RoadTest: Maxim Integrated - Industrial Communications with IO-Link Distance Sensor
Author: ratsept
Creation date:
Evaluation Type: Evaluation Boards
Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True
What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: I'm not sure what I'm supposed to write here.
What were the biggest problems encountered?: The software to run the IO-Link master is behind a password. Contacting the software provider with the same email address I use for this review has gotten no response. Probably it is another one of those companies that only respond to corporate emails and since I'm reviewing this as a hobbyist this is becoming a blocking issue for me. This habit of companies just ignoring emails from private addresses is wrong and Ihope it will start hurting them at some point. Even though I do have a corporate email as well I will not use that for this review. And should I fail to get a response from the software provider by the end date of this review period I will consider this a dud as there is nothing I can really test without that software.
Detailed Review:
The links in the Road Test description for Design files and Quick Start Guide don't work. The first Google response for that document leads to Maxim site but that also doesn't have the pdf file available (https://www.stg-maximintegrated.com/en/design/technical-documents/userguides-and-manuals/6/6772.html) as of 27.12.2022. The document can be downloaded from here: https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/user-guides/maxrefdes145-8channel-iolink-master-quick-start-guide.pdf
I have sent two separate emails requesting access to the software needed for this evaluation and I'm still waiting to hear back from them.
The power supply to the dev board seems to be made for the US market and there was no EU adapter provided with it. But luckily I had one that worked with that power supply. Connecting power to the board does light up some leds but that is about as far as I can go right now without the software.
I will update this review as soon as I hear back from the software vendor.
...
I got a call from TEConcept and basically they said that they don't supply any software for this. They do have evaluation software for other IO-Link boards but for this specific one (and I think for this manufacturer) they did not. They suggested I try something from ST. To be honest the amount of effort I had to put into this kind of put me off using any dev kits from Maxim in the future. I understand that being merged into Analog Devices probably caused a bit of a mess but if I buy a dev kit or evaluation board I do that to save time. In the same amount of time I spent on this I could have easily just thrown together a board with some chips based on recommendations from forums and probably would have reached a better conclusion at the end.
All in all I would say this was a complete waste of time and resources unfortunately.
