PicIcTester

IC Tester using PICs

I made this project because I have a lot of 7400-series digital logic integrated circuits acquired from flea market and I wanted to verify them.
The tester is using a PIC18F452-I/P to perform the tests and a PIC16F628A to handle the display, keypad and relays.

Main features

• Search IC by name
• Create, run and store and load custom tests directly on tester
• Run tests created on a connected computer
• IC identification
• Can test logic circuits with pinout count between 2 and 28 pins
• IC in narrow or normal packaging
• Default testing will use relays to activate the IC power pins
• IC identification will use low power, so the tester can't damage the IC
• Keypad operation
• Computer connection
• Single sided PCB, so you can made it at home

Compiled code

Here are the hex files which contain the compiled code for PIC18F452-I/P aka Tester and PIC16F628A aka Interface.

Database

The tester uses a modified database which I found on Smart-IC-Tester.
In order to speed up the search on database I created an index at the start of it. I shrinked it by using the Unix line endings and by merging identical tests. Also some teste were fixed or updated.
The program which handle the database indexing is in DbCreate folder.
The ready for use database file is here

Database storage

To store the database I used an 24LC256 (256Kb I2C compatible 2-wire Serial EEPROM) but you can use an eeprom up to 64KiB in size.

Display

I'm using a Nokia 3510i LCD with a modified code from Interfacing Nokia 3510i and 5110 LCD with PIC Microcontroller

Font

I'm using a modified and stripped down version of TINYTYPE from 8x8 Pixel ROM Font Editor

Hardware

All the files which you need in order to create the PCBs are in the hardware folder.

Case

The files for 3D printing a case are available in FreeCAD folder

Menu & navigation

Navigate in main menu using UP and DOWN keys, pressing the OK key will activate the selected option

• Search & Test
  • Enter Search IC screen using the OK key
    • When in search box you can enter the device name using the keypad (keys 0 through 9)
    • To select a device use the DONW key
      • At this step you can cancel and return to main screen using the LEFT key
      • Enter the test screen using the OK key
        • Navigate between buttons using UP and DOWN keys
        • Start testing by selecting START button and then press OK key
          • Test result is displayed
            • Pressing any key will close this screen and return to test screen
        • Return to main menu using CLOSE button
• PC Test
  • Enter PC Test screen using the OK key
    • To cancel the PC test press any key
    • After receiving the test data from PC, the tester will enter the PC test screen
      • Here you have 3 options: START, SAVE, CLOSE
      • Choosing START will run the test received from PC
      • You can save the test in PIC18F452 EEPROM for later use using the SAVE button
      • Return to main menu using CLOSE button
• Custom Test
  • Enter Custom test screen using the OK key
    • If a previous test was saved, here you have the option to load it back from eeprom
      • Choosing NO will proceed to create a new custom test
      • Choosing YES will load the test from eeprom and will advance to test screen
    • If no previous test exist or you choose to ignore the existing custom test, it will display the Custom test name screen
      • Enter a test name using the keys 0 through 9
      • You can remove the last character entered using the LEFT key
      • When ready, use the DOWN key to select the OK button and using the OK key advance to Test Pins screen
        • Here you can specify the number of pins for the subject IC, only even numbers and up to 28 pins
        • You can remove the last char using LEFT key
        • When ready, use the DOWN key to select the OK button and using the OK key advance to Test cases screen
          • Here you can specify one test case at a time
          • You can enter the test case using the keys from 0 through 7
            • 0 key -> displays 0 -> INPUT PIN LOW
            • 1 key -> displays 1 -> INPUT PIN HIGH
            • 2 key -> displays L -> OUTPUT PIN LOW
            • 3 key -> displays H -> OUTPUT PIN HIGH
            • 4 key -> displays G -> PIN as POWER GROUND
            • 5 key -> displays V -> PIN as POWER VCC
            • 6 key -> displays X -> DON'T USE the PIN
            • 7 key -> displays C -> USE the PIN as CLOCK
          • You can remove the last char using LEFT key
          • You need to enter the same number of chars as the previously specified IC pins. If you have more chars than the number of pins, the tester will ignore excess data.
          • When ready, use the DOWN key to select the NEXT button to confirm the current test case
          • After entering and confirming at least one test case you can use the DONE button to advance to Start Test screen
            • Here you have the same options as on PC Test screen
• Identify IC
  • Enter Identify IC screen using the OK key
    • Here you need to specify the number of pins which IC has, using keys 0 through 9
    • You can remove the last char using LEFT key
    • You can return to main menu using DOWN key, selecting the CLOSE button and using the OK key
    • When ready use the DOWN key, select START button and pressing the OK key to start the identifying process
      • The identification process is not using the relays, so in some cases the IC will be not found because, probably, it require more power than the 20mA available from PIC I/O ports
      • Also, if the IC is defective, the identification process will fail
      • When identification process is finished, the result found or not found is displayed.
        • From this screen, pressing any key will return to main menu
• About
  • Enter About screen using the OK key
    • Information about tester will be displayed
    • Pressing any key will return to main menu

PC communication protocol

The PC can be connected to the tester using an commonly available USB to UART converter with a baud rate of 115200/8-N-1 and using unix line endings The tester will not respond if the line sent was processed correctly, but will send back errors if the data was not ok. The following protocol is used in order to transmit a test case, one line at a time

TEST BEGIN
TEST NAME The Test Name (up to 14 chars)
TEST PINS Number of pins (up to 28 pins and even number)
TEST CASE The test case data (following chars are allowed: 0,1,L,H,G,V,X,C and has to match the number of IC pins)
... more test cases... up to 48 test cases
TEST END

You can abort the test transmision using ABORT
After receiving the END keyword the tester will respond Test data complete and will be ready to run the test

Example

TEST BEGIN
TEST NAME 74244
TEST PINS 20
TEST CASE 10H0H0H0HG0H0H0H0H1V
TEST CASE 11H1H1H1HG1H1H1H1H1V
TEST CASE 00L0L0L0LG0L0L0L0L0V
TEST CASE 01H1H1H1HG1H1H1H1H0V
TEST CASE 00H0H0H0HG1L1L1L1L0V
TEST CASE 01L1L1L1LG0H0H0H0H0V
TEST CASE 01H0H1H0HG1L0H1L0H1V
TEST CASE 10H1L0H1LG0H1H0H1H0V
TEST END

Limitations in current implementation

• Only one test case can be saved in tester eeprom memory
• Only 240 bytes of eeprom data is available for storage of a test case
• The database can be up to 64KiB in size
• The communication between PIC18F452-I/P and PIC16F628A is visible on UART
• You can have only 32767 tests in database
• You can have only 48 test cases in each test
• Maximum message length on UART is 79 characters
• 7 relays are used to implement common power configuration for ICs

Supported ICs

4000, 4001, 4002, 4009, 4049, 4010, 4050, 4011, 4012, 4013, 4015, 4016, 4066, 4017, 4018, 4019, 4020, 4022, 4023, 4024, 4025, 4027, 4028, 4029, 4030, 4031, 4040, 4041, 4042, 4043, 4044, 4048, 4049, 4051, 4053, 4066, 4068, 4069, 40106, 4070, 4071, 4072, 4073, 4075, 4076, 4077, 4078, 4081, 4082, 4093, 4094, 4098, 40106, 40160, 40162, 40161, 40163, 40174, 40175, 40192, 40193, 4501, 4503, 4506, 4510, 4511, 4512, 4518, 4519, 4520, 4529, 4532, 4543, 4572, 7400, 7403, 7437, 7438, 7401, 7402, 7428, 7404, 7405, 7406, 7414, 7416, 7407, 7417, 7408, 7409, 7410, 7412, 7411, 7413, 7418, 7420, 7440, 74140, 7415, 7421, 7422, 7425, 7426, 7427, 7430, 7432, 7442, 7446, 7447, 7450, 7451, 7452, 7455, 7458, 7460, 7461, 7462, 7465, 7472, 7474, 7475, 7485, 7486, 74107, 74109, 74112, 74113, 74123, 74125, 74126, 74132, 74133, 74136, 74137, 74138, 74139, 74145, 74147, 74148, 74151, 74153, 74157, 74158, 74160, 74161, 74162, 74163, 74164, 74165, 74166, 74173, 74174, 74175, 74182, 74190, 74191, 74192, 74193, 74194, 74195, 74237, 74242, 74243, 74244, 74251, 74253, 74257, 74258, 74259, 74260, 74266, 74280, 74283, 74292, 74293, 74294, 74298, 74365, 74366, 74367, 74368, 74373, 74374, 74375, 74386, 74390, 74393, 74589, 74595, 74597

Assembled tester

Menu images