Apple Branded LocalTalk Boxes - Failure Rate?

[Scott Baret]

If you were at VCFSE this weekend and tried to use one of my LCIIs, you may know one of them wasn't seeing the network. This happened on two different re-capped boards, so I'm thinking the LocalTalk box I had in there may have been the culprit. I have four extras at home that I can try as a replacement.

I'm thinking the box is the issue since the odds of having two boards with the same problem seems to be pretty low, plus this particular LCII was working fine on a network when it was up at VCFE in April and again at Pittsburgh events in May and June.

Do these boxes have any components inside that can fail? I've never opened one up.

I know some of you will suggest I switch to PhoneNET, but I already have over a dozen of these official Apple boxes so I want to keep it the same without having to invest anything in new boxes. Sure, I can plug in a spare for now, but if there's something long-term that goes in these (I'm pretty sure one of my boxes had tested bad before too and it may be this same one), I'd like to know what it is so we can get them repaired over time.

 

[A24A]

The en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LocalTalk article contains a couple of photos that possibly could be of interest to you.

 

[Byrd]

They're pretty cockroach-y I find, they multiply if kept in a bundle too. I'd check the jacks for crud and any dry solder joints.

 

[cheesestraws]

All that is in them is a transformer, a couple of switches and some resistors. None of which should routinely fail. If the switches failed they would add extra termination to the bus, and it's unlikely that that would only affect the one machine if it was going to have an effect.

Agree with @Byrd, check connectors; they're the bits that are under mechanical stress.