X10 Community Forum
💬General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: bkenobi on August 26, 2017, 05:39:47 PM
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This is not specific to X10, though I've seen some modules do this as well. Why do some PCB's have extra components that are not populated?
I have a bug zapper racket thing from Harbor Freight. It stopped working even though the batteries are good. So I did what any engineer would...I opened it up to take a look. I don't care that it's broken really, it was just a toy to kill flies when grilling. What would like to understand is why design a PCB with extra components that don't get populated? Is it general practice for testing the board? Is it a way to make production cheaper? If I add the components back in will I kill a bunch more flies? Maybe it adds an Easter egg that will enable god mode. rofl
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Could be the same basic board. Maybe also used in a model with more features.
Or in X10WTI's case. Remove parts until it becomes unstable. :'
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We use the same PCB for both the XTBM and XTBM-Pro. The component locations needed just for the Pro are unpopulated in the XTBM. And there are several locations not used at all because they were for possible trims or alternate components.
I'm sure other companies do the same thing.
Jeff