Of course. The phrase "which component is *contributing* to the fault" is warning of the possibility that there may be more than one contributor. Or maybe not. Yes indeed, swapping components is not a panacea. Thought is also required.
But experiment by swapping (if possible) is the best starting place for finding the root-cause, unless your management prefers that you start throwing solutions at the problem to see if any work. An anecdote from the school of "throwing solutions": I once worked with an engineer that had been in the business long enough to know the top ten solutions to every ESD problem and every EMI problem for his type of products. He *never* thought before starting debug. He just went down the list, 1 through 10, trying all of the top ten solutions. He never looked for root-cause but was successful more than not. He is still in the business and still successful. The trick is to find the top ten solutions... From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Woodgate Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 10:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PSES] ESD Test Failure of Stainless USB Mouse In message <769907F0D19EFA45BD6F04FC6E896D6D220970D2C3@GVW0538EXC.americas.hpqcorp.n et>, dated Wed, 6 Jan 2010, "Conway, Patrick R (bNB Houston)" <[email protected]> writes: >Exchanging components of the EUT System is a classic method to identify >which component is contributing to the fault. Yes, IF there is a single culprit. But with EMC, and especially ESD, there may well be no single culprit; the problem affects particular combinations of components and not others. If EMC was too easy, it wouldn't be so fascinating. -- OOO - Own Opinions Only. Try www.jmwa.demon.co.uk and www.isce.org.uk John Woodgate, J M Woodgate and Associates, Rayleigh, Essex UK I should be disillusioned, but it's not worth the effort. - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]> - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
