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Debate: Is it better to chase intermittent faults with a scope or just shotgun parts?

Last month I spent 3 days chasing a ghost in a Garmin G1000 PFD at a repair station in Atlanta. I swear a scope would have nailed it in an hour, but my lead insisted on swapping cards one by one. Three years ago I had a similar issue on a King KX-155 and the scope found a cracked solder joint in 10 minutes. Do you guys lean towards systematic part swapping or signal tracing with test gear when things get weird?
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2 Comments
uma_baker88
Fixing cars, most folks just keep replacing parts till the light goes off.
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morgan915
morgan9151mo ago
Ever have a buddy spend a whole weekend swapping relays on his boat's autopilot only to find a corroded ground wire that the scope would've caught in 20 minutes? @uma_baker88 is right that most folks shotgun, but the ones who swear by test gear usually save their sanity.
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