Purchasing a Pro-Lite PL-M2014RThe best deal that I've seen for geting a Pro-Lite PL-M2014R is from CostCo, a warehouse discount store that serves the general public.The cost is usually $149.95. What's important to note is that not all signs are equal. The Pro-Lite sign has the capability for Trivia, which expands the sign's memory to 32K of available user space. And while the sign has communication abilitities for 300 baud by default, there is a chip that can be purchased from Pro-Lite that will bump this up to 9600 baud. CostCo has a mix batch of signs, and they can't tell them apart. A little examination of the box, and possibly a little buy'n'return, can get you a full scale sign for $149.95. That is to say, CostCo's sign is a grab-bag: you could end up with a non-Trivia 300-baud sign, or you could end up with Trivia and the 9600 upgrade (or some combination thereof). "My CostCo Is Out of Stock"I suggest trying another CostCo. Call around.Puchasing a sign directly from Pro-Lite will cost $250. You'll spend less in gas if you just drive out of state to find a CostCo that caries them. Be warned, however, that most CostCo stores that don't have them in immediate inventory are waiting "the new and improved" version of the sign. Don't get one! They are not and improvement. "I belong to SAM's club; can I get one there?"No.SAMs carries the competitor product, BetaBrite. These signs appear to be superior in scrolling techonolgy and features, costing just $149.95 at SAMs, but the catch is that BetaBrite has not gone out of its way to make their protocol publically available like Pro-Lite has. As such, I've received many letters from people who returned their perfectly good BetaBrite sign and switched to Pro-Lite just in order to use the sign with a computer. The moment BetaBrite catches on, they could steal virtually all Pro-Lite computer business overnight. There's a big difference between having to buy software because you bought a sign verses wanting to drop money on a sign because you already have the software. "Can I buy one from directly Pro-Lite?"Yes, but expect to pay about $100 more for the sign. Pro-Lite seems to want to deal with distributors rather than the general public.You should be careful when buying directly from Pro-Lite, most likely you will get the newer ROM which has less features than that of the version 5.24Q ROM. I know people in the past who have contacted Pro-Lite and asked for an older ROM. If so, you might need to know how to change the ROM chip yourself. On a futher note, I am aware of one individual who wrote me stating that Pro-Lite was willing to sell him a sign for $150, if all other avenues didn't pan out. However, I believe he had to email the company in advance and ask. Special OffersIf you do deal with Pro-Lite directly, by phone or by email, please tell them you heard about their sign on Walt Stoneburner's web page or by his article in the June 1999 Linux Journal.I get nothing personally out of mentioning my name, however you might -- I've been trying to convince them that the computer market is an untapped resource that they should go after. There was talk about making a computer-driven version only of the sign, with special low-level features useful to programmers. So far, this has not panned out. Meanwhile, if you're in the market for a BetaBrite sign, Pacesetter Communications is offering a special deal to developers that mention these web pages. Check it out, here.
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