In September 2006, I bought a Samsung 204B SyncMaster monitor for $320 plus tax. It was a 4:3 monitor, ideal for specific tasks like my Logic Analyzer Cart. In July 2024, the monitor stopped working and wouldn’t power...
Layout A (3 columns)
Layout C (3 columns)
Recapping a Samsung 204B monitor
In September 2006, I bought a Samsung 204B SyncMaster monitor for $320 plus tax. It was a 4:3 monitor, ideal for specific tasks like my Logic Analyzer Cart. In July 2024, the monitor stopped working and wouldn’t power...
Amiga QB Extract recently updated
There was a HDD backup utility for the Commodore Amiga called Quarterback, part of a suite of tools called Quarterback Tools. This utility allowed you to backup existing files on your HDD, compress and/or encrypt them...
Couple hi-res images of 16902A mainboard
I just recently added another HP/Agilent logic analyzer to my collection. This time it is the 16902A. I needed to remove the CPU tray to replace the IDE HDD with a SATA SSD. As a result, I figured I’d take couple...
Agilent Logic Analyzer cable teardown photos
So for today ladies and gentlemen, I present a teardown of an HP/Agilent logic analyzer cable. I think this is part number 16715-61601. This cable is used to connect one of a series of 40-pin compatible modules (many of...
Creating a timeline of events
It’s often useful when trying to understand, debug, or reverse engineer a system to put together a timeline of operation from beginning to end. The result is a series of events where something happens first, then...
Identify PAL inputs and outputs
In order to properly reverse engineer a PAL, you need to correctly identify which pins are inputs, and which pins are outputs. This in some cases is trivial because some of the PAL’s pin functions are fixed...
Layout C (4 columns)
Recapping a Samsung 204B monitor
In September 2006, I bought a Samsung 204B SyncMaster monitor for $320 plus tax. It was a 4:3 monitor, ideal for specific tasks like my Logic Analyzer Cart. In July 2024, the monitor stopped working and wouldn’t power...
Amiga QB Extract recently updated
There was a HDD backup utility for the Commodore Amiga called Quarterback, part of a suite of tools called Quarterback Tools. This utility allowed you to backup existing files on your HDD, compress and/or encrypt them...
Couple hi-res images of 16902A mainboard
I just recently added another HP/Agilent logic analyzer to my collection. This time it is the 16902A. I needed to remove the CPU tray to replace the IDE HDD with a SATA SSD. As a result, I figured I’d take couple...
Agilent Logic Analyzer cable teardown photos
So for today ladies and gentlemen, I present a teardown of an HP/Agilent logic analyzer cable. I think this is part number 16715-61601. This cable is used to connect one of a series of 40-pin compatible modules (many of...
Creating a timeline of events
It’s often useful when trying to understand, debug, or reverse engineer a system to put together a timeline of operation from beginning to end. The result is a series of events where something happens first, then...
Identify PAL inputs and outputs
In order to properly reverse engineer a PAL, you need to correctly identify which pins are inputs, and which pins are outputs. This in some cases is trivial because some of the PAL’s pin functions are fixed...
Understand the system
Of all of the different techniques this one may be the simplest but also the most important. When you’re trying to reverse engineer something, understanding the system is key to unraveling the black box which is...
Why simply “dumping” a PAL isn’t always possible?
Contents Rom Dumping Dumping ROMs is a pretty common practice in the space of reverse engineering, and many eeprom readers are cheap, easily available, and there’s really not much to them. Plunk your ROM chip in...