Saturday, September 26, 2009

Troubleshoot Electronic Circuit (Lesson 3) - - - Golden Rule

Salam,

Lesson 3: Golden Rule (comparison)



What is the purpose doing Comparison?
To determine either the electronic device performance is like the others or not.

Why?
To find out "weird" data/reading/measurement/graph of electronic devices by compare with "good" electronic devices. By doing this, the suspected faulty electronic connection can be predicted.

How?
at PCBA: measure resistance and voltage through suspected faulty connection and make comparison.
at OVERALL DEVICE: compare performances between them.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Troubleshoot Electronic Circuit (Lesson 2) - - - Calibration

Salam,

Lesson 2: Calibration



What is the purpose doing Calibration?
To ensure you measurements accurate and persistence.

Why?
It because certain device are sensitive in different Current, Voltage, Power (dbm, watt) and Resistance. Over supply might harm device and insufficient supply might affected the performance.

How to do Calibration?
By making comparison with "good unit" measurements or in industries called as Golden Unit or sometimes named as DV. This Golden Unit or DV had given it value as reference, hence by measure it you can get your instruments (multimeter/hand held/LCR/etc) error value.

When should perform calibration?
For optic-electronic industries, calibration should be done every time make change on connection. Besides that enough to do annually or periodic.

How to use error value?
Deduct or add error value after make measurement, so that you can get accurate measurements.

My senior engineer told me: "Your second lesson is calibration, first VMI. Now you know important of calibration". He told me because my calibration effect others experiment. Hope you get what I meant and learn from my mistake?

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Troubleshoot Electronic Circuit (Lesson 1) - - - VMI

Salam,

Lesson 1: VMI (Visual Mechanical Inspection)



What is the purpose doing VMI?
To find out physical defect on electronic circuit.

Why?
Most of the functional failure can cause from hardware failure and software failure. The hardware failure more easier to identified if compare with software failure.

How to do VMI?
By doing physical inspection using microscope (30X zoom) to identified the physical defect such as Expose Copper, Crack, Solder Bridging, Solder Join, Melt, Explode, Burn, Shorted and others.

Why need microscope?
It much easier to inspect defect on SMD's Components(Surface Mounted Device). Naked eye difficult to recognize failure defect on extra small components.

all this remind me to this proverb: "Jika tiada angin masakan pokok bergoyang". Hope you get what i meant?

Friday, September 11, 2009

How you read schematic diagram without knowing the function of the circuit? (electronic)

Salam,

Many things need to catch up in past two weeks. Eight cases handled from various customer basically more on electronics's components (SMD) and Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA). Alhamdulillah my senior assist me a lots. He told "we are like detective", because every time found somethings need to take evidence (picture/diagnostic/functional result). Jom! let learns together..



How you read schematic diagram without knowing the function of the circuit? (electronic)

I had search on google and found something goods from expert who have working experience more than 20 years on electronics.. :) Below is the answer:-

"I've been an electronics tech for almost 20 years now. Learning to read schematics takes time and is a crucial part of troubleshooting. There's people who have been in the field for years and are still not proficient at reading prints. Of course being able to read the prints does you no good if you don't understand electricity and electronics. But the first step to reading prints is learning the symbols.

Here's a VERY good free intro to schematic symbols. It even has a little matching excersice at the end. Start here:

http://www.wisc-online.com <--register free

Once you've completed the excersice, you can go to this link where they have a pretty good reference chart of component symbols and their function.

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/symbol.htm

These will get you started.

There are many different kinds of diagrams (1-line, 3-line, Elevation, P&ID, Instrument Loop, Logic Flow, Schematic, Mechanical Integrity, Electrical, Conduit plan, Wire Schedule, etc, etc). Learning how to read all of them proficiently is quite a task and can't be explained here."

Friday, September 4, 2009

What should you do if customer make a complain?? (Business)

Salam,

Within 2 month i was assign to do on-job training specialize in technical. C*S*O had make a complain on our product. The complain is "no Rx EYE". Alhamdulillah, Allah had sent someone to assist me. My senior told me to do:-



1). Test Functional (to verified failure base on customer report)
2). VMI on Interface (Visual Mechanical Inspection)
3). Open housing and test functional.
4). VMI on Circuit Board (Visual Mechanical Inspection)
5). Backup old firmware, replace with new firmware and Test Functional (to ensure either firmware problem or hardware problem)
6). Troubleshoot electronic components
7). Record reading and analysis (as evidence)
8). Compare reading with good product (to find faulty component)
10). Decide to swap component for test functional

The step design for verified failure, find root cause of the problem and find the corrective action to solve the problem. All step taken must follow with supportive evidence like picture, measurement and calculation.

The following step given are suitable for electronic product. For business purpose i recommend you try for customer satisfaction. Remember, in business the important is:-
1). Fast Delivery
2). Good Quality



What ever we do, remember "Setiap perbuatan didahului dengan niat". :)

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Problem Solving (Engineering Way)

Salam

Alhamdulillah I just start working today. I learned something on my first day.

What have you learn??
Learn to solve engineering problems or in industries they replace the "problems" term with "issues".

How??
Basically steps taken can be divide into three part:-

1). Find and Verify Failure
2). Find and Verify Root Cause
3). Traceability for prevent recurrence

details..

1). Find and Verify Failure
Failure can be divide into three:-
a). Material
b). Function
c). Cosmetic

situation: Customer make complain and return product purchased

Customer: Hey!! your product is fail on XYZ!!
Engineer: Take their complain, find and verify either is it true or not by run failure verification process and failure analysis process.

note:- remember customer always right..


2). Find and Verify Root Cause
Run the failure product (as complaint) on several testing or simulation just to find the root cause of the failure and to get solution to fix it.


3). Traceability for prevent recurrence
Hmmm~ this part don't have specific ways. Just be smart and creative to trace back the numbers of same products produce on the same batch and make sure the products on the same batch not bring the same failure.

1.. 2.. 3.. steps was using in electronic-communication industries. What ever we do, we need to stand with facts and prove. If not, nobody will trust you.

Don't ashamed to ask questions. More you learn more you don't know. This remind me to this sentence "Ilmu yang kita miliki hanyalah sedikit berbanding ilmu ALLAH, ibarat celupkan jari kelingking di dalam lautan luas. Baki air yang terlekat pada jari itu adalah ilmu yang kita miliki"


note:- for details.. study on "Effective 8-Disciplines" or "8D"