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How to check if a circuit is complete?

B

BigToque

Lifer
Right now i'm having some problems with the display on my faceplate for my car stereo.

Where I used to work, I had a guy attach some wires on the circuit board to reconnect some traces that were not working properly. Anyway, I'm having the problem again, except I dont work at the place anymore so I cant get the guy to look at it again.

What do I have to do to check if a trace is complete between 2 points?
 
like posted.. you will want to check for your resistance...

resistance will be checked with the power NOT supplied to the system.

set your multimeter to the Ohm's setting, and at a decent range to cover for the circuit; set it for DC also..

since you are measuring for resistance, your test leads will not matter to which end point they go to..

If the circuit is good, and there is continuity, the resistance (ohm reading) should be very low.. almost 0... it should read some very low value though, since your circuit between the two points will have some resistance.. This is all dependent on the gauge (AWG) of the wire.. , or circuit, ie

A bad, faulty path, will be indicated by a reading of infinite, or it will flash continuously.. depending on what model your multimeter is..
Some multimeters will also produce a beeping tone to indicate an open circuit
 
I'd be more than happy to take a look at it for ya
<---electronics tech


got any pics of the faceplate?? I mean, can you see where the suspect area is?
 
as other suggestions, use an Ohm meter, they may call it Digital Multimeter (DMM). If your DMM doesn't have a continuty test function, just switch it to Ohm meter. Probe 2 points, if you see 1 on the LCD display, then there's an open circuit. It's ok if the display is 0 or other number (depends on the resistance of the cirtcuit, but usually very low of connection wires)
 
Originally posted by: JOSEPHLB
like posted.. you will want to check for your resistance...

resistance will be checked with the power NOT supplied to the system.

set your multimeter to the Ohm's setting, and at a decent range to cover for the circuit; set it for DC also..

since you are measuring for resistance, your test leads will not matter to which end point they go to..

If the circuit is good, and there is continuity, the resistance (ohm reading) should be very low.. almost 0... it should read some very low value though, since your circuit between the two points will have some resistance.. This is all dependent on the gauge (AWG) of the wire.. , or circuit, ie

A bad, faulty path, will be indicated by a reading of infinite, or it will flash continuously.. depending on what model your multimeter is..
Some multimeters will also produce a beeping tone to indicate an open circuit
Click to expand...

What he said.
 
Thanks guys...

I've checked the places where the guy added his wires and they are all fine. its gonna be hard to comb over this thing and see if some other trace is broken.

My problem is that the LCD keeps going out.

I dont have a scanner so i cant scan the circuit board for ya redly 🙂
 
Well, I decided to take off all the wires the guy added, then solder some new wire on myself. The display seems to look like new. There seems to be no dimming at all.

I am happy 🙂

So happy that I went out and bought a 50 pack of blank cd's (memorex 80 min), so now I'm going burn crazy 😀
 
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