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Just found out the hard way about two ways to check for bad solder joints
I was fixing a nav display that kept dropping out on a Citation. For years, I just did a visual check with a magnifier. This time, I borrowed a thermal camera from a guy in the next hangar. The visual check showed nothing wrong, but the thermal camera found a tiny cold joint that only heated up under load. It was hidden under a capacitor leg. That one tool saved me about four hours of guesswork. Has anyone else switched to using thermal imaging for this kind of fault finding?
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jana_fox501mo ago
Seriously? I mean, I get it's cool tech, but like wilson.sam said, how big of a deal is this really? Most of the time a bad joint is either obvious or it just works fine for years. Spending all that money to find one tiny cold spot feels like fixing a problem that isn't there. I've fixed plenty of stuff with a good light and a pick, never needed to see its heat signature. Maybe it's just me but it seems like a solution looking for a problem.
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wilson.sam1mo ago
Honestly, how often does a cold joint like that actually cause a real world failure? Seems like a super edge case. I'd stick with the magnifier and a good poke test before dropping serious cash on a thermal cam for this.
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