Belkin F1U126-KIT Bitronics Auto Switch Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)The Belkin Bitronics AutoSwitch Kit - F1U126 is a 4 to 1 switch. It can be configured to operate with 4 PCs sharing one peripheral (4 - 1 mode) or one PC connected to 4 peripherals (1 - 4 mode). Only when it is operating in 4 to 1 mode will he switch automatically route the PC to the peripheral. When operating in 1 to 4 mode the user must press the SELECT button on the unit to activate the desired port or alternatively run a small application on the PC to activate the desired port.
This is clear when reading www.belkin.com but not the case with many online store descriptions of the product which, at the time of writing this review, are minimal at best.
The system configuration I am using is one PC communicating to 4 peripherals (2 printers, a scanner, and a Zip Drive).
The documentation is straight forward but erroneous. I must admit the feel good factor was pretty low when reading the manual. It seems that it is very important that DIPSWITCH 1 is set to select '4 - 1 mode' or '1 - 4 mode'. Unfortunately the table and accompanying description do not tie up (or even make sense).
For example, the table reads
DIPSWITCH 1.
ON (down) : 1 - 4 mode.
OFF (up) : 4 - 1 mode.
The description for '4 - 1 mode' reads "Set the DIP switch to the OFF position (qu) in order to put the switch to 4 - 1 mode." The (qu) is actual exactly what you would see if you looked at (up) in the mirror. Nearly (qu) but not quite; the straight vertical on the 'u' is on the wrong side. I couldn't get my printer to do this if I tried.
The description for '1 - 4 mode' reads "Set DIP switch 1 to the ON position (up) in order to put the switch to 1 - 4 mode." Doesn't exactly tie up with the table.
Anyway, the table is correct.
Apart from that small, yet fundamental, problem the manual was OK.
The installation couldn't be much easier. Nothing much to do. Well that was the case for the two printers anyway. Just connect all the cables (the Belkin supplied cable between the switch and the PC, and the two printer cables from each printer to a port). No power supply needed (just as well as none was supplied). with DIPSWITCH 1 in the correct position the active port can be selected by pressing the SELECT button on the unit until the port's corresponding LED lights up. Pretty good so far (just remember to match the printer selection in the print dialog to the selected port at the switch).
Add the scanner and everything goes down the drain. (I must admit the scanner I bought is cheap and nasty (very nasty actually but that's another story).) The scanner wouldn't respond. A quick reboot made matters worse - the PC hung during boot up. Disconnect scanner - PC boots. Reconnect scanner - PC hangs. Hm... Quick advance to the Troubleshooting section of the documentation. "Lack of Power" in large unfriendly letters. Normally a visit to Radio Shack but I had a compatible supply in the house. with the supply connected the scanner worked provided (and this is important) the scanner port was selected on the switch at boot up (something to do with the pseudo SCSI driver the scanner software loads).
Now for the Zip Drive. No real problem here except that the port that the Zip Drive is on must be selected at boot up for the pseudo SCSI drivers to be loaded. Uh oh.
Here lies a small flaw in the whole concept. If the peripheral's drivers need to see the device at boot up then only one such device can be used during any one session. For example Zip and two printers, or scanner and two printers, but never scanner and zip in one session. However, I can live with that. Might be a problem for the guys trying to access one Zip from 4 PCs though - "excuse me but don't access the Zip drive because I am booting up my machine."
The Windows 9x Software is extremely minimal and somewhat disappointing. A tiny little app that lets you select one of 4 radio buttons corresponding to the four ports. I must admit I prefer to lean over and press the button on the unit, but I suppose if the switch was out of reach this app would be useful.
What I would have been really impressed with was a driver that hooked into (or replaced) the printer selection dialog box (a standard dialog I think) such that selection of a printer automatically selected the correct printer. Some one off configuration would be required and this scheme wouldn't help with Zip or scanner, but i still would have been impressed.
In conclusion: it works, I use it, and I am happy with it. Sure the operation of the unit is not ideal, but Belkin can't help the was Zip or scanner drivers work. They could improve the documentation though and work on the software a bit more.
Aug 25, 1999.

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The Six Million dollar man - partially bionic. This Bitronics Data Switch Kit - fully automaticThe 4-port Bitronics AutoSwitch Kit allows four computers to share one parallel device, like a printer, or lets one PC automatically select between four parallel devices, such as a scanner, Zip drive, and two printers.

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