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Here are some testimonials from happy users:

From: Wayne Nolan 
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 7:18 AM

Subject: SS2 received, problem solved!

Hi Carl,
Jeez, what a cool product.
It took me about an hour of playing with the unit to become
comfortable with it. I can see how with some experience you can get
really good with it.

Anyway, I connected the SS2's outputs to the output from the DC-DC
converter on the analog side of my board, and touched the probe to
each of the de-coupling capacitors. When the probe came into contact
with a shorted capacitor, the tone went off like an alarm.
The SS2 has earned a place of honor on my workbench. It will
undoubtedly save me countless hours of troubleshooting.
Send me the invoice and I'll remit promptly.

Many Thanks,

Wayne

 
Mon 8/15/2005 9:43 PM

Hi Carl,

 
Just to let you know, I did find a 3.3V-GND short under a small (11x11mm, 0.65mm pitch, in red oval) BGA which had had some rework. I had to use the sensitive tip, and the ShortSniffer really only lit up when I was within about 5mm of that chip, but once I was there it worked very clearly from both the solder side and component side, and using different distal injection points. We do have extremely solid planes and lots of decoupling, so I'll make a note to just sweep all the device packages carefully in future if I suspect a plane short. Removing this one BGA took the resistance from 2 ohms to 27 ohms, which is comparable to the golden board.
 
I had thought that a 1.2V-GND resistance of 2 ohms also meant a short, but it turns out the golden board has the same characteristics. Red herring! The ShortSniffer has definitely earned its keep, since this $10k prototype is now back in action. Feel free to use the attached JPEG on your website.
 
Thanks for all your support,
 
Drew

 

From: carl
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 10:28 PM
To: emanuel-machado
Subject: RE: Notification of payment received

You placed your order early in the day, which normally would have been processed and shipped today.  There was an unfortunate 6 hour delay in the Verizon email system so we didn’t receive the order until after 5pm.  In our haste to fill the order (in hope of being able to catch the UPS driver at the last pickup location) we mistakenly processed the order as a second-day shipment.  I have refunded $20 to your purchase charges; $15 for the shipping cost differential, and $5 because I feel bad about the extra delay.  Please let me know if you have any troubles in your short circuit location and I will try to help. 

 
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From: Emanuel Machado
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 12:52 PM
To: carl
Subject: RE: Notification of payment received

Hi, Carl,

Thanks for your prompt response.

Oh well, we’ll have to wait a couple of days (it’s President’s day anyway).

Do you have any tips about how to go about the job? Or there maybe some docs with the device, that would be probably ok. We’re trying to find a nasty short between power and ground on a multilayer, VME sized board. It could be a component issue, a solder joint or a board manufacturing issue, I hope we will be able to get to the bottom of it.

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From: Carl
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 3:57 PM
To: Emanuel-Machado
Subject: short finding

(reply from my day job)

When you get the ShortSniffer, play with the practice board so you can get the feel (or sound) of the process.  Then hook up to your shorted nodes and follow the sound to the short.  If you get confusing results, try injecting the current from a different side of the board to see if you get any better indications of the location.  If you spend an hour with no success, let me know and I can give more help.

Later,
Carl

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From: Emanuel Machado
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 7:01 AM
To: Carl
Subject: RE: short finding

Hi, Carl,

 You can add us to your list of satisfied customers. We had a nasty power short but, after removing the large caps, it was fairly easy to trace the short location.

 Thanks for a great product,

 Emanuel

Sat 6/30/2007 8:32 PM

Hi,

use my following testimonial if you wish:

I got your Plus unit and it sat here for some time for no good reason.

Lately we got 3 high value complex boards running in short order using your device.

On a board with hundreds of components in about 90 seconds it pinpointed an area which had already been inspected with a microscope and sure enough there was a hairline solder whisker! Cleared it and there was a shippable board.

In another case we had a blown chip on a bus with 24 other identical chips, we knew which pin but not which chip, your box found it in a few minutes and saved a ton of work and the possibility of scrapping of an expensive board.

Great product and thanks!

Dennis Saputelli

 

Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 11:04 AM
Subject: shortsniffer

Your ShortSniffer arrived about an hour ago, and it has already paid for itself.  It found two tiny 3.3VDC shorts to gnd, on a 14x14 PCB with thousands of components.  This board had already undergone exhaustive visual inspection, to no avail.  In less than three minutes, the ShortSniffer pinpointed the trouble spots to two 144-pin fine-pitch flat-packs, and microscopic inspection revealed the shorts.  Our products have dozens of such large-scale IC’s, and visual inspection for defects that escape the AOI process is impractical.  Thanks for such an outstanding product!!!

Robert Kean
Test Engineering Supervisor
Wintronics, Inc
191 Pitt St.
 Sharon PA 16146
 (800) 356-4483