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In my (also limited) experience I was able to get by with just a high-impedance piezo earpiece I could listen to in order to debug audio-frequency circuits. Ear
by nhecker 4y ago
In my (also limited) experience I was able to get by with just a high-impedance piezo earpiece I could listen to in order to debug audio-frequency circuits. Ears are surprisingly sensitive detectors and can provide quite a bit of data into your brain. Some higher-frequency circuits you can still debug, but not well or at least not as thoroughly. It's not a perfect solution, but dirt cheap, and consumes a tiny amount of space. It's instant feedback and after a while you can start recognizing (guessing at?) different waveforms and types of signal quirks. I've found that a surprisingly useful part of my kit over the years. Just stay away from high voltage!
- buescher 4y agoThe poor-man's scope, yes. I still have an AM-radio-sized battery-operated amplifier from Radio Shack in my toolbox, but it's been a long time since I used it. An AM radio works too, and works above audio frequencies, wirelessly! The loopstick will pick up harmonics off everything in the circuit so you can hear a lot of what's going on. Helps to know what might be going on though. I had a boss that had retired the following interview question (maybe it was a PhD qual question, I forget): He'd give the candidate a portable TV and an AM radio and have them measure the horizontal scan frequency of the TV. It was probably a chestnut in some circles.