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Writer's picturerehsd

VIA Tester Add-in Card

I picked up a large batch of (likely used) VIAs on AliExpress. They were inexpensive ($1.64 USD per VIA), and I don't expect they will all work. While I have had good luck with purchases of ICs from Ebay, I have not had great luck with purchases from AliExpress. I was curious about these VIAs more than anything. Those of you that have seen some of my previous projects, you know I go through a lot of VIAs. 😏 With all these VIAs, I was thinking about how to effectively test a large number of them prior to trying to use them in an actual project.


I decided to use one of my generic add-in card PCBs with a ZIF socket for the VIA. I connected the two ports on the VIA to each other (e.g., PA0 to PB0, PA1 to PB1, etc.). Now, I can write a test harness in 65816 assembly and run through some automated tests of the VIA. I plan to write from one port and read to the other, then switch directions. I will eventually need to add support to test interrupts and other functionality, but at least if the VIA fails the write and read tests, I can mark it down as a fail and toss it.

When I complete the testing of this batch of VIAs, I'll post the results (in case you're curious).

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