Reverse Engineering 15 yr old electronics

[Douglas Taylor]

Thanks for the hints, I was uncertain whether to use a continuity tester, 
but it sounds safe.

The circuit boards are multi-layer and from what I can see, looking at one 
side you can see writing on the layer below that says either +5 plane or 
ground plane depending on which side you are looking at.  I have never seen 
this before, the buried ground and +5 buss, is this normal?

Some pictures of the device are at:  http://users.starpower.net/dj.taylor/

BTW: I love the 'non-causal' nature of the list here, I get answers to my 
post before it even appears!

Doug

At 08:49 PM 11/11/2005, you wrote:
> > of the electronics?  There are two cards, with standard TTL and analog
> > parts.  The printed circuit has a design date of 1985, while the IC's have
> > 88-89 dates.
>
>One thing I forgot to mention in my last message. Get a good continuity
>tester. 'Good' means one that is not fooled by diode junctions (and
>preferably not by low-ish resistors), one that doesn't supply enough
>voltage or current to damage anyting, one that beeps, and one that beeps
>quickly (you want to be able to 'stroke' a probe along a line of pins to
>see if a given connection goes to any of them).
>
>The continiuty beeper in my old Fluke 85 is fine, for example.
>
>-tony