25 May
2011
25 May
'11
10:59 a.m.
I've only used a logic analyzer twice in 30+
years of
fixing all kinds of electronics. I find them time consuming
I suspect this is going to come down to personal choice, tempered
slightly by the sort of machines you're working on.
If you ask a dozen hackers (in the true sense) to do soemthing, you'll
get it done a dozen ways, using different tools. And all are equally good...
I use a logic analyser a lot. Either a handheld one (which I use just
about all the time), or an old Gould. Yes, I probably could dfo the same
work with a DSO, but the LA is what I am used to. I think, for exmaple,
tracing the microcode in a PERQ, PDP11 or HP9800 would be difficult with
most DSOs (you need at least 8 or 12 channels), I do it all the time with
the LA.
For that matter, just hte other day I needed to trace the operation of a
state machien with a 5 bit stat register, and various inputs and outputs.
Withot an instruemtn with at least 8 input channels that would have been
very difficult.
and not much good for general debugging. In order to
use one right=2C you need to have a rough idea as to what
is wrong. By that time=2C I have been able to narrow it down=2C
It's certainly not the first instruemtn I reach for, but I find most of
the itme a multimeter and a logic probe (or even better the handheld LA)
will let me find the area that's malfunctioning and give me some clues as
to what's wrong. And then I grab the LA...
-tony