In the first post I told the story of how I was going through my stack of inverters during a storm and finding them inoperative, and fixed number one. Here is the story of number two, and a demonstration of how to use a cheap incandescent light bulb as a valuable troubleshooting tool to help locate shorts while the circuit is powered up.
Yep…always look for the stupid stuff first. It’s nearly always quick and easy to fix. You usually think of it as a possible cause early on in your trouble-shooting, and then just don’t check it.
It’s really bad when you’ve got two or more people working on something; everyone assumes that the others already checked the silly stuff. I once started a really long, involved sensitivity check of a RF distribution system on third shift, left the day shift with an exact description of where I stopped and the results so far, came back 16 hours later and they told me they couldn’t get anything to work…took a look at what they were doing, and set _one_ circuit breaker and the system turned on.
Nanyways, great video! Nicely bridges the gap between “no electrical knowledge at all” and “have a master’s in EE”
Thanks Doc!