ElectricEschaton
BenchFamily - Sisters of the Scope
Tools
This image shows tools that I find to be useful enough to use on a regular occasion.
I've included this image in hopes that it will help others who are interested in learning understand
what devices allow us to interact with, study and manipulate circuits and their associated logic / communication protocols.
Having the right tools to compliment the material you are studying and resources that you are learning from is critical. I'm certain there are plenty of brilliant individuals who can master these concepts just by reading about them, but I have found that a balance between hands on work and study is the secret to keeping moving forward in one's self education.
Some of these tools are incredibly simple & can be crafted at no cost. These often prove to be powerful tricks and I love finding out about them. So if anyone has a suggestion / tip / trick for their fellow engineers, please share it in the comments of this photo. One trick that I have not yet tried (and is not pictured) is the use of hypedermic syringes for tapping traces/pins. It has apparently been known by elmers & grey beards everywhere since the dawn of time, but I had just recently learned of it thanks to one of Travis Goodspeed's talks at blackhat/defcon.
Tools I keep next to my oscilloscope & multimeter.
MAX 50 - 50MHz Frequency Counter from Global Specialties Corporation
LP-2 Logic Probe
GirlTech IM-ME - Hacked. Firmware: Spectrum Analyzer. - Includes ChipCon CC1110. Reprogrammed using GoodFET via easily accessible JTAG pads.
Ikalogic Scanalogic-2 pro - Logic Analyzer and Digital Signal Generator. Decode & Analyze SPI, I2C, UART, 1-Wire, Can & more. Actively developed,. great community forum, afforadble and available at a bargain in kit form.
Bus Pirate - I consider this to be the absolute most essential device out of this group of tools. I would recommend obtaining a Bus Pirate prior to these other tools. I would be happy if I had only an oscilloscope, multimeter & bus pirate on my bench.
GoodFET - This ornery little bugger is a force to be reckoned with. I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to unlocking the GoodFET's potential. The PCB's can be obtained for very cheap & sometimes for free but that is between you & travis,. I obtained my GoodFET from Kenneth Finnegan, who took care of the SMD work for me (I had not the tips nor the skill for surface mount work at that point in time). Kenneth is a great guy and has contributed a lot of potent material. Observe his blog at blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/
USB to RS232 -Handy to have around for accessing those naughty debug/programming ports left on consumer devices. I used this three dollar adapter to terminal into a late 90's 'voip' device from singapore. this gave me peek & poke powers accessing the eeprom & flash.
USB to TTL UART adapter - wonderful device w/ plenty of uses. Communicate with Tran-to-Tran Level universal asynchronous RX/TXer's with a serial terminal . I haven't taken advantage of this nearly enough. Its current purpose is interfacing w/ TI TIR1000 chip for a fun little IRdA Sniff/Jam/Inject device i'm slowly developing.
Simple One Pulse Logic Pulser - This is a simple but handy trick I learned when digging through old PDFs & patents while reseraching Glomper Clips (Who still remembers / has ever heard of these?) Basically to make this simple logic pulser you just need a single 0.1uF capacitor and whichever end utensils you prefer (Prods/probes/clips/male/female). You then find the target pin on the IC in circuit that you wish to pulse. While the circuit is powered up, connect one end of your pulser to ground and touch the other end to the positive voltage to charge the capacitor. Then you simply touch the prod to the input of the gate you wish to test, the capacitor will discharge - creating a positive pulse. Monitor the output pin with you logic probe.
Simple Logic Probe - Took a test screwdriver from cheap electrical test set purchased from thrift store and modified it into logic state probe. This is simple, classic and well documented although people more often use writing Pens , i've seen syringes used as well. I removed the glass fuse, spring & test probe connector from the screwdriver and rigged up a bi-color (Green/Red) LED w/ limiting resistor in series. Probe is used to show negative = green , positive = red states on points tested. "real" or more intelligent probes will take an input pulse and stretch it out so that its illumination is not an actual indication of the current bus state. (thats an oversimplification). But a simple LED test probe will pulse w/ the bus, although it can be hard to see/catch at times.
Last but not least, another favorite tool: The Crystal Earpiece !
The crystal earpiece - I first heard of it being used by Jeri Ellsworth as she described testing calculators with one as a child , which she then would hack by overclocking. The crystal earpiece used as test equipment is also documented in the book "How to Use Oscilloscopes and Other Test Equipment" by R.A. Penfold. One basically probes a circuit and observes Chirps as indicators. I will transcribe some information from the book and make a better post regarding this method in the future.
Check out my other images for the original simple logic pulser details.
BenchFamily - Sisters of the Scope
Tools
This image shows tools that I find to be useful enough to use on a regular occasion.
I've included this image in hopes that it will help others who are interested in learning understand
what devices allow us to interact with, study and manipulate circuits and their associated logic / communication protocols.
Having the right tools to compliment the material you are studying and resources that you are learning from is critical. I'm certain there are plenty of brilliant individuals who can master these concepts just by reading about them, but I have found that a balance between hands on work and study is the secret to keeping moving forward in one's self education.
Some of these tools are incredibly simple & can be crafted at no cost. These often prove to be powerful tricks and I love finding out about them. So if anyone has a suggestion / tip / trick for their fellow engineers, please share it in the comments of this photo. One trick that I have not yet tried (and is not pictured) is the use of hypedermic syringes for tapping traces/pins. It has apparently been known by elmers & grey beards everywhere since the dawn of time, but I had just recently learned of it thanks to one of Travis Goodspeed's talks at blackhat/defcon.
Tools I keep next to my oscilloscope & multimeter.
MAX 50 - 50MHz Frequency Counter from Global Specialties Corporation
LP-2 Logic Probe
GirlTech IM-ME - Hacked. Firmware: Spectrum Analyzer. - Includes ChipCon CC1110. Reprogrammed using GoodFET via easily accessible JTAG pads.
Ikalogic Scanalogic-2 pro - Logic Analyzer and Digital Signal Generator. Decode & Analyze SPI, I2C, UART, 1-Wire, Can & more. Actively developed,. great community forum, afforadble and available at a bargain in kit form.
Bus Pirate - I consider this to be the absolute most essential device out of this group of tools. I would recommend obtaining a Bus Pirate prior to these other tools. I would be happy if I had only an oscilloscope, multimeter & bus pirate on my bench.
GoodFET - This ornery little bugger is a force to be reckoned with. I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to unlocking the GoodFET's potential. The PCB's can be obtained for very cheap & sometimes for free but that is between you & travis,. I obtained my GoodFET from Kenneth Finnegan, who took care of the SMD work for me (I had not the tips nor the skill for surface mount work at that point in time). Kenneth is a great guy and has contributed a lot of potent material. Observe his blog at blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/
USB to RS232 -Handy to have around for accessing those naughty debug/programming ports left on consumer devices. I used this three dollar adapter to terminal into a late 90's 'voip' device from singapore. this gave me peek & poke powers accessing the eeprom & flash.
USB to TTL UART adapter - wonderful device w/ plenty of uses. Communicate with Tran-to-Tran Level universal asynchronous RX/TXer's with a serial terminal . I haven't taken advantage of this nearly enough. Its current purpose is interfacing w/ TI TIR1000 chip for a fun little IRdA Sniff/Jam/Inject device i'm slowly developing.
Simple One Pulse Logic Pulser - This is a simple but handy trick I learned when digging through old PDFs & patents while reseraching Glomper Clips (Who still remembers / has ever heard of these?) Basically to make this simple logic pulser you just need a single 0.1uF capacitor and whichever end utensils you prefer (Prods/probes/clips/male/female). You then find the target pin on the IC in circuit that you wish to pulse. While the circuit is powered up, connect one end of your pulser to ground and touch the other end to the positive voltage to charge the capacitor. Then you simply touch the prod to the input of the gate you wish to test, the capacitor will discharge - creating a positive pulse. Monitor the output pin with you logic probe.
Simple Logic Probe - Took a test screwdriver from cheap electrical test set purchased from thrift store and modified it into logic state probe. This is simple, classic and well documented although people more often use writing Pens , i've seen syringes used as well. I removed the glass fuse, spring & test probe connector from the screwdriver and rigged up a bi-color (Green/Red) LED w/ limiting resistor in series. Probe is used to show negative = green , positive = red states on points tested. "real" or more intelligent probes will take an input pulse and stretch it out so that its illumination is not an actual indication of the current bus state. (thats an oversimplification). But a simple LED test probe will pulse w/ the bus, although it can be hard to see/catch at times.
Last but not least, another favorite tool: The Crystal Earpiece !
The crystal earpiece - I first heard of it being used by Jeri Ellsworth as she described testing calculators with one as a child , which she then would hack by overclocking. The crystal earpiece used as test equipment is also documented in the book "How to Use Oscilloscopes and Other Test Equipment" by R.A. Penfold. One basically probes a circuit and observes Chirps as indicators. I will transcribe some information from the book and make a better post regarding this method in the future.
Check out my other images for the original simple logic pulser details.