What are the differences between Dialog11 and earlier controls, specifically Dialog4?
Is the user interface pretty much the same? File transfer any easier? How does it compare with complex moves like 3D surfacing-is the processing speed faster?
Interested in comparisons and impressions.
Although I've owned and repaired probably half a dozen Deckels with D11, I have yet to write the first program for one and have only run programs already in memory from a previous owner and uploaded parameters.... so I'm not the one to know about the advantages of D11 in that respect.
But what I will say is I now think the D11 in the USA is almost a moot point. I say that unless you have two D11 machines where you can swap control modules and/or EPROMs to find
for sure which one goes bad, and then repair that module at the component level....the expense is just too great. Modules start at $3,000 and some are more like $5,000 EACH.......with the icing on the cake being that price is for another
used module and
with exchange ! So if your exchange get's lost on it's way to Germany you are
really SOL....and because the "new" unit is not really new, it could have an older component go out on it a few months later as well. I could go on but hopefully you get the picture....
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FWIW, the last D11 module I repaired I eliminated every component on the board as ok except the static RAM memory chips.... of which there were 20 with 20 legs on each one. Of course they were obsolete but I did track down 20 NOS ones in the UK at reasonable price. The usual proceedure for this would be to snip all 20 legs of each chip and desolder just the snipped leg remnants.
But I was determined to find out exactly which of the 20 were bad...and hoped it would be one of the first few I removed. So I was forced to become a champion desolderer..... desoldering 20 legs of each chip without damaging a single trace or chip....then testing each chip in an IC test device I bought on eBay.
After several afternoons of this (a "spare time" thing) I was getting pretty discouraged by chip 15...each test getting a "good" reading on the IC tester. But at chip 17 I think... finally I see "ERROR" on the tester....I checked it over and over.... what a glorious moment to keep seeing "ERROR" ! But at that point I went ahead and desolded the rest to make sure they were ok as well...and they were.
So, that is 400 desoderings on one board, and 400 resoders (used sockets for the resolder)....but it worked.....D11 went from not working at all, to working perfectly.
Scared off now ?