YellowsBest, Author at Management Services and Solutions

New parts for Legacy systems

Keeping Customers Operational

A continuing challenge for public and private network owners is the ongoing maintenance of infrastructure systems to support their business needs. In many cases, it makes sense to continue to operate legacy systems which are still fulfilling unchanged requirements, rather than contemplate costly and time-consuming change-outs and replacements.

@YellowsBestLtd seeks out new products and legacy equipment spares to assist with these aims. Recent enquiries have been fulfilled supplying refurbished and surplus stocks of equipment cards, as well as built-to-order cables and connectors to suit exact requirements.

There follows a few examples of items we have recently supplied. We would welcome any enquiries for the supply of similar or alternative parts, or support services to provide hardware repairs. Please get in touch; we look forward to hearing from you!

Example items, recently supplied

Connectors
Part Number	Product Code	Description
D-21470	Euro	Euro Connector 3×7

Cables
Part Number	Product Code	Description
102-722-1	Coax-SMB 1m	BT3002 Coax Cable BNC Plug to SMB Right Angle, 1m
102-722-3	Coax-SMB 3m	BT3002 Coax Cable BNC Plug to SMB Right Angle, 3m
102-722-5	Coax-SMB 5m	BT3002 Coax Cable BNC Plug to SMB Right Angle, 5m

Equipment
Part Number	Product Code	Description
T37882.02	NDUe	NDM DC Unit
TA 21513	DF 2-8	Term. Repeater 2-8 M, 1300nm LED MM/SM
TU 21236.10	VF E&M	CU 8ch E&M/uP: 1xUKe&m/VF
TU 21216	SUB/EXCH	Channel Unit SUB/EXCH

More equipment spares are listed here

Good luck for the Women’s Football (Soccer) World Cup!

It’s a good time for watching sport, not least the arrival of the Women’s Football (Soccer) World Cup.

@Yellowsbestltd we will be following the competition with interest, and naturally following our home side! Whoever you’re supporting, good luck and best wishes for an entertaining and enjoyable event.

Wen you have time between work commitments and leisure time, we would be keen to hear from you should you have any views or news, or indeed any consultancy, solutions or support services requirements. Please get in touch to let us know how things are with you and if we can help.

Motherboard Repairs

Repairs to elements such as modules and cards of infrastructure hardware is one way we achieve our mission of “Keeping Customers Operational”. A good and recent example is Motherboards for display systems. These are from established, long-standing and therefore proven and fit-for-purpose systems. It therefore makes sense to maintain and extend the life of these parts.

Typical with such ‘legacy’ elements is that the level of complexity of the items is not excessive, meaning that repairs using discreet components is perfectly feasible, unlike more modern integrated systems which use specialised parts that cannot be freely or cheaply obtained or impossible to disassemble resulting in them being classed as ‘BER’ (Beyond Economic Repair). This is ultimately costly and disruptive, requiring wholesale replacements.

@Yellowsbestltd would be keen to hear from you should you have any repairs requirements. We would welcome receiving any defective items you have in order to perform a no-cost assessment to establish the feasibility and likely cost of restoration. Please get in touch to let us know how we can help.

Cabling Solutions

Bespoke cable products to suit individual needs

@YellowsBestLtd seeks out new products and legacy equipment spares, ensuring the continued long-term maintenance of infrastructure system.

Equally as important can be the necessary cables to connect data and voice circuits. Often, these are items that can be damaged and disposed of, since repair is difficult or impossible. And original supply is no longer available. Fortunately, we are able to get these bespoke items newly manufactured, specifically made to order.

Here are a few recent examples:

Cable Products
Part Number	Product Code	Description
102-722-1	Coax-SMB 1m	BT3002 Coax Cable BNC Plug to SMB Right Angle, 1m

Coax-SMB-1m

Part Number	Product Code	Description
102-722-3	Coax-SMB 3m	BT3002 Coax Cable BNC Plug to SMB Right Angle, 3m

Coax-SMB-3m

Part Number	Product Code	Description
102-722-5	Coax-SMB 5m	BT3002 Coax Cable BNC Plug to SMB Right Angle, 5m

Coax-SMB-5m

“Keeping Customers Operational”

If you have similar or other new cabling requirements and legacy maintenance needs, please get in touch to discuss how we may be of assistance.

Ultrafast Fibre Broadband – ‘FTTP’

Although the installation of fibre broadband services have been rolling out across the UK for some time now, there still seems much confusion relating to the various services on offer.

@YellowsBestLtd has been receiving ‘Fibre To The Premises’ (FTTP – sometimes referred to as ‘Fibre To The Home’ FTTH) from @Gigaclear since our formation in 2015. We are therefore able to provide this brief summary of our experiences and comparison of the types possible and their capabilities:

Full Fibre (FTTP) – fibre runs directly to the office or house, giving the fastest and most reliable speeds. This is what we had installed by Gigaclear; a dedicated fibre line into a fibre modem which can be directly connected to using ethernet cable or via a wifi router.

Part Fibre or ‘Fibre to the Cabinet’ (FTTC) – fibre runs to the neighbourhood cabinet, and then data runs over copper lines into the building. The transmission speed and bandwidth is therefore reduced in comparison to Full Fibre. This is the type of on offer to many consumers where the local telephony provider is not able to rollout fibre replacement for the ‘last mile’ of copper connection.

Copper or non-fibre – the traditional, existing telephone lines are used to provide the broadband service. This naturally provides the slowest speed and least data bandwidth. Many communities still rely on this as the only means of internet connection, since no fibre broadband deployment has been made.

The net result is that with Full Fibre, it is possible to receive previously unheard of speeds. Indeed the maximum service on offer is so fast, it outstrips the requirements of most homes and businesses. It is therefore typical that a reduced service is selected purely for cost-saving purposes.

Our own experiences have found that the Ultrafast 300 service from Gigaclear to be more than adequate for our needs. This is a screen shot of an actual speed test of the service we are being provided with:

In many cases the ‘full fibre’ service we have chosen, approximately a third the speed of the maximum possible, is still at least 10x faster than part or no fibre services. Not only is it faster, it provides a very stable connection less prone to interference and service outages. Thought due to network backhauling connections, is not unknown for interruptions to be possible; fortunately these are relatively rare.

The main difficulty for most businesses and homes remains the lack of universal provision. Whereas we have no reservations in recommending Gigaclear’s full-fibre service, we recognise this is not available everywhere. It is just fortunate for us that rural communities like ours was prioritised in their initial service rollout.

@YellowsBestLtd our mission is in “Keeping Customers Operational”. We’re always keen to enhance our range of #business services, increase the #enterprise infrastructure we support and expand our mix of #sustainable solutions we offer for supply and maintenance of new and legacy #technologies and products for our customers.

Please get in touch to help us understand your management services or solutions requirements, whether you’re implementing new systems or maintaining existing infrastructure networks to serve your operational business needs.

Searching for NMS cables

Call out for any requirements for Network Management Systems cables

In addition to satisfying world-wide customer product sourcing requirements for current and ‘legacy’ equipment technologies, @YellowsBestLtd also seeks out peripheral items such as Network Management System (NMS) cables.

These items may be minor in nature and originally low-cost, but they are vital for continued use and configuration of transmission nodes via management systems which evolved way before modern wireless technologies and smart phone ‘app’ based tools. Such specialist cables are becoming increasingly hard to find, since once used and damaged, they are likely to be disposed of rather than refurbished, and no new replacements are being produced.

However, in the absence of surplus stocks, it is possible for us to arrange for the manufacture of specialist cabling products including those for NMS. Due to the particular nature of the connectors utilised, these have to be specially sourced, but the cable materials themselves can be specified and applied accordingly. However, it is the orginal design information that is most critical to obtain the right functionality and compatibility.

Whatever your requirements, if you are seeking equipment or cabling for new or legacy systems, then please let us know as we can usually assist. We look forward to hearing from you.

Searching for Keymile DUP14

Call out for any stocks of Keymile’s Dual Power Input Modules (DUPI4)

@YellowsBestLtd we satisfy world-wide customer product sourcing requirements for current and ‘legacy’ equipment technologies from a wide range of Original Equipment Manufacturers (O.E.M.s).

In particular, we have stocks of surplus and refurbished products from the Keymile UMUX range which we are able to supply to assist customers in maintaining their operational networks.

However, one item not in our stocks that is of immediate interest to several of our clients is the Dual Power Input Modules (DUPI4).

We are urgently seeking supply; if you can assist, please get in touch!

These items provide the ultimate power protection upgrade:

Unit centralises alarm functionality and power input control
Delivers built-in redundancy
Power protection for both sub rack and fan unit
Increased the VDC availability

The DUPI4 acts as a dual input power decoupler that selects between two independent VDC power feeds and delivers them directly to the sub rack’s power input. Thus, the DUPI4 ensures uninterrupted service delivery since the power feed change over is instantaneous.

‘Legacy’ telecoms history

The UMUX SDH product portfolio was originally launched 1991 by Ascom, which subsequently became Keymile. Keymile was sold to ABB in 2017 when the UMUX range was discontinued, and then was acquired in 2019 by DZS.

Comprehensive Functionality

The UMUX platform provides carrier-grade reliable multi-service multiplexing and aggregation functions over copper and fibre networks. A variety of voice (POTS, FSX, FSO, ISDN) and data (e.g. G.703, V.11, V,24, V,35) interfaces, SHDSL and Ethernet (including PoE+ and EoS) services are available.

The modular and flexible housing provided by the UMUX 1500 (8U, 21-slot) and UMUX 1200 (4U, 8-slot) 19” subracks provide the perfect solution for all applications and locations, offering redundant controller and power supplies.

Spares for continuing to provide operational service

The UMUX, together with the UNEM network management system and ‘sister’ LINERUNNER and MILEGATE products, continues to provide operational service with various global Operator, Utilities and Transport companies.

@YellowsBestLtd supports requirements to maintain these networks by supplying various spare part items from refurbished and surplus stocks in perfect working order.

The definitive ‘Dynanet’ spares list

Nokia ‘Dynanet’ PDH Transmission products

For many years, the ‘Dynanet’ family of PDH Transmission telecoms products have well served Public Operator and Private Network Customers across the Telecoms, Utilities, Transport and Public Safety markets with high availability mission critical infrastructure, and indeed some networks are continuing to provide good operational service.

They were first introduced by Nokia over 20 years ago, and were continued in recent years by DNWP. Production of the majority of the product range was ceased in 2019.

Spare parts for continued operational service

@YellowsBestLtd satisfies world-wide customer product sourcing requirements for current and ‘legacy’ equipment technologies from a wide range of Original Equipment Manufacturers (O.E.M.s).

In particular, we are able to supply products from the ‘Dynanet’ range, given that we have a significant amount of refurbished and surplus equipment items in stock for immediate delivery. Hence there continues to be spares support for current and even increased deployed networks.

Comprehensive Stocklist of ‘Dynanet’ Spares

Whereas the ‘Dynanet’ family contained a wide range of products produced and supplied over many years, some of which are relatively obscure and unlikely to be needed, there are a number of core items that have proved to be always in demand by Customers. Consequently, we have endeavoured to create a comprehensive stock list, containing part numbers, product codes and descriptions and images which is presented here, and would welcome any enquiries you have for spares requirements that we can fulfil. If however, you are seeking something more unusual, then please let us know as we can usually assist. We look forward to hearing from you.

Mechanics
Part Number	Product Code	Description
T37870.01	NDM	NDM 19in 17-slot Subrack

Part Number	Product Code	Description
T37871.01	NDM	NDM DN2 19in 17-Slot Subrack

Power
Part Number	Product Code	Description
T37882.01	NDU	NDM DC Unit

Part Number	Product Code	Description
T37882.02	NDUe	NDM DC Unit

Part Number	Product Code	Description
T37889.01	NBU	NDM Backup Unit

Multiplexers
Part Number	Product Code	Description
TC 21101	DM2	DM2 Multiplexing Unit, 75ohm

Part Number	Product Code	Description
CC 24002	DB2	Branching Unit, B2, 2x2Mb/s, 75ohm

Part Number	Product Code	Description
CC 24011	DB2	Switching Unit, X2, 2Mb/s, 75ohm

Part Number	Product Code	Description
CU 24111	DN2	Control Unit, DN2, 75ohm
CC 24101	DN2	Interface Unit, IU2, 2x2Mb/s, 75ohm

Optical Line Units
Part Number	Product Code	Description
TA 21513	DF2-8	Terminal Repeater 2-8M, 1300nm, LED MM/SM
TA 21516	DF2-8	Terminal Repeater 2-8M, 1300nm, LASER SM
TA 21518	DF2-8	Terminal Repeater 2-8M, 1300nm, LASER LP

Copper Line Units
Part Number	Product Code	Description
T65580	ACL2i	ACL2i PF Gen

VF and Sub
Part Number	Product Code	Description
CU 21206	SUB/SUB	Channel Unit SUB/SUB

Part Number	Product Code	Description
CU 21206.50	SUB/SUB	Channel Unit RSM (L/E Start) 6ch

Part Number	Product Code	Description
CU 21216	SUB/EXCH	Channel Unit SUB/EXCH

Part Number	Product Code	Description
TU 21236.10	VF E&M	Channel Unit 8ch E&M/uP: 1xUKe&m/vf

Data Interface Units
Part Number	Product Code	Description
TU 21125	DIU X.21	Data IF Unit 48..64k with sync, X.21

Part Number	Product Code	Description
TU 24013	DIU nx64k	Data IF Unit 2M, nx64k: G.703/704, 75ohm

Ethernet & ISDN
Part Number	Product Code	Description
TU 21133.03	ETHERNET	Ethernet IF 10/100 2ch, 3+3 if, switch

Supervisory
Part Number	Product Code	Description
TC 21705	SUPY SUB	Supervisory Substation

Special Units
Part Number	Product Code	Description
T37885.01	RING GEN	Ring Generator
T37885.02	RING GEN	Ring Generator + DC/DC converter

Optical Teleprotection
Part Number	Product Code	Description
D-24204	TPSO C37.94	Optical Teleprotection Interface, C37.94

Q1 Management
Part Number	Product Code	Description
T31094.01	DCNA	DCN Adapter C4.0

Connectors
Part Number	Product Code	Description
D-21470	Euro	Euro Connector 3×7

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

It was hoped to be a year of ‘getting back to normal’, but unexpected world events seem to keep coming. Consequently, we have had much to deal with this year, but as it draws to an end, it is once again a time for reflection, hopefully celebrating with friends and family.

Thanks for your continued interest and support in @YellowsBestLtd, we look forward to being in touch again in the forthcoming New Year.

We wish you all the best for the festive period.

Broken? Don’t give up hope!

Cable end connector stuck in iPhone / iPad

Here is a recent problem which would appear to be quite common. The end of the connector on a lightning cable was stuck inside the charging / accessory port. This worryingly appears to be a frequent occurrence resulting from the use of cheap, unbranded cables where the tip of the connector can break off, forming a staple-shaped piece, jamming itself into the iPhone or iPad. The result is that it is impossible to charge the device, unless the broken connector lead is retained, as it is the only one now small enough to fit into the accessory port.

This problem can render the expensive phone or tablet useless. For older out-of-warranty products it is potentially not worth a repair investigation and even with newer devices this may be classified as ‘accidental damage’, requiring extended insurance cover to avoid a significant resolution cost.

Happily, it may be possible to address the problem using the following simple technique:

Use a ultra-small, precision screwdriver. It needs to be small enough to easily fit inside the accessory port and be able to be levered across it’s width, whilst being sturdy enough not to bend or break.
Insert into the device’s accessory port, and position sideways across the width of the opening, such that the end of the tool is pressing on the inside of the port about half-way in / up.
Then, with an outwards ‘levering’ action, pull the broken connector piece out of the port.

If fortunate, this will remove the obstruction and return the device to an operational state. Naturally, success is not certain and there is the risk of causing further damage. Hence, particularly with newer devices, if you are not confident in your abilities then best to consult an electronics specialist or seek professional assistance from an approved repair centre.

The lesson from this experience is to purchase good quality, branded accessory leads and dispose of any cables where the connector shows signs of wear.

Maintenance of new and legacy systems

@Yellowsbestltd our mission is “Keeping Customers Operational”, by assisting with with the repair of parts for infrastructure systems. These are typically established, long-standing and therefore proven and fit-for-purpose. It makes sense to maintain and extend the life of these systems, as wholesale replacements will be costly and disruptive. This is particularly applicable when the service requirements have not changed, so functionality upgrades are not necessary.

We would be keen to hear from you should you have any repairs requirements. Please get in touch to let us know how we can help. By example, there follows a list of a few recent requests we have been able to assist with. We look forward to hearing from you with any feedback you may have.