[Techtoolslist] Troubleshooting a defective pod

[Andre Huijts]

OK, I recently traded a working 8088 pod (still have two others) for a working Z80 pod.
I also (temporarily) have a 9010A added to my Fluke stuff.

Now I figured (like the Z80 pod manual suggests) to troubleshoot my defective Z80 pod with the 2nd working one.

The working one self-tests fine on both my 9100A and the 9010A. The defective shows problems on both the 9100A (not recognized please reset) and 9010A.


Now....I am confused about the powering up of this set-up. 

The normal set-up seems to say to do the following when using a "normal" UUT (no pod):

1) power off troubleshooter and UUT
2) connect pod to troubleshooter
3) power on troubleshooter, do self test
4) plug in ribbon cable to UUT 

So...basically you have to connect the ribbon cable to the UUT while the troubleshooter and POD are powered up ? Feels kind of strange to plug it into the UUT's processor socket while it carries power ?


Anyway, next I start reading page 5-12 in the Z80 pod manual and here I get confused:

Under "Prepare to troubleshoot the inoperative pod as follows" it says:

3) Connect the pod under test to +5V etc. etc......so here they seem to say to DO power up the "UUT (= the defective pod)" BEFORE turning on the power of the troubleshooter.

Step 4) says: Connect a troubleshooter (the 2nd one in my case, the one that will do the troubleshooting) to a 2nd (working) pod, apply power to that troubleshooter and then connect the ribbon cable to the sockpet of the defective pod....

So basically, this is the other way around of the normal set-up.....which I find strange.

They further cloud things by the next text in BOLD:

"Do not apply or remove any power with ribbon cable connected between second pod and inoperative pod."

So this means I should have to first remove the ribbon connector from the socket of the bad pod before turning any troubleshooter off....right ? 

I fear I already did some switching on/off, basically as if it were to be a regular UUT. The good Z80 pod still self-tests OK so I hope I didn't damage anything.

Can someone please tell me what is the right way to do this ? 

I did see Power failure messages at some point.....


André Huijts
andre.huijts at upcmail.nl