Re: Whats the difference between a current short VS a voltag
Hi,
The first principle to handle shorts is to follow the adage ' Prevention is better than Cure'. So,do everything necessary to reduce possibility of shorts at each stage of a product cyle including design stage.
While making PCB design, try to give sufficient spacing between tracks and component to component. For instance, the discrete resistors have got painted metal cap at their ends and if they are mounted very close to each other the paint may brake off and short each other. For such resistors, it is also advisable to mount it slightly lifted above the PCB so that the cap does not press against a track underneath. Take extra care to physically isolate power dissipating components from other components. Also try to avoid as far as possible vertical mounting of components and use mechanical or other fastening methods to clamp large size components.
Training of your soldering hands in careful handling of the PCBS is eqally important.
After taking care in the design and manufacturing stage, introduce visual or automated inspection at each stage of manufacuring. For example, the incoming blank PCB may be subjected to automatic check to weed out 100% of all shorts and open conditions of tracks. Many soldering shorts in the assembled PCB can be easily found out with visual inspection. Also ensure that mounting of all polar componenets like diodes, LEDs, Electrolytic capacotors etc. are 100% visually inspected before powering up.
If you have socketed components, plug them in only after powering up the assembled PCB once and ensuring all DC voltages on the board are OK.
I hope these are some of the precautions that you can take to ensure that the harmful shorts are detected and removed before they can cause any serious damage.
Regards,
Laktronics