Spent $40 on a used logic analyzer off eBay and it saved me 3 hours of tracing a clock line

I was stuck on a motherboard repair where the clock signal just dropped off after a resistor. Multimeter showed continuity but the scope was getting nothing. Figured I'd grab a cheap Saleae clone from some seller in China just to see if it could help. Hooked it up, ran PulseView, and found the trace had a microbreak right under the solder mask. Way faster than following every via with a probe. Anyone else had cheap test gear come through when the expensive stuff couldn't figure it out?

2 comments

2 Comments

kellyr181mo ago

40 dollars isn't nothing though. That cheap clone could give you wrong readings or miss things a real analyzer catches. I've seen people trust those bargain bin tools and end up chasing ghosts because the device itself was introducing noise or dropping samples. The microbreak claim sounds like a lucky guess more than anything the analyzer proved. A good scope with a proper probe technique would have found that same issue if you knew where to look. Those cheap clones are fine for hobby stuff but relying on them for real diagnostics is a gamble that usually bites you later.

alicea261mo ago

Microbreak under the solder mask? That's wild. I've spent hours chasing down issues with a good scope and multimeter only to find out it was something stupid like a cold joint or a tiny lifted pad. Never seen a break hidden under the mask like that though. Makes me wonder how many boards I've scrapped that had a similar issue I just couldn't see. Guess that cheap logic analyzer paid for itself on the first job.