AX Control, Inc.

How To Identify Components on Printed Circuit Boards

Close up view of a printed circuit board — It can be hard to identify all the components on printed circuit boards (PCBs).

If you’ve ever tried to work on your own PCBs, or printed circuit boards, you may have experienced the frustration of looking at a part and not knowing exactly what it is. After working with thousands of PCBs, we understand.

Luckily, there are resources that can help. In fact, lots of them. But they’re scattered all over. And many of the best aren’t even available online anymore unless you know how to use some special tools (Wayback Machine to the rescue!)

But rather than complain about this state of affairs, we decided to create our own tutorial to fix it. Bonus: you benefit, too.

Here’s our printed circuit board component tutorial, with lots of information and pictures to help you identify those individual parts.

Printed Circuit Boards: the Basics

Printed circuit boards are typically made from laminated composite material. This non-conductive substrate sandwiches copper circuitry that actually makes up the circuits the boards are named after.

substrate: /ˈsəbˌstrāt/; an underlying substance or layer.
mudcoders.com

These copper circuits, also known as signal traces, electrically connect and mechanically support other mounted components on the board.

Gas Turbine Controls: A List of FAQs

Photo for article on gas turbine controls. Sheep graze in front of a locomotive as it passes in front of a power station. — Gas turbines (and gas turbine controls) are used for everything from power stations to locomotives.

What do you know about gas turbine controls?

Here at AX Control, we focus a lot on gas turbine control systems. GE Speedtronic components make up a good bit of our inventory. Starting in the 1960s, Speedtronic components have set the standard for industrial turbine control. So we’ve learned a lot about gas turbine controls in our day-to-day operations as we’ve bought, sold, cleaned, and repaired these boards.

Here are some of the most common questions we hear.

What is meant by “turbine control” or a “turbine control system”?

The term “turbine control system” refers to anything designed to safely manage turbines in a reliable and safe manner. Control can occur through mechanical systems, electrical systems, or programmable controller systems.

Servo Drive Features You Should Know About

Close-up of the Vectrive ACDA-33 Servo Drive from Reliance Electric. — The Reliance Electric Vectrive ACDA-33 Servo Drive

The servo drive of today is not the same as the basic power amplifier of yesterday. These complex equipment devices have dozens of available features that expand and improve their original motion control abilities. We don’t want you to miss out on any of these great features from lack of knowledge, so we’ve created a short blog post to introduce you to the top three features you should know about.

Auxiliary Feedback/Dual Loop Control

One important servo drive feature to understand is the auxiliary feedback/dual loop control option.

Servo drives read motor feedback, but many are also capable of reading an additional feedback source. This is called an auxiliary feedback. Typically, an auxiliary feedback is attached to the moving load, for example, connections in the drivetrain like gearboxes, couplings, or ball screws.