Re: TIRA is junk - AVOID IT!

["William" <bill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <dhouston1@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3efea93e.1734757@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> I bought a TIRA with the intention of writing software to support it for
use
> by the severely disabled confined to wheelchairs.
>
> It is a USB version of the earlier IRA, an IR device that purports to
> emulate Irman and also receive and send IR in raw mode. Being powered by
the
> USB port, it looked like the ideal solution for this application. I was
not
> interested in using it with Girder in Irman emulation mode.
>
> It uses the FTDI chip (which I've used myself in similar applications) for
> the USB interface.
>
> It took more than 6 weeks to arrive from Canada. It took several more days
> to get documentation via email of the ASCII protocol.
>
> I could not get the ASCII protocol to work. When I contacted the
> manufacturer I was pointed to a DLL file with documentation that indicated
> the device had to be on COM3-COM8 (why?). It would not work on COM3. The
> manufacturer was extremely uncooperative.
>
> It also broke all of my other devices that use the FTDI chip, seeing all
of
> them as TIRA.
>
> The manufacturer has refused a refund.
>
> I am awaiting delivery of a USB-UIRT. I hope it will prove to work. It
also
> uses the FTDI chip but uses different FTDI drivers and comes with much
> better documentation (which I already have).
> ---
> http://www.laser.com/dhouston/