Clearly a reputable establishment, they sell something called a "Mills Line Tester", this is the picture (right) and is the same as on other web sites selling these.However, what arrives is somewhat different!
For a start, it is not "Mills" anything (I assume Mills is the manufacturer), It claims to be an "Eaglehawk Product". It also has "C.E." (yes that is not a CE mark), and a "Patented Product". Hmm.
This is what it actually looks like when it arrives :-
We took it apart, and it looks like this :-
Note the way the plug is crimped - looks to have been done with a screwdriver blade and not a crimp tool.
We won't be using these, or anything else from this supplier :-)
Aside from the really shoddy build quality and that it's a knock-off copy, did it actually work as a functional poor quality clone?
ReplyDeleteLooks like it works, yes, as it happens. But I would not be happy supplying a tatty knock-off like this.
DeleteI'm not sure I get what the green DT LED indicates - it looks like it's just fed a rectified T/R signal when the button's pressed. I must be missing something...
ReplyDeleteLV=Line Voltage, DT=Dial Tone (when button pressed), Rev=Me, no I mean Reverse polarity.
DeleteYes, I get LV and Rev, but I can't see that pressing the button does anything more than simply feed whatever voltage is driving LV or Rev into DT. Maybe I've been staring at the PCB for too long and have missed something.
DeletePersonally if I need to test a line I usually carry a £4 analog wired handset I bought in tesco. Plug it in, is there dialtone? Yes, Line probably works then. Dial 17070 for more tests.
ReplyDeleteI did once do this while a colleague was holding wires in place on a terminal block though...Forgot about the implications when I setup a ringback test. He nearly fell off his ladder :/
I presume this didn't come from Mills Ltd? I'd be very surprised if this is what they're shipping but the photos on their website matches the one you've posted.
ReplyDeleteIt says "Eaglehawk Product" - where are the photos?
DeleteThe real product is probably electrically the same, to be fair, but this is just too shoddy to sell to anyone...
ReplyDeleteTheir 'Mills 16 foot tape measure' also has a picture of a 1980's era BT Engineer BUTT handset beside it. You're probably lucky you got something that actually resembled a line tester and not a bowl of cereal, or a roll of tape or something.
ReplyDeleteIs this the same "Discount Communication" site who, on their terms and conditions, say VAT will be added at 17.5% (did they charge you more?), don't provide a physical address (not even their registered office address), don't provide their full company name as registered at Companies House, have their nameservers registered to "Other UK Entity" (and have the nameservers on that domain invalid), don't use SSL on their order page (although payments are processed via SagePay and Paypal).
ReplyDeleteI wonder if millsltd.com know that company is selling a line tester which claims to be from them at a £2.72 premium (millsltd charges 8.95 postage for sub-£100 orders, datacomms charge 8.50 for all orders).
Surely you are looking into this in regards to the Sales of Goods Act (Description of Item), E-Commerce Regulations and just getting you annoyed?
I have depressing news - the same crap comes from nimans and rocom, and, surprisingly, from Mills Ltd directly. Mills even describe it as having a clip which the photo shows but is not one the cheap crap one. Oddly Eaglehawk do look like they are the original maker (based on an old PDF with BABT approval on it). Well dodgy.
DeleteDon't things still need to be BABT/TUV Sud certified for connection to BT's network? If so, can't you tip-off BT et al? Basically, just trying to stop others being disappointed.
DeleteNo, CE marking covers all the necessary standards. But this is not properly CE marked. Tut tut
Delete