this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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Dull Men's Club

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Anything else I should check?

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (14 children)

you can sometimes use these as a stud finder, depends on the wall

If you ever do electronics repair and are good at soldering these are a lifesaver for quick diagnosis if the resolution is high enough. Look at the board, apply power, and the part that is shorting out will often quickly get stupid hot. Sometimes it will be a complex repair you can’t easily do like a bga chip but you’d be surprised how often it’s just a random capacitor that went bad in your phone or switch or whatever and swapping it out (or even just getting rid of it if it’s an extra filter) fixes the issue. The hard part is finding out the value bc there are never schematics

A less easy to use alternative to this that I use bc thermal cams are expensive is squirt isopropyl alcohol or flux on the board and apply power. It’ll boil at the point where the part is shorting. Harder to determine but much cheaper. If you already have the camera though

[–] LaminatedDenim 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My house is entirely made out of brick, I doubt it'll be very effective here but I'll definitely check

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I don’t think a brick house has studs

[–] dohpaz42 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This was an educational rabbit hole to go down.

It seems not all brick houses have wall studs, but most do.

It makes sense to me to have studs to help run utilities (electrical, air ducts, etc) and for hanging drywall.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

but most do.

Never seen a brick house that has studs around here. Most houses around here are built like this:

Concrete floors/ceilings, bricks in between, utilities get carved into the brickwall and are covered when the inside plaster is applied. The inside plaster is usually made up from two or three layers and is around 3cm thick.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago
[–] dohpaz42 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Unfortunately I can’t see the image. But I understand what you’re saying.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Oh, right, have some JPEG then:

[–] d00ery 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Studs, in the UK at least, create a gap between the brick wall and the plasterboard this is often filled with insulation and it's where electrical cables and pipework can run.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The insulation is usually applied on the outside of the building so the protected volume is more homogeneous, avoiding cold bridges where walls/ceilings join, cause that's where mould tends to grow

[–] d00ery 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

In all the new build houses I've worked on the insulation is on the inside, in the UK at least. Though it's been at least 10 years since I've been on site.

Also usually external insulation is quite visible and I still see lots of domestic properties with bare external brickwork.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

In newer houses yes. In older ones... Well let's just say I'm getting tired of carving channels into solid red brick whenever I do electrics.

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