodulators, and forming the basis of frequency
synthesizer circuits which are used to tune radios and televisions.

Radio frequency VCOs are usually made by adding a varactor diode to the tuned
circuit or resonator in an oscillator circuit. Changing the DC voltage across the varactor
changes its capacitance, which changes the resonant frequency of the tuned circuit.
Voltage controlled relaxation oscillators can be constructed by charging and discharging
the energy storage capacitor with a voltage controlled current source. Increasing the input
voltage increases the rate of charging the capacitor, decreasing the time between
switching events.