I guess I’ll clarify with an olive branch:
What I asked the original vendor was what changed on 2017 models that impacted the dongle design. I also offered some way to compensate them for the information with technical communication.
He responded rudely, which wasn’t necessary and impeded what was a good phone call. He’s entitled to his secrecy and protecting the value of his work, but his work relied on mine and I felt at least a calm statement to decline would have been professionally courteous.
I then took my question to Brandon who talked through the pin removal and we discussed what options there might be for dongle functionality on newer models. I’ll leave out the rest of that discussion but I went and checked myself with someone else’s assistance and found verifiable facts I could print.
This process is what I go through to ensure I don’t publish rumor or biased interpretations. It doesn’t often succeed, but all I did was ask for information and got a rude response unnecessarily.
FWIW I tested the dongle carefully myself and find the DigiNow version to be more reliable for sure. I still use the DigiNow version.
I would not have spelled all that out normally, but the absurd comments here pretty much demanded I drop the secrecy. I speak opaquely to protect people, including vendors. Those vendors seem to count negative feedback crazily differently from endorsements, but do not understand how they earn that, and don’t encourage healthy conversations. So this political dance is what you get.