Originally Posted by caleb105  So....looks like my choices are:
C10 = $25.49
PMDX 122 = $81
Is there any reason to spend the extra money on the PMDX? Seems like both the C10 and PMDX are reliable. |
The advantage is, if you accidentally short something, with the PMDX you'll most likely just blow up a chip on the PMDX. With the C10, you'll likely blow up the parallel port on your PC, or worse. Isolation is worthwhile. Most people will never *need* it, but it's cheap insurance.
Also, if your PC has a low-voltage parallel port, the PMDX will work fine, where the C10 might, or might not. This can cause flaky problems that can be very tricky to track down. Or the current capability of the parallel port may be marginal, and one day you'll hook up one more signal, and start getting flaky behavior. The PMDX runs from a separate power supply, so this will never be an issue.
Regards,
Ray L.