EricBall's Tech Projects

Never thought about having enough (or the correct) debugging tools ahead of time. Only what was needed to get realtime information as I proceeded along a project. Always have on-hand the basics and meter and scope.

 

If I needed to fix something I'd use those basic tools and only those I had at the outset of the project - because I'd never wait till I could afford something super advanced like a logic analyzer or vectorscope. Make do. Repurpose. Find innovative ways to work with that ya'got

 

Parallel this to software emulation like MAME and other emus. The tools are message boards and a general good rapport with the developer. And knowing how things work and where to find information. That's all the troubleshooting stuff you need to know. And it seems to evolve and accumulate over time, like physical tools. But sometimes those drop off the radar with time, too. It's a moving window.

 

Yep, but while there's a bunch of stuff you can figure out with nothing more than a basic multimeter it doesn't cut it for signalling issues.  Admittedly these days there's USB dongles with software which are a decent alternative to a DSO depending upon what you're debugging.  However, the lesson I learned is to at least consider what might be necessary to troubleshoot issues before diving in and spending $$.

 

Admittedly software is a lot easier, although there an still be challenges.