Just my 2 cents... PCMCIA radio cards are much less in demand for the
PC world than mini-pci... We, as consumers, needed to follow the
trend. Even though we mostly use radios that are made specifically for
the WISP environment, they are dependant on parts that are made for the
mini-pci boards. That drives the market and our availability.
Robert
Butch Evans wrote:
On Tue, 2009-03-03 at 09:30 -0500, Josh Luthman wrote:
Is there a reason why they were disconntinued since they were so
great? I didn't get into Mikrotik early enough to get to use these.
Hmm. I'm not sure how to address this without sounding like I'm on the
attack.
The RB230 (200 series, really) had a really good power supply. It was
true 802.3af compliant. The trouble with this good power supply, is
that it was expensive to manufacture. Shortly after MT came out with
the 200 series boards, PC Engines began making the WRAP board. WRAP may
have come first or about the same time, I really can't remember for
sure. Either way, the WRAP board was more cheaply made and didn't have
even close to the stability on the temperature extremes (either hot OR
cold). In spite of this, the WISP Community "spoke" to MT with their
money. They said (effectively) "We don't want to pay more for something
even if it is better." The reason for the demise of the 230 board is a
direct result of the "race to the bottom" of the pricing model.
Paying less money for an equivalent product isn't a bad thing. In fact,
that is what drives our free market economy. The trouble with what
happened with the RB 200 series is that there simply wasn't, and still
isn't, an "equivalent" product available.
RB230 had much better ethernet ports, a better power supply and was VERY
stable at the extremes of the temperature range (partly due to the
better power supply). The difference of about $30-40 per AP was enough
to drive the 200 series out of business, though.
Another issues was that the PCMCIA radio cards were a bit more
expensive. It's true that the PC Card format offered more value, but
WISPs failed to see that fact, too. These radios, like the rb230, were
very stable, though temperature issues were problematic with some of
them.
It is those 2 issues that were the "main causes" for the end of
production of the rb200 series type of routerboard. The processor that
was in the RB200 series is no longer available and once supply dried up
for that processor, MT decided to join in the race to the cheapest
solution without regard to quality. It is (in my opionion) not
particularly good that price is the only factor that determines the
success of a device in the marketplace.
I should note, too, that my answer to your question is based on my
observations of events only, and I am not speaking "for Mikrotik". I
don't know if my observation is accurate or not, but it is most
certainly feasible. :-)
_______________________________________________
Mikrotik mailing list
Mikrotik@mail.butchevans.com
http://www.butchevans.com/mailman/listinfo/mikrotik
Visit http://blog.butchevans.com/ for tutorials related to Mikrotik RouterOS
