tracing out schematics

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Sat Nov 20 12:09:53 2004

On Thu, 2004-11-18 at 08:26 -0500, charlesb_at_otcgaming.net wrote:
> If it's a simple board with just a top and bottom layer, then I normally
> photocopy it and use that in conjunction with the real pcb to make a copy
> of the traces.

I've actually put boards on a scanner before; with a bit of image
processing it's usually possible to isolate tracks from the PCB very
well - but of course it can only work for one side of the board :)

> That said, if you have connectino diagrams, have you thought about using
> an ATX psu? it's ok for switch on/off just short pin 14 on the atx
> connector (green wire iirc) to ground and that will turn on the psu.

Ahh, this thing's rated at 750W - I'd need to replace it with something
pretty heavyweight :) I did wonder about substitution even so (assuming
the failure's in some impossible-to-get part), but I'd still need to
figure out what all the sense wires between the PSU and the system
backplane do. I could live without the battery back-up circuitry of
course; not like the machine's used in a critical environment :-)

Fixing it would be a much nicer option; plus given that it didn't go
bang in any way (I turned it on one day and it was dead, didn't so much
as try to start) I'm hopeful that the fault's reasonably isolated and
hasn't wrecked to much on the board...

cheers

Jules
Received on Sat Nov 20 2004 - 12:09:53 GMT