25 Aug
2011
25 Aug
'11
4:28 p.m.
On 24/08/2011 19:29, Tony Duell wrote:
I've never seen another quite like mine, which is a pity. I'm resigned
to having to make one if I need another, but I've never quite got round
to it. I've got a couple more breakout boxes of various types. One is
the size of the Interfaker but includes an LCD display and VOM.
Some of
Modular Technology's Interfakers were like that, but my matrix
board breakout box has three lines for each interface that could be tied
Now that I like!
to any signal(s) without going anywhere. Most
useful gadget I ever
bought, and still in use -- and not just at home for hobby use.. Photo
at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnt103/6074843016/in/photostream (and my
Interfaker is shown in the adjacent photo)
I wonder if these things evre turn up for sane prices on E-bay? I do have a couple of unusual breakout boxes. The
'breakout' part is
convemntion (DIP swtiches ot interrupt each signal line nad patch leads).
They have extra facilities. One is a pocket sized thing that'll do a bit
error rate ttest, detect signal transitions, etc (there's an 8085 + EPROM
+ 8155 I/O inside). The other is a briefcase sized thing that not only
has a breakout box but also will capture the data from the line, display
it (LCD display), primnt it internal stripprinter), do RS232-current loop
conversions (with different baud rates on the 2 sides), RS232-parallel
(Centronics or Data Products IIRC) ocnversison and even program EPROMS
(!).
The latter sounds a bit like my big blue serial analyser, which I've not
used for a long time -- so long, I can't even remember the make. It's
about the size of Tek 465 scope but the front cover is basically a
keyboard. Of course now you can get a pocket-sized gadget connected to
a laptop via USB to do all sorts, using software on the laptop to
control it and analyse the data.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York