I have a friend who fixes old radios and other electronics. I help him from time to time because of his declining health. He's been at it since the 1950s. I walk a balance between keeping my instincts in check, especially when he just starts down a path, and occasionally asking about the things that are obvious to me.
He's very believable, he knows what "normal" behavior is for a vast array of things that I'm seeing for the very first time. So, I trust his gut instinct, for the most part.
However... eventually we'll sometimes get to the point where stuff is just plain weird, and no longer makes sense. We were at that point last Saturday, when there was a resistance measurement that was way less than the 1 megaohm that it should have been, and I started cutting out parts from the circuit... and eventually we both saw something new... a potentiometer had failed in a very unusual way, nearly grounding the wiper (about 4k to ground).
The relevant point is that in some areas, I'm ahead and more "believable" and he is in others... there seem to be some good pearls of wisdom in this article that are applicable no matter where in that balance you find yourself.
He's very believable, he knows what "normal" behavior is for a vast array of things that I'm seeing for the very first time. So, I trust his gut instinct, for the most part.
However... eventually we'll sometimes get to the point where stuff is just plain weird, and no longer makes sense. We were at that point last Saturday, when there was a resistance measurement that was way less than the 1 megaohm that it should have been, and I started cutting out parts from the circuit... and eventually we both saw something new... a potentiometer had failed in a very unusual way, nearly grounding the wiper (about 4k to ground).
The relevant point is that in some areas, I'm ahead and more "believable" and he is in others... there seem to be some good pearls of wisdom in this article that are applicable no matter where in that balance you find yourself.