Interlab, L.L.C.,

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Interlab, L.L.C.,

Short Circuit Imager

There is a problem how to detect defective part in a shorted-circuit electronic unit. Usually a person, who troubleshoots the defective circuit, knows the terminals between which the unwanted short or a leakage occurred. The sequence of parts and their interconnections in the defective circuit form a contour of the short circuit. The troubleshooter wants to find quickly the only one defective part, which is the cause of a malfunction. The contour of the short circuit can contain hundreds parts with an equal odds to be defective. The parts are connected with soldering, that makes the process of their removing for correct inspection the labor consuming. The conventional way to troubleshoot shorted electronic units is to remove part by part in the shorted circuit and check each of them until the defective one is found. The technician has to solder out next part and solder it in back if it's proved to be good. That takes a lot of time. On the other side, the repeated soldering is a harmful process because led solder and vapors of a flux are harmful. What is currently on the market to solve this problem?

There are inductive tracers, which inject an alternative current inside the circuit being troubleshoot. The troubleshooter finds a path of the current with a tone-signal of special receiver and makes a judgment basing on that. These instruments simplify the problem but don't eliminate it. The tone-signal helps localize the contour with defective parts but still doesn't show which of them is defective. On the other hand, the alternative current easily passes through the capacitors, which are represented in a big quantity, and creates a false reading.

To see the defective contour as a whole and defective part at once is a dream of each troubleshooter. The patented imager made this dream true. The imager is intended to make a contour of the short circuit visible.

The instrument looks like a flat panel with a screen on it. The troubleshooter place the panel right before the board with defective short circuit, and connect two terminals to the points of the inspected unit between which the short occurred. After turning on, the lucent contour superimposed on the board with the defect, appears. The contour is bi-colored. The red color-contour shows the outgoing portion of the circuit while green color-contour shows the its incoming portion. Its color changes abruptly right over the defective part. If troubleshooter wants, he can rotate the board being tested and only the defective part remains highlighted.

No more needs to solder repeatedly, breathing with harmful led and vapors, not to say about considerable time saving. What is the need of the market in this instrument?

There are thousands consumer electronic repair shops and service electric companies in USA. All the consumer electronics and any electric equipment can be prospective subject for application the instrument. Beside that there are numerous military maintenance and repair facilities. At least one or two of the imager will be needed for each the repair center.