In article ,
"Andrew Mawson" writes:
A bit OT, but I know that there are several here who have worked in the
comms environment for some years !

Has anyone any technical information on the Interfaker 4 MT25-IV from
Modular Technology? I've just revived one that the previous owner had left
the batteries in for years and corrosion was rampant. I was quite surprised
how much electronics was inside hence the question. I've been using a
different RS232 signal patch / monitor for years that has no electronics in
it at all.

Nice unit but it's also be nice to know a bit more about it. (I've a
Tektonix 834 for analysing more complex issues, but this Interfaker must
have more capabilites than at first meet the eye.)

I used to use them a lot when designing/building X.25 packet switches
at GEC, 30 years ago. They didn't have a long life when constantly being
connected/disconnected from 25-way D-type connectors - the connectors
would fail after around a year's use. I took a couple of dead ones home
and mended them, and still have them somewhere (although I couldn't find
them when having a quick glance around just now). Mine are an earlier
model than yours.

They buffer the signals so they aren't loading the lines. When used with
clocked links (such as X.25), ISTR they also detect clocks on the clock
lines and show them more inteligently than just red and green flashing
too fast to see.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]