Re: WANTED : in-circuit IC tester

  As i've mentioned before, i think that you believe there is equipment
  out there that can give you a 100% accurate pass/go test on IC's. It
doesn't exist.

Regarding the 10529A:

  If an input node is tied to ground/5v because of an internal short,
then the comparison with a known-good IC will not show up any fault in
the 10529. Its rare to find, but does happen.

  The comparator is just that, it presents the same inputs to a
known-good ic that the ic under test has. The outputs are compared, any
differences show up. Failure modes of IC's can be varied, and a
comparison method cannot find every single failure type in the same way
that node stimulation can't either.

  The 10529A is by far, the best all-round tool you can own, laborious
though it is to use the ZIF socket to swap IC's and change pin
assignments. You have to remember to power-cycle the unit-under-test for
counters and flip-flops so that you get the same power-on states,
otherwise your comparisons will be wrong.

  I'm talking from 13 years experience of arcade pcb repairing here, i
also own an ABI Boardmaster 4000, amongst other equipment for in-circuit
testing.

  If you have written off the 10529A as no good then you stand no chance
using any of the other pieces of equipment to good effect. You need to
understand failures and how they can manifest themselves first.

  The holy grail of a pass/go system you seek is not within reach.

Andrew Welburn
http://www.andys-arcade.com

On 30/07/2013 21:07, Fabrizio Vasile wrote:
> Yes, using the HP 10529A I had several times good IC showed as bad
> (especially counters, flip-flop) but, most terrible thing, a couple of
> times I had also bad IC showed as good!
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "JJ" <rugd2go@comcast.net>
> To: "Technical Tools Mail List" <techtoolslist@flippers.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 9:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [Techtoolslist] WANTED : in-circuit IC tester
>
>
>> Has anyone had good luck with the HP10529 ? I seem to get a lot of
>> false ic failures during tests. Have you seen the HP ever show a
>> failed IC test good?
>>
>> Justin
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Received on Wed Jul 31 17:50:52 2013