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My experience with getting PCI-mini hardware and software - YMMV*

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JE:
* YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary

Hey all, I'm posting this in an attempt to de-mystify the process of acquiring the PCI-mini hardware and the
Quickloader software by sharing my experience, but also to point out that what I did might not be the best approach for folks in other situations.

First, the hardware - I ordered a serial port style PCI-mini from an on-line vendor for twenty dollars + fourteen dollars shipping. I'm not going to mention the name, but it is easy to find via an on-line search.

This was the only out-of-pocket expense I made. The cable was included and shipped in a packing box that was labelled in such a way that makes me think the cable and PCI-mini was purchased wholesale directly from Napco.

Also, as I mentioned in another post, the folks at Napco have told me that the cable is the same as the one sold by Radio Shack, catalog number 279-422.

As for the Quickloader software, I was able to download that directly from the Napco website for free.  They have an on-line process where you register with them and they give you access to their software and technical documentation libraries.

I'm not going to detail that process because I don't know what your needs are and by working through the process and figuring out their website structure, you will learn more about their system than you would by me describing what I did.

Now, here are a couple of reasons why you might not want to do what I did, but might - in fact - be better off by paying a third party guy more money than I put out for this to get your setup working:

1. I got paid by other people to do this, so I don't count the time I spent on this - easily eight hours - as a cost. This is just another sort of thing I do at my job.

If you are self-employed, or a DYI guy who is doing this for his own use, it might make more sense for you to pay someone else more money than I spent so that you don't have to spend as much time as I did figuring everything out.

2. My needs are very simple - all I do with the software is upload and download the user alarm codes. There is a whole lot of other stuff associated with the Quickloader software that I don't need to mess with and, quite frankly, shouldn't mess with because I'm not setting up zones and such.

If you are planning on doing more complicated things with the software, you might very well be better off paying someone more with the expectation that he will help you with the more complicated parts of the configuration and maintenance.

I hope this helps...

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