SLICE - A logic probe on steroids!

[GadgetFreak]

Several forum members know I have been working on a tester for a long time, in fact its 3 years since I first started. It took over 12 months just to find suitable hardware that would be upto the task.
I have also posted the odd screen grab during its development when posting about repairs I have done.

SLICE is a passive system which has advantages in that it requires no circuit mods to be used and tests chips at the frequencies they are meant to be used at. The downside is that good connection needs to be achieved to each pin, so cleaning is sometimes required on especially dirty/corroded chips.

SLICE is not a magic wand but like all test equipment if it is used correctly it can greatly speed up the testing and repair of PCB’s containing TTL logic, ROM and RAM IC’s.

This a list of the current IC's that can be tested:
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS00 Quad NAND Gates (2 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS01 Quad NAND Gates (2 Inputs) (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS02 Quad NOR Gates (2 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS03 Quad NAND Gates (2 Inputs) (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS04 Hex Inverter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS05 Hex Inverter (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS06 Hex Inverter Driver (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS07 Driver (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS08 Quad AND Gates (2 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS09 Quad AND Gates (2 Inputs) (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS10 Triple NAND Gates (3 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS11 Triple AND Gates (3 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS12 Triple NAND Gates (3 Inputs) (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS13 Dual NAND Gates (Schmitt-Trigger) (4 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS14 Hex Inverter (Schmitt-Trigger) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS15 Triple AND Gates (3 Inputs) (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS19 Hex Inverter (Schmitt-Trigger) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS20 Dual NAND Gates (4 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS21 Dual AND Gates (4 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS25 Dual NOR Gates (4 Inputs & Strobe) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS26 Quad NAND Gates (2 Inputs, High Voltage) (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS27 Triple NOR Gates (3 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS30 Single NAND Gate (8 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS32 Quad OR Gates (2 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS42 BCD Decimal Decoder (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS46 BCD To 7 Segment Decoder/Driver (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS55 Dual Quad AND Gates to OR Invert Gate (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS74  CLK Dual D Flip Flops (Positive Edge Triggered) (v2)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS75 Quad Latch (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS83 4 Bit Binary Adder With Fast Carry (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS85 4 Bit Magnitude Comparator (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS86 Quad XOR Gates (2 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS90  CLK Decade Counter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS92  CLK Divide By 12 Counter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS93  CLK Binary 4 Bit Counter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS97  CLK Synchronous 6 Bit Binary Rate Multiplier (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS107  CLK Dual JK Flip Flop (Negative Edge) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS109  CLK Dual JK Flip Flop (Negative K, Positive Edge) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS112  CLK Dual JK Master-Slave Flip Flop (Negative Edge) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS125 Quad Tri-State Buffer (Enable Active Low) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS126 Quad Tri-State Buffer (Enable Active High) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS132 Quad NAND Gates (2 Inputs) (Schmitt Trigger) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS133 Single NAND Gate (13 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS136 Quad XOR Gates (2 Inputs) (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS138 Single 1 of 8 Decoder / Demultiplexer (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS139 Dual 1 of 4 Decoder / Demultiplexer (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS145 BCD Decimal Decoder (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS147 10 Line to 4 Line Priority Encoder (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS148 8 Line to 3 Line Priority Encoder (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS151 8 Input Multiplexer (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS153 Dual 4 Input Multiplexer (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS155 Dual 1 of 4 Decoder / Demultiplexer (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS156 Dual 1 of 4 Decoder / Demultiplexer (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS157 Quad 2 Input Multiplexer (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS158 Quad 2 Input Multiplexer (Inverted Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS160  CLK Presettable BCD Decade Counter (Asynchronous Reset) (v2)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS161  CLK Presettable Binary Counter (Asynchronous Reset) (v2)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS162  CLK Presettable BCD Decade Counter (Synchronous Reset) (v2)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS163  CLK Presettable Binary Counter (Synchronous Reset) (v2)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS164  CLK Serial-In Parallel-Out Shift Register (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS166  CLK 8 Bit Shift Register (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS169  CLK Synchronous 4 Bit Up/Down Counter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS170 4x4 Register File (Open Collector) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS173  CLK 4 Bit D Type Register (Tri-State) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS174  CLK Hex D Type Flip Flop (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS175  CLK Quad D Type Flip Flop (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS190  CLK Presettable Up/Down BCD/Decade Counter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS191  CLK Presettable Up/Down Binary Counter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS193  CLK Presettable Up/Down Binary Counter (Up/Down Clocks) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS194  CLK 4 Bit Bidirectional Shift Register (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS196  CLK Presettable Decade Counter (Divide by 2 and 5) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS197  CLK Presettable Binary Counter (Divide by 2 and 8) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS240 Octal Buffer (Tri-State) (Inverted Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS241 Octal Buffer (Inverted / Non-Inverted Enables) (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS244 Octal Buffer (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS245 Octal Bus Transceiver (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS251 8 Input Multiplexer (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS253 Dual 4 Input Multiplexer (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS257 Quad 2 Input Multiplexer (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS258 Quad 2 Input Multiplexer (Inverting Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS259 Octal Adressable Latch (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS260 Dual NOR Gates (5 Inputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS273  CLK Octal D Type Flip Flop (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS279 Quad Set-Reset Latch (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS283 4 Bit Binary Full Adder With Carry (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS293  CLK 4 Bit Binary Counter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS298  CLK Quad 2 Input Multiplexer With Storage (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS299  CLK 8 Bit Shift/Storage Register (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS353 Dual 4 Input Multiplexer (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS365 Hex Buffer Dual Common Enable (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS366 Hex Buffer Dual Common Enable (Inverting) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS367 Hex Buffer 4 Bit Plus 2 (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS368 Hex Buffer 4 Bit Plus 2 (Inverting) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS373 Octal Transparent Latch (Tri-State Outputs) (v2)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS374  CLK Octal D Type FLip Flop (Tri-State Outputs) (v2)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS375 4 Bit Bistable Latch (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS377  CLK Octal D Type FLip Flop (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS378  CLK Parallel D Register with Common Enable (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS379  CLK Quad Parallel D Register (With Q and Inverse Q Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS385  CLK Quad Serial Adders/Subtractors (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS393  CLK Dual 4 Stage Binary Counter (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS395  CLK 4 Bit Shift Register (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS399  CLK Quad 2 Port Register (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS669  CLK Synchronous 4 Bit Up/Down Counter (Low Power) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - 74LS670 4 x 4 Register File (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
TTL (20 Pin) - DP8304B Octal Bus Transceiver (Tri-State Outputs) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 74LS89 64 Bit RAM (16 x 4) (Open Collector) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 74LS189 64 Bit RAM (16 x 4) (Tri-State) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 74LS201 256 Bit RAM (256 x 1) (Tri-State) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 74LS301 256 Bit RAM (256 x 1, Open Collector) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - IMS1420 4096 x 4 bit Static Ram (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 2102 1024 Bit RAM (1024 x 1, Tri-State) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 2111 256 x 4 bit Static Ram (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 2114 1024 x 4 bit Static Ram (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 2148 1024 x 4 bit Static Ram (Low Power) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - 2149 1024 x 4 bit Static Ram (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - HM2504 256 Bit RAM (256 x 1, Open Collector) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - HM2510 1024 Bit RAM (1024 x 1, Open Collector) (v1)
RAM (20 Pin) - HM2511 1024 Bit RAM (1024 x 1) (v1)
PROM (20 Pin) - 82S123 256 bit (32 x 8) PROM (v1)
PROM (20 Pin) - 82S129 1024 bit (256 x 4) PROM (v1)
PROM (20 Pin) - 82S131 2048 bit (512 x 4) PROM (v1)
PROM (20 Pin) - 82S135 2048 bit (256 x 8) PROM (v1)
PROM (20 Pin) - 82S137 4096 bit (1024 x 4) PROM (v1)
PROM (20 Pin) - 82S147 4096 bit (512 x 8) PROM (v1)

TTL (24 Pin) - 74LS150 16 Input Multiplexer (v1)
TTL (24 Pin) - 74LS154 4 Line to 16 Line Decoder / Demultiplexer (v1)
RAM (24 Pin) - 2101 1024 Bit RAM (256 x 4, Tri-State) (v1)
RAM (24 Pin) - 6116 2K x 8 SRAM (v1)
RAM (24 Pin) - 6810 128 x 8bit RAM (v1)
RAM (24 Pin) - 93422 1024 Bit RAM (256 x 4) (Tri-State) (v1)
PROM (24 Pin) - 2516 2K x 8 Eprom (v1)
PROM (24 Pin) - 2532 4K x 8 Eprom (v1)
PROM (24 Pin) - 2716 2K x 8 Eprom (v1)
PROM (24 Pin) - 2732 4K x 8 Eprom (v1)

The Good News
SLICE is now at a point where I feel happy to sell it for other people to use.

The BAD News
It's not cheap and will cost £465 including a single 20 pin 0.3" DIP clip.

Update #1
Picture of clip on a Centipede board A9:

Screen grab of SLICE program testing the A9 chip:

Screen grab of SLICE testing a 2114 ram on Centipede:

Screen grab of SLICE performing a Signature test on Centipede:

Update #2

Does it have any circuit protection built-in?  In case you connect it to something with say 12v by mistake. 

Each pin has an external 100ohm precision resistor but this only gives a limited amount of protection. The maker of the FPGA unit states a 6v maximum and I have used it on a device with 7.5 by mistake and didn't cause any damage but I don't recommend using it on anything above 5.5v to be safe.

Also, assuming that the pins on the tested chip are clean and making good contact, how is the SLICE regarding false positives/negatives?

Each pin has an Input Divider on it which can have its voltage biased to one of 4 levels. I use this to provide a Float check function which works fairly well for checking you have good pin contact and also in finding broken PCB traces. However, the Float check will not always catch poor contacts. The DIP Clips I use are so called Knife Edge ones, so I frequently rock the clip side to side on an IC with dirty pins to help the clip bite through the dirt.
Slice decode routines are quite strict, so it is very unlikely if not impossible to get a false positive result. Though some IC's have several parameters that can be modified to adjust their maximum timings which if set to crazy values will past most IC's!
The other possibility of course is that some pins have no activity in which case Slice is not able to check them fully. This is where the Cyclic sampling with Averaging turned on comes in as you can set the software to perform multiple cycles while adding the results from each cycle to the display. If this still fails to capture certain pins changing state you can then set one or more triggers on those pins just to be certain in case the cycling just happens to miss their activity.

The FPGA unit I use is a commercial one not made by me. It's not the most expensive one that can be bought but it is also far from the cheapest. It does the job though and it does it very well giving me data at 5ns intervals for upto 300ms, this means upto 60,000,000 data points.

SLICE is not real time, it works on a Sample, Download, Process cycle. The unit connects to a PC using a standard USB port and the PC should be running a version of Windows from XP through to Windows 10.GadgetFreak2020-06-06 12:16:44

 

[Equites]

Sounds great Aaron. I would be interested to know how it compares to a ABI Boardmaster 4000 for example.

 

[Hurray Banana]

Great to see this project getting to a release point. will be interested

 

[Ace`]

Oh nice it's finally happening, it would be great to see a video of this in action.

 

[TheDaddy]

Be interesting to see pics and vids of this running.

Dave.

 

[Flinnster]

Can I get a cerebral upgrade so I can justify spending £450

 

[GadgetFreak]

Sounds great Aaron. I would be interested to know how it compares to a ABI Boardmaster 4000 for example.

I've never used one, but from what I know it's an active system that actually drives the IC's to test them which I believes needs you to remove clock signals from the circuit under test.

To use SLICE you run the board up as normal and then use it live on the active pcb. It is a purely passive system that monitors the pins providing useful info and checking if the logic is correct. Much like hooking up 24 logic probes at the same time with intelligent analysis to check the IC is working correctly.

It also calculates clock frequencies on any clock pin, propagation delays on inputs to outputs, can read data that is accessed on ROM/PROM/RAM reads/writes and can also calculate HP style signatures on every pin of an IC at the same time. It does not work in real time. It goes through a collection, download & process cycle so the longest continuous data set is 300ms.
It also has a Project mode which allows you to group settings and results into Projects. This makes it easy to make reference projects of working boards which can then be used for comparing with faulty ones.

Can I get a cerebral upgrade so I can justify spending £450

I don't like the price point either, I would like it to be cheaper, but the hardware isn't cheap. It's reliable and accurate and allows me to get down to a 5ns sample period.GadgetFreak2019-10-05 00:10:51

 

[Flinnster]

Wasn't about the price actually, it was about me understanding what the hell I'm doing with it

 

[dj_yt]

Will certainly be interested in this when released!

 

[GadgetFreak]

Updated first post with a few pics.

 

[bonehead]

Come along to the Cambridge meet as I’m sure it will be in show here today for you all to see it works and have a go.

 

[porchy]

I can confirm it's a stunning bit of kit. Not really used it as much as I wanted at this moment due to free time etc, but when i have used it it's been amazing for me.

 

[Purity]

Looks great. I'm pretty sure I'd be interested in one

 

[Mitchell Gant]

I can confirm it's a stunning bit of kit. Not really used it as much as I wanted at this moment due to free time etc, but when i have used it it's been amazing for me.

I can say exactly the same thing, amazing kit, wish I could have more time to really use it to its full potential.

 

[Monstermug]

Definitely be interested in this. Does it have any circuit protection built-in? In case you connect it to something with say 12v by mistake.

 

[VectorGlow]

I'm definitely very interested in this, but can we have more photos of the hardware please? I'd like to see exactly what is included. Seeing the internals would be nice too (not to ascertain the build quality but, as a repairer, I like to see the guts as it were).

In short, more details required please.

Note: I used to have a 10259A Logic Comparator, but it got on my nerves with have to use different cards and settings for each chip tested. Presumably the SLICE is far easier to setup for each chip?

Also, assuming that the pins on the tested chip are clean and making good contact, how is the SLICE regarding false positives/negatives?

VectorGlow2019-10-05 12:28:50

 

[Nes4life]

The 'internals' of SLICE is a FPGA. The magic of it is the amazing custom cables, clips and software that Aaron has made.

Hands down the best piece of arcade repair kit I've ever had or seen. Also, Aaron's support and communication has been awesome.

Testing a different chip is as easy as clicking with the mouse. Requires a windows machine or laptop to drive it. I got a £40 compact Dell thing on the forum and that's fine.

I sold my 10259A and HP signature analyzer and haven't missed them!

 

[spectroman]

good news, interested in one

 

[philmurr]

As a long-ish time user of Slice I have to agree with all the positive comments being made.

It won't fix boards for you, you still need to have an idea of what you're doing, but it makes fixing them so much simpler. Also not just arcade boards, I've fixed a couple of drum machines too using it.

Aaron has been open to ideas for new features and has almost added chips on request to the list of what can be tested. And his support has been excellent.

Really pleased to see it finally released, it is an awesome piece of test kit.

 

[VectorGlow]

The 'internals' of SLICE is a FPGA. The magic of it is the amazing custom cables, clips and software that Aaron has made.

Hands down the best piece of arcade repair kit I've ever had or seen. Also, Aaron's support and communication has been awesome.

Testing a different chip is as easy as clicking with the mouse. Requires a windows machine or laptop to drive it. I got a £40 compact Dell thing on the forum and that's fine.

I sold my 10259A and HP signature analyzer and haven't missed them!

Thanks for the detailed reply. How does it connect to a PC, via a USB3 port I guess?

It sounds really great but I'd still love to see more photos of it.