Best way to toast TTL

[Grant Stockly]

>As such simple testers go, I have one of these,
>which is conveniently self-contained:
>
>    http://www.elexp.com/tst_100.htm
>
>The device is called the "Leaper-1" and is
>sold widely, but Electronix Express has the
>best price that I could find.

That is the exact device I'm going to buy next.  Can it tell the 
difference between a 12/10 or a bad 10 to a good one?  Have you ever 
found a chip that tested good but was bad?

>An advantage of a PC-based tester, such as the
>testing function on a device programmer,
>is that some will let you program your own test
>vectors.

This one can't do custom vectors I think.  Its a cheap made in china 
device.  I thought that I could have a recommendation for a cheap and 
expensive device.  Also being able to program/read EPROMs and 
microcontrollers was a point in favor of the cheap TOP2004.

I did just find a bad 7400 in my pile of "tainted" chips.  : )  It 
wouldn't detect as anything.

The worst thing to have is a false positive.  I would much rather 
have a tester that returned false negatives.

Grant