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Atari Cat Box, can we build an emulator ?
Level42:
OK, I may have started off not clear enough saying what my goal is....I think it's clear now though :D
Yeah, I've got a scope here as well. A really old one but it works. I also have an Oszifox (http://www.wittigtechnologies.com/english/05_products/01_oszifox/oszifox_01_intro.htm) which is in fact a scope that runs on a PC.
However, I don't see why this would compare to a in-circuit tester. Regular scopes simply display what's going on on a certain pin....nothing more. The "in-circuit tester" would adress each available adress, read the "answer" from the PCB and compare it to the value (signature) that it has for a known working PCB, or the values that Atari specified for their games.
At least, that is what I understand from how it works, I may be wrong.
I've never heared of scopes that can do the component signatures, but I guess they can't do it while the part is still on the PCB and since almost all PCB's have the majority of IC's soldered directly, I don't see how this is of any use.
Apart from that, I can imagine that these are very expensive.
Just like "real" in-circuit testers
werejag:
a device called a huntron tracker does exactly that. you can compare signatures of a good board(any baord) to a bad board to trouible shoot replacemant of parts.
Fozzy The Bear:
--- Quote from: Level42 on April 13, 2007, 01:14:32 am ---I've never heared of scopes that can do the component signatures, but I guess they can't do it while the part is still on the PCB and since almost all PCB's have the majority of IC's soldered directly, I don't see how this is of any use.
Apart from that, I can imagine that these are very expensive.
Just like "real" in-circuit testers
--- End quote ---
There are at least three dedicated scopes that can do in circuit component analysis as well as measure waveforms and basic voltages. As I said.. The PC Card based ones would be the ideal starting point for creating a board or component specific one as they are programable.
Now all you need, is a software engineer to spend six months and $100,000 to write it. Personally I don't think it'd have a wide enough use or appeal for anybody to write as freeware. 99.9% of the people on this forum wouldn't want one, or know what to do with one if they had it.
Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)
ChadTower:
There's another approach, too. Boards of this era are so easy to solder in sockets and have so few commonly failing parts. Just socket chips and swap with new ones one by one until the board comes back to life. Anything you actually replace is a positive anyway they're so old. You can usually narrow the failure down to a range of possibilities and then swap away until you're good.
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