Post by thread:[EE] Textbook on electronic troubleshooting?

I'm going to be teaching a community college class on electronic troubleshooting in January. The current text is more of general electronic theory book with small sections on troubleshooting at the end of each chapter. Not very useful. Do any listmembers have any ideas on a suggested text for such a class? THANKS! Harold -- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com

On 10/7/05, Harold Hallikainen <spam_OUTharoldTakeThisOuThallikainen.com> wrote: > I'm going to be teaching a community college class on electronic > troubleshooting in January. The current text is more of general electronic > theory book with small sections on troubleshooting at the end of each > chapter. Not very useful. Do any listmembers have any ideas on a suggested > text for such a class? > > THANKS! > > Harold > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0750694998/002-5228929-5804061 -- You think that it is a secret, but it never has been one. - fortune cookie

depends on how talented the students are. Do they know how to run a scope, analyzer, meters....soldering...if not...better start there Digital. Get some simple digital boards done, and have the ability to "break" them....wrong pullups, shorts, opens, wierd clocks, terminations, etc. Analog. Same thing but of course a little bit harder...osciallators that are amps, amps that are oscilators, etc.... Trouble shooting cant be taught from a book. Its all hands on, and understanding the theory behind why its bad, and how to fix it. Thats how *I* would teach a class. Harold Hallikainen <.....haroldKILLspam@spam@hallikainen.com> wrote: I'm going to be teaching a community college class on electronic troubleshooting in January. The current text is more of general electronic theory book with small sections on troubleshooting at the end of each chapter. Not very useful. Do any listmembers have any ideas on a suggested text for such a class? THANKS! Harold -- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com

-----Original Message----- www.amazon.com/gp/product/0750694998/002-5228929-5804061 --------- I can attest to the usefulness of that book; a good distillation of wisdom from the trenches from Bob Pease, the Master of Analog. Regards Madhu Annapragada

> I'm going to be teaching a community college class on electronic > troubleshooting in January. The current text is more of general electronic > theory book with small sections on troubleshooting at the end of each > chapter. Not very useful. Do any listmembers have any ideas on a suggested > text for such a class? You may like to look at a book called "Debugging". Look at the web site at http://www.debuggingrules.com/ and as a minimum download the poster and provide every student with a colour copy. The author goes through various scenarios on how to fix things, and the rules on the poster emphasize his various points.

At 12:29 PM 10/7/2005 -0400, you wrote: >-----Original Message----- >www.amazon.com/gp/product/0750694998/002-5228929-5804061 >--------- >I can attest to the usefulness of that book; a good distillation of wisdom >from the trenches from Bob Pease, the Master of Analog. >Regards >Madhu Annapragada Harold:- If you're planning on using it as a text, you might want to e-mail Pease to see if you can get a package deal for the class. He had some (direct?) deals for books going last time I ran across his gnarly self. Best regards, Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speffKILLspaminterlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com ->> Inexpensive test equipment & parts http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZspeff

>>I'm going to be teaching a community college class on electronic >>troubleshooting in January. The current text is more of general electronic >>theory book with small sections on troubleshooting at the end of each >>chapter. Not very useful. Do any listmembers have any ideas on a suggested >>text for such a class? > kind of wikipedia on repair n troubleshooting: http://www.repairfaq.org/ http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_tshoot.html Ling SM

THANKS for the comments! I'll check out the two books suggested so far. I read the excerpt Amazon had on the Pease book. Looks good! He certainly has a very readable style! I read his stuff in EDN all the time. I agree with the comment that you can't learn troubleshooting from a book. But, to me, a book provides structure to the class and provides a jumping off point for discussion. The class is divided between discussion and lab, and I can vary the proportions. One thing I did last semester, that I think worked well, is bring in a lot of guest speakers. I brought in an engineering tech involved in getting new products to work, a production tech who gets products out the door and handles repairs, a field service tech who keeps radio stations on the air. I hope to get more people this semester. THANKS for all the GREAT suggestions! Harold -- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com

Harold, If your students are doing anything with RF, I recommend: Practical Radio Frequency Test and Measurement : A Technician's Handbook (Paperback) By Joseph Carr ISBN: 0750671610 One of Joe's many excellent books. Dave Challis

-----Original Message----- From: .....piclist-bouncesKILLspam.....mit.edu [EraseMEpiclist-bouncesspam_OUTTakeThisOuTmit.edu] On Behalf Of Harold Hallikainen >One thing I did last semester, that I think worked well, is bring in a lot >of guest speakers. I brought in an engineering tech involved in getting >new products to work, a production tech who gets products out the door and >handles repairs, a field service tech who keeps radio stations on the air. >I hope to get more people this semester. Great idea bringing in the techs; sure wish some of my professors had done that.. Regards Madhu Annapragada

Thanks! I'll have a look at it. Also, THANKS for all the other comments. This is a GREAT list! Harold {Quote hidden}> Harold, > > If your students are doing anything with RF, I recommend: > > Practical Radio Frequency Test and Measurement : A Technician's Handbook > (Paperback) > By Joseph Carr ISBN: 0750671610 > > One of Joe's many excellent books. > > Dave Challis > -- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com

> I'm going to be teaching a community college class on electronic > troubleshooting in January. The current text is more of general > electronic > theory book with small sections on troubleshooting at the end of each > chapter. Not very useful. Electronics troubleshooting is not so much looking for things that are wrong, but looking for deviations from the way things should be. I don't know whether you can teach this directly; you either need a bunch of knowledge about how everything is supposed to work, a boatload of experiences about both how things work and how they are likely to deviate, and/or an uncanny intuition... BillW

>> I'm going to be teaching a community college class on electronic >> troubleshooting in January. The current text is more of general >> electronic >> theory book with small sections on troubleshooting at the end of each >> chapter. Not very useful. > > Electronics troubleshooting is not so much looking for things that are > wrong, but looking for deviations from the way things should be. I > don't > know whether you can teach this directly; you either need a bunch of > knowledge about how everything is supposed to work, a boatload of > experiences about both how things work and how they are likely to > deviate, and/or an uncanny intuition... > I agree. I like teaching other classes better, but this is what I got for next semester. The Bob Pease book people suggested looks good. I'll also bring in working techs like last semester as guest speakers. So... thanks for the comments! Harold -- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com

On Oct 7, 2005, at 6:31 PM, William Chops Westfield wrote: > Electronics troubleshooting is not so much looking for things that are > wrong, but looking for deviations from the way things should be. Huh. It occurs to me that this explains why 'code reviews' don't seem to work as well as they ought to for 'ensuring software quality.' Too much emphasis on looking for things that are wrong... (of course, checking to make sure it's right is much harder.) BillW

William ChopsWestfield wrote: > Huh. It occurs to me that this explains why 'code reviews' don't seem > to work as well as they ought to for 'ensuring software quality.' I think another one of the problems with code reviews is the difficulty to distinguish between personal preferences and real problems. And another one is, especially if they are peer reviews, the difficulty to criticize a coworker... Needs a good, collaborative company culture to start, but this doesn't yet guarantee anything. Gerhard