Re: Board tester board...

Clay Cowgill wrote:
>
> So a while back I brought up the idea to make a "universal" test board
> for working on game PCB's.
>
> The idea was to make something that would plug into a game board
> directly (56 pin, 44 pin, or 36 pin) and provide a simple connection to
> a PC power supply; provide lots of test points for jumpering; have a
> small onboard audio amp; provide "standard" connectors for
> control/video/audio connections; lots of taps for +5, +-12, etc.
>
> We kicked around other ideas like adding color inversion for
> Nintendo-type audio outputs, sync combination (select
> positive/negative/composite), and stuff like level convertors for
> different types of vector games.
>
> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
> +------------------+
> | | <-- card edge adapter
> ------------------
> | |
> | |
> | | <-- test connector board
> | |
> | PWR RGB CONT AUD |
> +------------------+
>
> A = 56, 44, or 36 pin .156" connector
> PWR = .156" power connector post to match PC-AT power supply
> RGB = DB-9 pin connector
> CONT = DB-25 pin connector (two joysticks, six buttons, p1/p2 start,
> coins, etc)
> AUD = onboard speaker and amp, headphone jack output for amplified
> "computer" type speakers.
>
> So you just plug it into the cardedge of a board and use little
> alligator-clip jumpers to connect your voltages, controls, and signals
> where needed. It's not exactly an "innovation" or anything, I just
> think it'd be a much nicer (for me anyway) way of testing "unknown"
> boards.
>
> The thing I can't decide is how to do the test points. I want to have
> at least 3 or 4 points on each trace coming off the connector so that
> you have plenty of posts to connect aligator clips to when testing. Do
> you think that standard .1" header posts are good enough? Maybe on .2"
> spacing? (So I'm thinking of getting 8 pin DIP headers, removing every
> other pin to make room for clips, and putting one of those on each trace
> from the edge connector.) Heavier "posts" (like Atari's test points)
> are comparitively spendy and take up a lot of PCB space.
>
> If anyone of you have input I'd like to hear it...
>
> -Clay

hi, Clay!
We made a simple card edge connector for our modified Atari test fixture
that consisted of a card (duh) with alligator clips soldered on, and the
other side was just the edge connector plugs with the legs alternatly
bent up/down to enable the clips to fit without shorting together. Works
fine for testing...
John :-#)#
Received on Sat Feb 28 23:42:59 1998