RE: Troubleshooting Hints Come From the Strangest Places!

DAB — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:14:44 GMT

You have indeed learned a good lesson. I cannot count the number of times that I found the source to problems far away from where the symptoms told me it was.

One good technique I learned was to grab someone who knows absolutely nothing about your project and sit down and start explaining it to them like you would to your mother, assuming your mother was not a genius. I have found that as you go through the design and think about how to explain what each piece is doing you will reach the "AHA" point before you are done. That or the person listening will ask that really dumb question that makes you smack yourself across your forehead and say DUH!

The hardest part about debugging systems is knowing what to do when it does not work according to your design. A fresh pair of eyes and ears can work wonders in jogging the truth hidden away in your own mind.

Thanks for the reminder, I hope a lot of the younger engineers read this piece, we all think we know whats going to happen, but it takes a while to get humble enough to remember that asking for help is not a sign of weakness.

DAB