Clip-on IC monitor with leds

Thread Starter

GrahamRounce

Joined May 6, 2009
19
Hi -
Does anyone remember the little gadgets that clipped on to a dil/pdip logic IC that had tiny leds showing the state of each pin?
If I could remember what they were called it would be a lot easier to search for it!
Great little things though. They automatically found the power and ground pins.
Thanks!

Title: Clip-on IC monitor with leds
Tags: IC monitor clip pdip leds
 

Thread Starter

GrahamRounce

Joined May 6, 2009
19
Good remembering! I don't suppose you have one you want to get rid of? :) Apparently only a few used ones are available, and they're very expensive. The postage is 'aving a laugh!
You'd think China would be making them for £20, they're such a brilliant gadget.

I wonder how it found the power pins automatically? I suppose apart from that it would be fairly easy to make one - I could live with flying leads for the power.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Good remembering! I don't suppose you have one you want to get rid of? :) Apparently only a few used ones are available, and they're very expensive. The postage is 'aving a laugh!
You'd think China would be making them for £20, they're such a brilliant gadget.

I wonder how it found the power pins automatically? I suppose apart from that it would be fairly easy to make one - I could live with flying leads for the power.
They seem more useful than they actually were. I mine rarely came out of the gray box with two other HP logic probes. I purged 99% of my through-hole/DIP supplies in the past few years and that went on ebay. I was stunned at the selling price. I never found it very helpful.
 

Thread Starter

GrahamRounce

Joined May 6, 2009
19
"they're such a brilliant gadget."
Well, of course I was speaking as someone who's never had one!, and looking at the prices I can see why.
I can see it might be one of those tools that stays in the box most of the time, but when you do need it, you're really glad of it....?
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
"they're such a brilliant gadget."
Well, of course I was speaking as someone who's never had one!, and looking at the prices I can see why.
I can see it might be one of those tools that stays in the box most of the time, but when you do need it, you're really glad of it....?
Or, you'll get used to trouble-shooting and realize ICs last forever and are rarely the root cause of a failure. A corroded PCB trace, a bad capacitor, oxidized switches, kinked cables are all much more likely when repairing something old. By the time you want to look at individual ICs, you may realize in-circuit testing of these chips doesn't work so well and, since few are ever put in sockets, desoldering them is a very slow process and, if you desolder them, you may as well replace them - all for the $0.30 to $2.00 price range for most that the tester can actually test. Or, after confirming the easy solutions aren't the problem, the equipment under repair isnt worth the hours and hours of effort to test each IC and you drop it in the recycling center bin.
 

Thread Starter

GrahamRounce

Joined May 6, 2009
19
Yes, no it's not for ic testing. It's mainly for testing/debugging the design, and giving me a clear intuitive picture of what's going on.
(Yeah, I know, Spice! Never tried it with assorted analog/digital mixes.)
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Yes, no it's not for ic testing. It's mainly for testing/debugging the design, and giving me a clear intuitive picture of what's going on.
(Yeah, I know, Spice! Never tried it with assorted analog/digital mixes.)
The HP device doesn't check analog chips - just basic .74 series and 4000 series logic ICs from what I remember.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,708
I echo what Salts said.

Mine stayed in the pouch and never got used. It came as part of the kit.

The most useful item worth its weight in gold is the current probe used in combination with the pulser. If you ever had to locate a bad power supply decoupling capacitor you would know what I mean. Try finding one shorted capacitor from about a dozen on the board.

1676127569237.png
 

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,063
I worked for Hewlett Packard for 33 years, starting in 1971. The instrument service tecs all had logic clips and logic probes but never used them. They were novel gadgets but really not very useful. The one product that was unique and very useful on rare occasions was the 547A current tracer.
 
Last edited:

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,708
I worked for Hewlett Packard for 33 years, starting in 1971. The instrument service tecs all had logic clips and logic probes but never used them. They were novel gadgets but really not very useful.
I forgot the name of the sales rep who visited us often. He and his assistant were both top notch. I think he went on to be president. I am sure his name will come to me, tall chap with an English accent.

We were convinced by him to buy a lot of HP test equipment. My absolute saviour was the HP1703A variable persistance oscilloscope, long before digital sampling scopes became available.
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,282
The logic clip was mainly useful for very low-frequency (perhaps <20Hz) or static digital signals, which are not often found in an operating digital circuit.
 

Thread Starter

GrahamRounce

Joined May 6, 2009
19
dl324 - Good find, thanks! So there was a lot inside them!!! I hope someone got a bonus for the design (or is it standard stuff?) But, like I said, I could be quite happy with flying croc clip leads.
Mr Salts - yes, I realise that:) .
 
Last edited:

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,845
So there was a lot inside them!!! I hope someone got a bonus for the design (or is it standard stuff?)
Here's the HP Journal that describes the HP54x set and has a short bio of the developers. There was an earlier version of most of them (HP105x).

I became a fan of them when I was working for HP in the late 70's on the HP3000 Series III production line.
 

Attachments

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,063
I forgot the name of the sales rep who visited us often. He and his assistant were both top notch. I think he went on to be president. I am sure his name will come to me, tall chap with an English accent.

We were convinced by him to buy a lot of HP test equipment. My absolute saviour was the HP1703A variable persistance oscilloscope, long before digital sampling scopes became available.
There were two sales reps that fit that description. The first was Malcolm Gissing. He was a 6'4" Test and Measurement Sales Manager who became General Manager of Hewlett Packard Canada in 1977. The second is Alan Holdway who was a Salesman when I joined as an Applications Engineer in 1971. He became Sales Manager and then General Manager when Malcolm retired.
Malcolm passed away in the early 2,000s but I have stayed in touch with Alan and his wife, Rosemary.
What company did you work for? I may have met you. I also have an English accent!
 
Top