I started testing the logic analyzer adapters that I designed over my last vacation. Over the course of a week I designed 6 of these for the following chips:
- 8086 / 8088 CPU
- 8051 MPU
- Z80 CPU
- 6502 / 6800 CPU
- 6801 / 6803 / HD6303 CPUs
- 27XXX series ROMs
To use these, your hardware must have one of these ICs in a socket. You’ll remove the IC, plug in the adapter, then plug the ICs into the socket on the adapter. The PODs plug directly into the adapter, and the adapter provides the correct termination, so you don’t have to mess around with all the probes and worry about hooking something up the wrong way. Config file for the logic analyzer will also be provided to simplify the setup.
These adapters are specifically for the HP / Agilent analyzers with the 40 pin POD adapters, and they’ve been tested with the Agilent 1672G which is the unit I have. I really like this unit, and I’m planning to keep it so I’m investing a little time and effort to expand its capability.
I have some dead arcade boards and broken audio gear that I need to debug, and I was hoping to use these adapters to help me with that. In fact, hooking up the analyzer is such a pain, that I simply couldn’t be bothered to do it, and I held off the work until these were completed.
After the initial tests and troubleshooting work, this looks really promising, but while this is a step in the right direction, there is a bit more work to be done to perfect these.
Check out the Logic Analyzer Adapter page for more information on this project. I’ll send out more information once these are ready for release.