Re: catbox

andre wrote:
> I have been reading all morning to try and find
> something to simplify troubleshooting pcb's for
> myself. I have no electronics background other than
> learning as I go so whenever someone says 'buy a
> scope'.. thats probably not gonna help me much.
>
> So I was looking at the Atari catbox which seems to
> have been designed for people with no real electronics
> background.... but 'many' posts just say to get a
> hp5004a instead. I have tried to find more info on the
> HP, but have not been very successful. Looking at the
> front of the unit, there does not seem to be a whole
> lot of things to be able to set. So I am wondering,
> using the Gravitar manual as an example, does the HP
> manual clearly explain how to (for instance);
>
> a. TESTER MODE: SIG
> b. TESTER SELF-TEST: OFF
> C. PULSE MODE: LATCHED
> D START: Negative-going edge trigger
> e. STOP: Negative-going edge trigger
> f. CLOCK: Negative-going edge trigger
>
> or for the ram,
>
> DBUS SOURCE: ADDR
> BYTES: 1024
> Enter address 0000 with the keyboard~(HP doesn't have
> a keyboard?)
> SET R/W MODE to PULSE and back to (OFF)..
>
> and on and on.. How would I know what was a comparable
> thing to set on the HP? The above are just examples of
> things that I picked out that I can't find anything
> remotely the same on the HP.. When people talk about
> it, they make it sound retty simple to use on in place
> of a CAT but it doesn't seem so... Is this all in the
> manuals with the 5004a?
>
>
One of the nice things about the Cat Box is it can be plugged onto the
side of most Atari MPU boards - that 50 pin connector is of use!

Otherwise everything can be done the same with the HP as the Cat Box,
but the Cat Box is simpler to use for beginners.

I must confess that even though I have a couple of these in my test
drawer I always pull out the Fluke 9010 and the appropriate pod as it is
far more powerful tool, plus it will tell you which data/address/control
line is tied to Vcc/Gnd or each other...in a service shop the Fluke
makes sense.

For the average part time user, a Cat Box looks nice, takes up a lot
less space, and is satisfactory for learning how a CPU works and
figuring out where things went wrong. It can do RAM and ROM tests (you
need to add the extra switch to activate the Checksum test that was
built-in, but not accessible from the outside world - no switch - for
some unknown reason), which the HP can't, as well as Signature Analysis
so the Cat Box is somewhat of a combo Fluke/HP tool.

I only use Signatures on Vector boards, never have much need for regular
MPUs as most problems are RAM or ROM or I/O (not much left, eh?) with
blown gates being pretty high on the list.

John :-#)#

-- 
John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 
Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, VideoGames)
                 www.flippers.com 
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"
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