[Techtoolslist] Alpha Electronics Dynamic Integrated Digital IC Tester on eBay

[John Robertson]

Many moons ago I accidentally erased the code from one of these Dyna IC 
testers, but another unit has finally shown up on eBay and I have an 
active bid on it.

My plan is to archive the good code after first verifying that I can 
read and write to the old unit (the blown one) with some random code. 
The current eBay one appears to still be alive! This time I use the 
Fluke 9010 to extract the code...

Then I will release it to the wild on the TTL FTP site, and fix both my 
Alphas here.

Of course the Alpha device is perhaps worthless as the Chinese chip 
testers do everything the Alpha does and more for a just a few bucks, 
but it is a piece of history that needs proper archiving, and I screwed 
it up last time!

Ebay item 264629134572

John :-#)#

On 2013/08/16 8:39 a.m., John Robertson wrote:
> On 08/16/2013 7:25 AM, Default wrote:
>> Morning John,
>>
>> Just wondering if you had any luck with the program on that little 
>> bugger.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Tom
>
> Hi Tom,
>
> No, I haven't had any time to look at it further. As I said I was able 
> to get some valid code, but apparently not enough to get this to boot.
>
> Code is on the ftp site under Alpha if anyone wants to look at it...
>
> John :-#(#
>> On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 11:55 AM, Fabrizio Vasile 
>> <fabrizio.vasile at gmail.com
>>> wrote:
>>> Hi John,
>>> maybe  this thread can help you:
>>>
>>> http://www.eevblog.com/forum/**testgear/dallas-nonvolatile-**
>>> ram-chips-battery-surgery/**msg263224/#msg263224<http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/dallas-nonvolatile-ram-chips-battery-surgery/msg263224/#msg263224> 
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Robertson" <jrr at flippers.com>
>>> To: <techtoolslist at flippers.com>
>>> Sent: Friday, July 26, 2013 11:08 PM
>>>
>>> Subject: Re: [Techtoolslist] Alpha Electronics Dynamic Integrated 
>>> Digital
>>> IC Tester on eBay
>>>
>>>
>>>   Update to TTL:
>>>> Tom tried reading the data and was unsuccessful and since then the 
>>>> device
>>>> won't boot - so he sent it to me, I then tried reading the DS-1230 
>>>> with my
>>>> Xeltek and got what appears to be a fair bit of reasonable data. My 
>>>> earlier
>>>> read of my DS-1230 got a some of what also looks like it may be 
>>>> valid data
>>>> so I'm hoping that these two files can be merged to produce a 
>>>> working image.
>>>>
>>>> Not that I have any time though to do this.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone here familiar enough with Z80 code interested in looking at the
>>>> two files and see if anything can be done?
>>>>
>>>> I'm putting the two files on the FTP site so folks can take a 
>>>> look-see...
>>>>
>>>> John :-#)#
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 07/16/2013 4:26 PM, Default wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Group,
>>>>> I couldn't help myself.  I figured at $19.95, this would be a cool
>>>>> little device to have even if it doesn't work.
>>>>> Get it in the mail, read the documentation that came with it and
>>>>> couldn't find a battery.  Hmm, that's odd.  But there is a power
>>>>> jack.  And everything looks brand new, not even dust!
>>>>> Pop it open, no battery but a funny thing what looks like to be a RAM
>>>>> stacked on something else, a few custon chips, etc.  No standard
>>>>> EPROMs that I could dump, bummer.
>>>>> kids are in bed, back to the schematic and it'll take between 9 and
>>>>> 12VAC.  Looked through my wall wart collection and found a 12VAC one.
>>>>> Wired it up, hit the switch and...
>>>>> COMMAND? scrolling across the screen!  Figure i'll let it run for a
>>>>> half hour if there is a battery somewhere and it needs to be charged.
>>>>> My question to the group is, how do I dump the program on this thing?
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 3:46 PM, John Robertson <jrr at flippers.com
>>>>> <mailto:jrr at flippers.com>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>      I chatted with the seller and he confirms that it does NOT power
>>>>>      up. So chances are the battery backed up system ROM has failed.
>>>>>
>>>>>      Item 390623172259
>>>>>
>>>>>      He reduced the price on his own from the original asking 
>>>>> $59.95 to
>>>>>      $19.95.
>>>>>
>>>>>      Pity. I was hoping to find a good one to extract the program 
>>>>> from
>>>>>      to save mine...
>>>>>
>>>>>      If someone here buys it and CAN extract the ROM data I'd sure 
>>>>> like
>>>>>      a copy!
>>>>>
>>>>>      John :-#(#
>>>>>
>>>>>      __________________
>

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