17 Oct
2006
17 Oct
'06
3:27 p.m.
On Wed, 18 Oct 2006, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On 10/17/06, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>
wrote:
Oddly enough, I've not had any problems with mine, though having said
that, I'll probably have to open it up next time I go to use it.
I've never completely understood Black Box's business model. Some of the
adapters and cables they sell at a premium price are simply OEM'd products
with their own sticker/logo stuck on them. Did they offer some sort of
guarantee beyond what the manufacturer would have offered?
Last time that I bought any of those from Radio
Shack or Fry's, I had
to pop it open and resolder most of the connections.
I did for mine, too, but that was 15 years ago. If you don't buy the
expensive ones from a company like Black Box, expect to have to fix
cheap workmanship. OTOH, my $10 unit was in tiptop shape after 5 minutes
work, so overall,
it still was a good price.
I actually picked up an older but practically new serial analyzer on eBay
this last month for about $10. Its a Datacom Technologies DataTool 5500,
which is both an analyzer and a breakout box built into one unit. (Datacom
Technologies either became Tempo or got bought up by them, I can't
remember now.) I believe it only works up to 38400 baud or so, but it will
work great for most stuff that I work with. Wish I'd had it back in the
mid 90s though ;)
-Toth