Analyzer was Re: KIM-1 repair advice wanted

[Scott Stevens]

On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 21:01:51 +0100 (BST)
ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:

> > > First thing would be
> > >to connect a logic analyzer to see if the CPU is still running
> > >a programm in ROM or not.
> > 
> > Hi
> >  What is it with logic analyzers. Why not just an
> > oscilloscope. In most cases, one can be farther along
> > with an 'oscope in finding what is wrong by the
> > time one can get an analyzer connected and setup.
> > I've only had one time that I ever needed an analyzer
> > and even that time, it didn't work well because
> > of the complexity of the problem ( design not failure ).
> >  I'll admit that I've often thought of making one
> > of those address compare circuits to trigger the 'scope
> > but by the time I'd get serious, I'd found the problem.
> >  Am I alone here or does everyone else think that an
> > analyzer is the ultimate tool?
> 
> The logic analyser is not the ultimate faultfinding device. In fact
> the ultimate faultfinding device isn't made by Tektronix, Agilent or
> Lecroy, it doesn't come from RS components, Farnell, or Digikey. As
> I've said many times before, it's called a brain :-).
> 

Back in the day, techs didn't get to use Logic Analyzers much in any
case.  They were targeted as development tools, not for troubleshooting,
and only the high mucky-muck engineers had them.  They were too
expensive (always in the five figures, usually the mid five figures) for
mere 'troubleshooting' and really not that well suited to such pursuits.
 A Logic Analyzer is for things like developing a Data General mini.