Got a spare I/O pin on your board? Then use it as a Buzz probe!

Quite often we come across boards with JTAG compliant drive or sense pins connected to a connector or other passive part without JTAG -  meaning that these nets cannot be ‘continuity checked' using Buzz. However if you have a spare JTAG I/O pin that would normally be set N/C in your design why not use it as a Buzz probe ?

If you can still influence the layout of your board you could simply bring your spare I/O to a test point or test post. Then wire up a DMM-style probe and ‘bingo' you have the other half of your Buzz system. Worst case and your design is a 'fait accompli' then solder a wire directly to the pin or an accessible via.

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