A while back, I inherited one of these from a friend (who has no patience to FIX things!). I, of course, love tinkering with toys so it's a "diversion" for me. But, end-of-year is my traditional housecleaning binge so Ive got to decide if its KEEP or TOSS.
But, I have no idea if it is even worth the time to sort out what's wrong with it -- until I can figure out how useful it *might* be.
[friend has only given me vague ideas as to how *he* used it -- possibly because it was "underutilized" and he doesn't want to let his ignorance show?]
The subject line indicates *all* of the identifying information on the device! I've managed to find a few links with comparable photos -- but each as had different "model numbers" (and I have no idea of the significance of those model numbers!)
Here's one:
As far as details, all I ever seem to find is the same "manufacturer's summary" information. And, a reference to a "pentascanner" manual which further confuses the identification issue.
So, has anyone seen/used one of these and willing to comment in "non-sales-speak" about its features?
I have feeling that it is a device that without manuals would be difficult to use. Also it is meant for serious networking people like datacenter network staff.
This article a comparison with similar units from other manufacturers might help.
I suspect the far end adapter mentioned in the ebay link is for doing Next (crosstalk) and similar tests for cabling. Something most people don't even know is a test.
The article I linked may help on generalities.
Another one was
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The other "similar" devices that I've come across have tended to be pretty intuitive to use -- once you *know* their capablties. Often, the hardest thing is knowing which rder to push which buttons, etc.
Havng a manual would be great -- but nothing has turned up in my searches (I tend to search for "8160" as that base model number seems to be associated with many images of the device -- though I can;t find that anywhere on the device itself!)
Without the manual, a "quick start guide" or a "datasheet" would be a starting point.
Exactly -- hence its appeal to me (almost everything I've worked on in the past few years has been a distributed system). But, the mention of "NT", "Netware", etc. in the summary descriptions that I've read has me leary -- thinking it may be too tightly tied to troubleshooting *those* networks (and the services typically running on them) than the protocols that *I* use. :-/
Unfortunately, for my *office* needs it would only be partially useful as most of the interesting traffic runs on Gb fabric.
Thanks! That gives me a bit better idea -- though still speaks to folks from the "IT" crowd.
Yes. The adapter also appears useful in tracing cable drops (I have another box that is a bit handier for that as it allows multiple drops to be sorted at one time. If you've had to do this, you can see how such a device cuts the number of "passes" you have to make through the cable ends if you can test N at once). The TDR is also handy when things don't work. (though the other device I mentioned also has that capablity).
This only seemed to give it a passing mention.
But, overall, I think its probably worth at least a small investment of time. I know the power (barrel) connector is broken so I'll chase down the appopriate replacement (no idea how *that* could have been damaged, but... ). Then, see if the battery pack will hold a charge or if I'll have to rebuild it (solvent welded, of course :< ). An AC powered device doesn't seem very useful, here...
Thankfully, the unit came with the correct wall wart (in addition to far end adapter) so I won;t have to waste time trying to reverse engineer the power conditioning circuitry!
I have one of these. Menus are intuitive. Has extensive built-in manual. Use the bottom button... looks like a light bulb. There are lot of functions for testing LANs that were in use in 1990. Not at all clear what they do. If I plug in my network, it displays my modem/router and computers on my network. Not sure if it has any functions that couldn't be done as easily with a laptop and some diagnostic software. The TDR cable test can come in handy. I used it mostly to monitor RS-232 communication when I'm debugging PIC processor programs.
OK, so that means at least two were manufactured! :>
OK
I suspect these are the Netware (e.g.) -specific "added value" features.
The drawbacks of a laptop are:
- size
- often no serial port
- rarely a *second* serial port...
- ... or a second NIC. Plus, of course, the software to do these things -- and, the uncertainty over the insertion cost of this whole mess (anything laptop based probably runs on a "poorly characterized OS" whereas a device *intended* for insertion probably has *some* attention paid to the impact it has on the "ideal wire" that it is trying to replace!)
Agreed. I have it available in anther piece of equipment. At the very least, it gives me some reassurance when "things look fishy" ("Hmmm... there's no way this cable is only 2 meters long!")
But I assume it's only helpful at getting a *feel* for what's on the wire? Or, can you "take snapshots" so you're not constantly trying to read stuff at 19Kbaud, etc.?
I assume the corresponding LAN funcionality is only helpful for giving you an idea of traffic *volume* (and possibly soures/destinations) as the actual *content* would zip by in an instant.
Been a long time since I used it. I think it has some buffer, but not sure how much. I only sent a few bytes at a time anyway. Just needed to see that the stimulus/response was doing the right thing.
Never really used it. It does have some activity graphs and summary metrics.
I'd remove the battery and try to get some charge into it. If the system works, then worry about fixing the charging jack.
Frankly, I wouldn't be too disappointed if I lost mine. Took me half an hour to find it. But there's something just WRONG about having a gizmo that isn't working. MUST FIX!!!!!
(slaps head) D'oh! Yes, why didn't *I* think of that approach? Too busy thinking about how to get *that* charger working instead of just getting the device "usable". E.g., I can just as easily clip some EZ-hooks onto the contacts that *mate* with the battery, set power supply accordingly and fire it up. Don't even worry about the state of the battery!
(I had thought of soldering some pigtails onto the broken barrel connector but unsure of whether or not the switch in the connector was actually used for anything -- perhaps to disconnect the charging electronics?)
Yup. And, any time I can reduce the size of something I need for testing (especially if it has to be portable), its REALLY hard to resist. (E.g., I can hack together a protocol analyzer from a NIC/MAC and a logic analyzer... but, not very PORTABLE!)
Thanks! Perhaps I'll get to it this weekend (I need to place a Digikey order so it would be nice to know if I have to add a barrel connector to that list)
Hi sir,you said you're using it mostly to monitor rs232 communication? may i ask if i can use it to trace if a machine or computer has an output, via rs232 when connecting on this device? or can you give me some instruction o n how to use the function rs232? Thank you sir, appreciate any help :)
y i ask if i can use it to trace if a machine or computer has an output, vi a rs232 when connecting on this device? or can you give me some instruction on how to use the function rs232?
rs232 is not a function.
it is the electrical definition for a serial interface standard. Google it ed
Pedantic, and wrong. RS-232, or EIA-232 as it is now called, defines physical and electrical properties of an interface which can be used to carry both asynchronous and synchronous serial data streams. Everything one needs to understand the physical-layer and recover the bits on the wire is specified in the standard.
What is not specified in the standard is the protocol which travels across the serial link, as it doesn't care. Unlike Ethernet, which has a defined packet format, the largest unit of transfer on the EIA-232 asynchronous interface is one byte.
So, when the OP asked about "rs232", everyone knew what he/she was talking about, and it is common usage to call it that. It is arguably clearer than "serial port", as SPI, I2C, USB, PCIe, and numerous other interfaces could also be classified as "serial ports".
Many people seem to (wrongly) assume that RS-232 means the standard asynchronous serial (uart) interface. This gives rise to the term of the 'TTL level RS-232 interface' which is actually a contradiction of terms as the TTL level signal levels (0-0.6 / ~2.5-4) are NOT valid RS-232 signal levels (3 - 15 / -3 - -15), and for what is generally intended the polarity of mark and space are reversed.
I have even seen this is government specifications.
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