Probably very very simple, but imprescindible

[Poty]

Good evening. A few days ago, I was dealing with a home alarm, trying to fix it to the wall at 5m height. Unfortunatelly, it slipped from my hands and ended on the floor. Fortunatelly, plastics didn´t broke, but the electronics didn´t resist.
So, I started to check, and found that the frequency transformer (it has a ne556, and connect to a piezoelectric throug this transfomer) was a little loose. Thinking that this was the reason, reinfoced the transformer soldering, and tryed again. No results. Well, started to disconnect the transformer, and found that soldering didn´t fail, but the cooper pad from a contact was separated from the trace and the pcb. The only reason why I found this was because the use of a magnifying glass.
To make it short, here comes a almost always forgotten recommendation: ALWAYS SECURE YOUR CIRCUITS.
From mechanical methods (screws, clips, etc) to chemical ones (hot melt plastics, resines, etc) there are multiple and a very interesting variety of methods to make our work resistant to impacts, chemical attacks, and all those situations that don´t show up over out work desk.
Try to think with anticipation on those external forces or agressive environments where you want your circuitry work. This will result in time saving and mind peace. And probably gratefully clients.

[token0]

That reminded me of how my multimedia speaker system was glitching. I've spent a several months to diagnose and fix the problem. I found it literally with my fingertip, touching and pressing the PCB. It was invisible crack in solder under SMD element that produced malfunction. Amplifier didn't fell once, it just absorbed some audio vibrations through years of service. 7 years ago I have resoldered those joints and it still works without problems.