Bought a cheap thermal camera for $200 and it caught a short before my bench went up

Was working on a laptop board from a 2019 MacBook Pro and my usual visual check showed nothing. The Seek Thermal Compact showed a tiny hot spot near the CPU power rail that was already at 95C with no load. That $200 tool just saved a $800 logic board repair and maybe my shop. What's your go to for finding hidden shorts before they cook a board?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_fox2d ago

Cheap tools catching big problems is a whole vibe now. My old Fluke meter found a bad ground in my car that three shops missed. It's like the good stuff got dumbed down so the basic gear has to step up.

king.river1d ago

Good stuff got dumbed down" is painfully true. My expensive meter just shows me how bad I am at this. The cheap one would probably lie and tell me I'm doing great.