Pigtail Issues

acidrayne · 05-24-2002

<rant>

Um ... I had a really good night with my antenna and pigtail.

In about a 3 hour drive I picked up over 90 APs ... this 3 hour time span also included sitting for about 45 minutes in one area.

The night was going great until the wives called us to dinner ... I had a great idea that I could just leave the pigtail plugged into the card and set it in the hatchback of the car.

This would have been OK until the LMR100A line put a little too much pressure on that little snap in connector and the F**KING thing BROKE!!

THIS SUCKS!!

I had SO much fun tonight and now I BROKE MY TOY!!

Anyway ... I guess I am going to be ordering another pigtail after only 5 days of having the current one. I wonder if I should just order them in bulk to get some sort of idiot discount.
</rant>

blackwave · 05-24-2002

Quote:

Originally posted by acidrayne
[BThis would have been OK until the LMR100A line put a little too much pressure on that little snap in connector and the F**KING thing BROKE!!
[/b]

<Moment of silence...>

We weep with you brother...

Borg Man · 05-27-2002

Quote:

Originally posted by acidrayne
<rant>

This would have been OK until the LMR100A line put a little too much pressure on that little snap in connector and the F**KING thing BROKE!!

THIS SUCKS!!

I had SO much fun tonight and now I BROKE MY TOY!!

Anyway ... I guess I am going to be ordering another pigtail after only 5 days of having the current one. I wonder if I should just order them in bulk to get some sort of idiot discount.
</rant>

Your toy will be fixed on Tuesday -

Don't forget to use scotch tape to add some extra strain relief to the connector itself. You will have the replacement FedEx 2 day on Thursday - just be carefull with this one - for anyone else that may be reading and does not already know - the gold pins around the center pin of the Lucent connector are very very thin and very easy to break with even the slightest tension in the wrong direction. Our connectors have survived a robot pluging and unpluging them 10,000. Granted I know of no human that can get more than 50 uses out of one - myself included

Cheers,
Borg Man

Thorn · 05-27-2002

This works better than tape, and is almost as cheap. Get one of those report binders with the plastic spine. Cut the spine to about 1.25" (3cm). Slide it over the top of the card and the pigtail, and viola! The pigtail is now safely held in place.

acidrayne · 05-27-2002

Quote:

Originally posted by Borg Man

Your toy will be fixed on Tuesday - Don't forget to use scotch tape to add some extra strain relief to the connector itself. You will have the replacement FedEx 2 day on Thursday - just be carefull with this one - for anyone else that may be reading and does not already know - the gold pins around the center pin of the Lucent connector are very very thin and very easy to break with even the slightest tension in the wrong direction. Our connectors have survived a robot pluging and unpluging them 10,000. Granted I know of no human that can get more than 50 uses out of one - myself included

Cheers,
Borg Man

Thanks again to Borg Man for the hookup on the replacement. My problem was not having it break while in use but being stupid and picking up the whole rig without taking the pigtail off the card.

Oh well ... Chalk it up to lessons learned and go on right?

Um ... 50 uses huh? I might be coming back to you if this proves true in my case too.

ZipperSeven · 05-27-2002

Interesting, you would think that for all their engineering brilliance while designing the rest of the card, that the Lucent engineers could have spent more time designing the jack on the cards. Just goes to show that for anything designed to be foolproof, some fool will come along to break it. (not meant personally, acidrayne)

paths · 05-27-2002

hehe I had the same problem I guess. I did not notice it but the thing was broken and would not stay in place on the first stumble.

Kudos to Borg Man for fixing it ans standing behind the product. I guess I will keep the extra gold card I have and tape the external antenna to it and just remove the whole card when done and insert another gold card..

Dr3D1zzl3 · 05-27-2002

i think im gonna super glue the biatch in there. hehe. I just ordered an extra to have just in case.

Borg Man · 05-28-2002

Quote:

Originally posted by paths
hehe I had the same problem I guess. I did not notice it but the thing was broken and would not stay in place on the first stumble.

Kudos to Borg Man for fixing it ans standing behind the product. I guess I will keep the extra gold card I have and tape the external antenna to it and just remove the whole card when done and insert another gold card..

Thanks paths -

Just keep in mind normally a broken gold pin is not covered. But when I can I do take care of them - just be carefull

As for the design, I don't know how it was engineered, but someone would be hard pressed to make me believe it was not an engineered failure.

Borg Man

agentgrn · 05-28-2002

I had the same thing happen on a trip to NY at the start of the month. The gold pin was fine, but the sleeve which held the pigtail onto the card was broken.

I decided not to get it fixed, but rather just purchase a new one of Ebay...and go for something that's got a little more length to it. I tossed the old 12" pigtail, in favor of a 3' one with a male N connector.

I should have it by week's end.

blackwave · 05-28-2002

Reminds me of this weekend I almost did the same thing as acidrayne, but in my leap of illogical "ninja-instinct" I sacrificed a couple of fingers before the door slammed shut and would have caused the cable to give a swift pin-breaking yank... Yeah these babies will grow back into shape in a few short days... but hey I extended the usage just a little longer ...

Just an aside I connected and disconnected the connector more than a couple hundred times now and no problems as of yet (knocking on wood)...

Thorn · 05-28-2002

Quote:

Originally posted by ZipperSeven
Interesting, you would think that for all their engineering brilliance while designing the rest of the card, that the Lucent engineers could have spent more time designing the jack on the cards. ...<snip>...

There's a couple of reasons that the Lucent engineers choose this connector; one technical, the other regulatory. First the regulatory. The FCC requires manufacturers of this type of equipment to make it difficult for standard users to attach an external antenna, other than those made (or certified) by the manufacturer. (Technically, it seems you are only supposed to attach a certified antenna. Which is a whole other can of worms.) So the manufacturer is supposed to use a connector that is not readily available. (The connector can't be sold in popular outlets like Rat Shack.)

The technical reason has a couple of sub-issues:
1) RF. The connector must work with 2.4GHz microwaves with minimum loss.
2) Physical restriction. It has to fit inside the case.
3) It needs to be "Commercial Off The Shelf" components. They don't make their own connectors, so it has to be available in large quantities someplace. I've heard that Lucent originally got these from a maker in Australia, although I don't know if this is accurate.

These are the reasons why you see all the strange (and different) connectors on all the different brands of cards. It is each manufacturer solving the same problem it in their own way.

So there you have it.

Cheers,

acidrayne · 05-28-2002

Quote:

Originally posted by ZipperSeven
Just goes to show that for anything designed to be foolproof, some fool will come along to break it. (not meant personally, acidrayne)

No offense taken.

acidrayne · 05-28-2002

Quote:

Originally posted by agentgrn
I had the same thing happen on a trip to NY at the start of the month. The gold pin was fine, but the sleeve which held the pigtail onto the card was broken.

This is actually the same issue that I had ... The sleeve broke partially at first so I tried to just work with it and then the rest of the sleeve broke ... The gold pin was in tact ... I actually thought about taping it in there real tight to see if it would work but I didn't want to chance damaging the card too.

So ... In the instance that something is broken and cant be fixed ... I say ... Tear it apart and see what's inside!!

Borg Man · 05-28-2002

Quote:

Originally posted by agentgrn
I had the same thing happen on a trip to NY at the start of the month. The gold pin was fine, but the sleeve which held the pigtail onto the card was broken.

I decided not to get it fixed, but rather just purchase a new one of Ebay...and go for something that's got a little more length to it. I tossed the old 12" pigtail, in favor of a 3' one with a male N connector.

I should have it by week's end.

Was it one of our pigtails? If so please contact me.

Borg Man

05-24-2002	#1 (permalink)
acidrayne Slacker Stumbler Join Date: May 2002 Location: Kansas Posts: 476	Pigtail Issues <rant> Um ... I had a really good night with my antenna and pigtail. In about a 3 hour drive I picked up over 90 APs ... this 3 hour time span also included sitting for about 45 minutes in one area. The night was going great until the wives called us to dinner ... I had a great idea that I could just leave the pigtail plugged into the card and set it in the hatchback of the car. This would have been OK until the LMR100A line put a little too much pressure on that little snap in connector and the F**KING thing BROKE!! THIS SUCKS!! I had SO much fun tonight and now I BROKE MY TOY!! Anyway ... I guess I am going to be ordering another pigtail after only 5 days of having the current one. I wonder if I should just order them in bulk to get some sort of idiot discount. </rant> __________________ Rayne

05-28-2002	#10 (permalink)
agentgrn KB1JQO - Packin' Heat Join Date: May 2002 Location: Worcester, MA Posts: 517	I had the same thing happen on a trip to NY at the start of the month. The gold pin was fine, but the sleeve which held the pigtail onto the card was broken. I decided not to get it fixed, but rather just purchase a new one of Ebay...and go for something that's got a little more length to it. I tossed the old 12" pigtail, in favor of a 3' one with a male N connector. I should have it by week's end. __________________ -A.G.-

05-28-2002	#11 (permalink)
blackwave Do I look like I'm joking Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: SoCal, OC Posts: 4,507	DOH! Reminds me of this weekend I almost did the same thing as acidrayne, but in my leap of illogical "ninja-instinct" I sacrificed a couple of fingers before the door slammed shut and would have caused the cable to give a swift pin-breaking yank... Yeah these babies will grow back into shape in a few short days... but hey I extended the usage just a little longer ... Just an aside I connected and disconnected the connector more than a couple hundred times now and no problems as of yet (knocking on wood)... __________________ -=BW=-

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05-27-2002	#7 (permalink)
paths Registered Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Cincy Posts: 20	hehe I had the same problem I guess. I did not notice it but the thing was broken and would not stay in place on the first stumble. Kudos to Borg Man for fixing it ans standing behind the product. I guess I will keep the extra gold card I have and tape the external antenna to it and just remove the whole card when done and insert another gold card..

05-27-2002	#8 (permalink)
Dr3D1zzl3 Mental Penis Fencer Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 371	i think im gonna super glue the biatch in there. hehe. I just ordered an extra to have just in case.