wrote in message
ups.com...
I do this stuff for a living, and have over 30 years experience. In
that time I have developed methods and instincts for evaluating vendors
(after you are burned a few times you get to be really careful). First,
I have been using Datel products for 30+ years and have a real comfort
zone with them. Second, I read the data sheet (which you can also do).
Except that you can't do that with Dimension Engineering because there
isn't one! Now, that is a major red flag in my book (maybe not yours).
And don't assume that just because somebody is selling something that
it works as advertised. That is, perhaps, the silliest thing you said.

If you want a MIL SPEC qualified dc-dc, they are available too. Try
Vicor. You'll just pay A LOT more. The Datel unit is known as COTS (for
commercial off the shelf).

I said that it looks like a hobbyist product, and it does. Since when
is that *DISSING* anybody? Furthermore, what I was saying was that it
was MADE by hobbyists. That are lots of well designed commercial
products FOR hobbyists, but that is not the situation here.

I stand by my original comments and would recommend for the Datel unit
and strongly against the Dimension Engineering. You, of course, are
entitled to your own opinion.

Tom Seim
2G DG-400


I'll be sure to keep this in mind the next time I buy a radio control system
from Futaba or JR or any of the other well known vendors in radio control
space that provide receivers, motors, batteries and other flight critical
devices used in radio control aircraft. In my thirty years of radio control
aircraft, I can think of very few, if any, devices that have not worked as
promised. Oh yeah, very few of them have data sheets.

At what point does a company mature from a start up to what you consider a
bonafide COTS? Oh, just because a product was made by hobbyists, it is not
as legit as one made for hobbyists? Your critical thinking skills sure are
sharp...note the sarcasm here, Tom.

I am glad your instincts and methods were so correct in determining DE's
reliability and suitability. I guess I just have to rely on my ten silly
years of testing, system engineering and integrating aerospace critical
rocket gear and thirty years of fooling around with silly radio control toys
as my baseline in evaluation skills. I also rely on the Internet community
as an excellent near realtime feedback mechanism on radio control products;
if a product does not work as promised, the company gets slammed.

In the context of how you used the tem "hobbyist," I am very comfortable
saying you were dising it. Taking your comment that this is the "silliest
thing" I've said, you're implying that the other things I've said were silly
as well, just not as silly. Well, thanks for your succinct evaluation and
critique. I now know that if I need the final authority on what is valid
and what is not, I'll just go to you.