Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!network!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!well!josefk From: josefk@well.UUCP (William B. Douglas) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk Subject: Re: Problems with StarController's built-in diagnostics Keywords: Star-Controller, Line Test, Over-Sensitive Message-ID: <13099@well.UUCP> Date: 11 Aug 89 21:07:30 GMT References: <3839@phri.UUCP> <12673@netnews.upenn.edu> <3849@phri.UUCP> <12691@well.UUCP> <8398@saturn.ucsc.edu> Reply-To: josefk@well.UUCP (William B. Douglas) Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA Lines: 24 In article <8398@saturn.ucsc.edu> eshop@saturn.ucsc.edu (Jim Warner) writes: >If I add to my fleet of star controllers, am I going to have to remember >which version of the DA to use with each of the star controllers? >Are you retuning the Star Controller or the DA? I, for one, don't >find your answer to be reasuring. Would you be willing to share with >the net some of the details of what you're testing in the Star Command >test? Sorry for the delay on an answer, Jim. 1. No. The newer version of the DA handles both newer and older Star Controllers. 2. It's the DA that's being re-tuned. 3. We're pulsing the line with a signal that approximates the AppleTalk signal (properly, the LocalTalk signal, i.e., AppleTalk @ 230.4kbps, but we all knew what I meant, right?) and then waiting for the line to quiet down. That elapsed time is checked against a table, and the Star Command DA reports back its estimation of your port's quality. As you can see, it's targeted primarily at reflection problems. Hope that helps. If you have any questions, call us at (415) 849-2331. -- josefk@well.sf.ca.us {apple,hoptoad,hplabs}!well!josefk Dissemination: the upside of entropy