Around 1993, when I was possibly one of the very few people that knew
what a PIC micro was in Australia, the local Victorian Police Forensic
dept. contacted me and showed me a portion of a home etched PCB and what
I could read as a PIC16C54. As best I could anyway, as it had been badly
burnt as if it had been thrown into a fire. Checking the circuit out, I
found the oscillator and power pins to be correct, so I was certain it
was a 54 from the markings I could read.

I got my colleague "Big Mick" to verify my findings.

The interesting part was that it had been used as a timing device in a
police station bombing. Now why in the world would anyone use a 54 for
something that you could easily achieve with a simple timer, or 555
circuit?

Hey! we are talking egg-timers here!!

Why etch a board? It had to be someone that knew assembly code I would
think. This was pretty much before the known compilers and interpreters
were available like they are today.

Perhaps it was produced by someone reading this very message!!!!!
Hmmm......

Don McKenzie  mailto:don@dontronics.com http://www.dontronics.com

Don's Download Dungeon:   http://www.dontronics.com/download.html
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