AEG Electrolux ERN 2922 User Manual download pdf (Page 66)

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PC CAPERS

IIIM

IQ

Technologies

simplifies RS

-232 troubleshooting

and making letters with Bitstream's

"Fontware"

By Ted Needleman

Last month, I

went

through some of

my

trials in getting an E.I.T. pc

-FAX

board

and scanner

working.

This underscored

how complex it can sometimes be to

troubleshoot

a problem. Sadly, the sys-

tem is still not

working.

It's in a third

computer so

far (this

board

has

done

more

traveling

than I have!) and, while

the scanner now scans, the FAX refuses

to talk to anyone.

Diagnostics that E.I.T.

includes with

the package don't

indicate

anything

wrong,

but something obvious-

ly is. Furthermore,

the

scanner

will

only

work with

E.I.T.'s software.

Publisher's

Paintbrush will likely

drive the scanner,

too, but

not

without

2.5 megs of mem-

ory,

a fact not mentioned in ZSOFT's

documentation. In any case, I've spent

enough time on this one.

It

goes up on

the

shelf for now.

Troubleshooting Made Easier

There

is

at

least

one area

where

trouble-

shooting has gotten considerably easier

over

the

years-

serial RS -232 connec-

tions.

Some of

this has come about be-

cause manufacturers of equipment are

actually starting to pay some attention to

the "standard"

instead of adding their

own "improvements."

Another big

help,

though,

is the line of products from

a

small

company called

IQ Technologies.

I've had one of its original SmartCables

(Model SC817) for years. This is a "clev-

er"

little

device consisting of a cable

with

male and female DB -25 connectors on

one end and

a small

box

with

two

slide

switches,

five LEDs, and another DB -25

on the other. You just plug the box into

the computer's

serial port, and the cable

into the peripheral. Slide

the switches to

get the correct set of

lighted LEDs and, if

the baud rate and other

parameters are

correctly set, you should be

in

business.

It makes

it

easy

to hook up printers, mo-

dems, and computer

to computer trans-

fers. There are now three different

mod-

els of

this "low

-end"

SmartCable, priced

of $39.95 or $49.95.

My

SC817

disappeared this year.

I'd

1Q

Technologies' Model

SC817 SmartCable

(above) and Model

SC817Plus SmartCable

Maker (below) let you

breeze through RS

-232C troubleshooting.

be a lot more upset if I didn't have its

big

brother, the SC821PIus

Smart Cable -

Maker. This is

a small box, about 3 by 5

inches,

with

three slide switches, a set of

DIP switches, and numerous LEDs.

There are two cables,

one

to the

comput-

er, the other to a peripheral, and

both

have male and female DB -25s. The

Smart

CableMaker operates in

a

manner

similar

to the Model SC817. You follow

the

manual's directions -flipping switches

to

obtain specific results on the LEDs.

The difference is that

when

you are done,

not

only

is

your

peripheral

connected,

but by looking up the

positions of the

switches in the manual, you are presented

82 /

MODERN

ELECTRONICS

/

February

1988

Say

You Saw It In Modern

Electronics

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