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Dropped $200 on a thermal camera for board repair, and I am still not sure it was worth it
I picked up a cheap thermal cam about 6 weeks back to chase shorted caps on laptops, thinking it would speed up every diagnostic. Fast forward to now and I have used it on maybe 4 jobs where it actually pinpointed the fault, and the rest of the time my multimeter and a finger test did the same thing in less time. The counter argument is that on a dense board where you cannot reach anything, seeing the hot spot saves you an hour of poking around. So which side are you on, is a thermal cam a real tool or just a $200 toy that looks cool on the bench?
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jade_butler15d ago
Figuring out where to point the camera took practice for me. The trick was covering the board in a thin layer of rubbing alcohol and watching which spot evaporates first, then confirming with the cam. That cut my time way down on a MacBook logic board where three caps sat under a shield I could not get my probes into. Still only worth it maybe one in five jobs, but when it saves you, it saves you an hour.
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