My Troubleshooting Textbook.
At Western Kentucky University where I used to teach the catalog listed a course in the electrical engineering department called troubleshooting. It had never been offered because none of the senior faculty members wanted to teach it. In the spring of 1987 some students came to me and asked if I would be willing to take it on. I agreed and they petitioned the department head to offer the course. It was offered in the fall. About 15 students signed up. I taught the course and because there was no textbook anywhere to be found I wrote one. I still have the files. I have decided to update, convert them to HTML, and post them.Although I tried I never succeeded in getting a publisher interested in it. I self published it through a copy shop near campus so the students could buy it. I retain all rights and posting it here does not mean I am placing it in the public domain.
Every so often I get a request from someone wanting a hard copy of the book. All paper copies went away years ago. The original Word Perfect files have also disappeared so all that remains are these HTML files. I have put them together with all figures in a zip file which you can download from this location. I retain all rights to these files and electronic drawings. They are for personal use only. If you are a teacher and want to use this work as a textbook in your classes please contact me for permission to reproduce and distribute. If you plan to have your students access the book online please do not direct them to this site. I fear such use might exceed the bandwidth limit of my provider. Contact me so we can set up a mirror site preferably on your school or university network with limited access. Thank you.
Troubleshooting.
Table of Contents.
Chapter 0 Electrical Fundamentals.
0.1 DC Circuits.
0.2 AC Circuits.
0.3 Power Supplies.
0.4 Bipolar Transistor Fundamentals.
0.5 Bipolar Transistor Circuits.
0.6 Operational Amplifiers.
0.7 Field Effect Transistors.
0.8 FET Circuits.
0.9 Vacuum Tube Fundamentals.
0.10 Vacuum Tube Circuits.
Chapter 1 Introduction to Troubleshooting.
Chapter 2 Test Equipment.
2.1 The Volt-Ohm-Milliammeter (VOM).
2.2 The Electronic Voltmeter.
2.3 The Digital Multimeter (DMM).
2.4 Choosing The Correct Test Meter.
2.5 Analog Versus Digital Meters.
2.6 The Oscilloscope.
2.6.1 The Digital Storage Oscilloscope (DSO)
2.7 The Signal Tracer.
2.8 Miscellaneous Test Equipment.
2.9 Instruction Manuals.
Chapter 3 Failure Modes.
3.1 Generalized Failure Modes.
3.2 Electrolytic Capacitors.
Chapter 4 Troubleshooting Techniques.
4.1 Check The Obvious First.
4.2 Do Not Make Modifications.
4.3 The Power Supply Section.
4.4 Half-splitting.
4.5 Signal Tracing.
4.6 Signal Injection.
4.7 Disturbance Testing.
4.8 Static Testing.
4.9 Shotgunning.
Chapter 5 Faults in Power Supplies.
5.1 Rectifier-Filter Circuits.
5.2 Analog Voltage and current Regulator Circuits.
5.3 Switching Mode Power Supplies.
Chapter 6 Faults in Transistor Circuits.
6.1 Common Emitter Amplifier.
6.2 The Emitter-follower's Fatal Flaw.
6.3 AC Coupled Amplifiers.
6.4 DC Coupled Amplifiers.
6.5 Radio Frequency Amplifiers.
6.6 Switching Circuits.
Chapter 7 Transistorized Consumer Equipment.
7.1 Audio Amplifiers.
7.2 Radios and tuners.
7.3 Things you should leave alone.
Chapter 8 Faults in Vacuum Tube Circuits.
8.1 Audio Amplifiers.
8.2 Radio Receivers.
Chapter 9 Antique Equipment.
9.1 Before Turning on the Power.
9.2 Pre 1930 Radios.
9.3 Pre World War Two Radios.
9.4 The All American Five.
9.5 Three Way Portable Radios.
9.6 Phonographs and Record Changers.
9.7 Consoles and High Fi Components.
9.8 Wire and Tape Recorders.
9.9 Why TV Sets Are Not covered.
Chapter 10 Things That Have Never Worked.
10.1 Power Supplies.
10.2 Audio Amplifiers.
10.3 Radio Receivers.
10.4 Simple Test Equipment.
Appendix A Mechanical Disassembly.
Appendix B Desoldering.
Appendix C Component Substitution.
Back to Fun with Transistors.
Back to Fun with Tubes.