Opinions: Atari Cat Box? Yay or Nay?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

I have been troubleshooting some Atari boards lately and all I have to
use is a multimeter and schematics. Now I was wondering about the
Atari Cat Box. Is this a great tool to have when working with Atari
boards? Will it be able to diagnois problems with a board even if the
board is resetting and appears dead? I would like everones input on
this. Also, what is the average going price of one of these as I do
not see any for sale?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

I would say yes, but there are cheaper ways to go about the same thing
for 90% of the stuff.

HP 5006A with a NOP adapter will get you the same results as long as
you don't need to write certain bytes to certain memory locations on
the board in order to put the board in a particular state - Liverator
is an example of this. Otherwise you'd be as good to go for £50 or so
as you would be with the CAT box.

Of course, don't forget as well that the number of Atari games with
signature analysis guides is limited, so you will need to work out your
own sigs for the others.

Is there an online resource for this? A list of games that have sig.
analysus guides? PDF'd?

(I've also been using signature analyss a bit lately, so it's all quite
fresh!)

Martin.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.video.arcade.collecting (More info?)

Much cheaper to buy a Fluke 9010 and a 6502 pod and an HP5004 - gee, what a
coincidence, I sell those Plus with the addition of a Z80 pod and maybe a
6809 you are covered for almost all the classic boards. Figure a good CAT
box is going to be $750 or so - then figure $119 for a 9010 (no rs232) or
$249 for a 9010 with rs232 and $250 for the 6502, maybe $60 or so on eBay
for an HP5004
--
Art
"Plisskin" <scorpiokings@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1127041247.769925.215920@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>I have been troubleshooting some Atari boards lately and all I have to
> use is a multimeter and schematics. Now I was wondering about the
> Atari Cat Box. Is this a great tool to have when working with Atari
> boards? Will it be able to diagnois problems with a board even if the
> board is resetting and appears dead? I would like everones input on
> this. Also, what is the average going price of one of these as I do
> not see any for sale?
>