Some of the most popular vintage computers are now more than forty years old, and their cache exactly ain’t how it used to be. Identifying bad recall microchips can quickly become a chore, so[ Jan Beta] invest some time putting together a cheap DRAM tester out of spare parts.
This little tester can be used with 4164 and 41256 DRAM memory chips. 4164 DRAM was used in various popular home computers in all the regions of the 1970 s and 1980 s, including the Apple ][ series, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and many more. Likewise, the 41256 was used in the Commodore Amiga. These computers are incredibly favourite in the vintage compute society, and its not uncommon to find bad recognition in any of them.
With an Arduino at its core, this Dram tester uses the most basic of electronic components, and any modest tinkerer should have pretty much everything in stock. The original assignment become available here, including the Arduino code. Just dad the accused chip into the ZIF socket, affected the reset switch, and wait for the LED- lettuce is good, and red symbolizes it’s toast.
It’s a great sanity check for when you’re neck late in suppose DRAM. A miscarried experiment is a sure sign that the microchip is bad, however the tester does seldom report a fraudulent pass. Not every issue can be identified with such a simple tester, however it’s great at weeding out the chippings that are definitely dead.
If you’re not short-lived on money, then the Chip Tester Pro is perhaps more to your liking, nonetheless it’s hard to beat the opennes and thriftiness of building your own simple tester from spare parts. If you’re a little more adventurous, this in-circuit debugger could come in handy.
Read more: hackaday.com
