Shoutout to the guy who showed me a thermal camera for board hunting

Used to spend 20 minutes probing caps and guessing what was heating up before I borrowed a $200 FLIR from a buddy last September and found a bad MOSFET in under 30 seconds - has anyone else had a cheap thermal camera pay for itself on one job?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_black19d ago

Did a buddy of yours fry a board trying to find a short without one?

masonbell19d ago

Yo wait @abby_black the thought of someone frying a board because they didn't have a thermal camera is wild to me. Ngl I know a guy who tried to find a short by touching caps with his finger and ended up zapping himself so bad he dropped the whole motherboard on concrete. Honestly that $200 FLIR probably saves people way more than the cost of one replacement board let alone the hassle. Tbh I can't believe how many people still try to find shorts by just guessing and probing around blindly with a multimeter.