[TenTec] FW Update Problem w/O2

[Joe Giacobello]

Jim and Billy, thanks for your inputs, but I'm continuing to have both an exasperating and mysterious series of problems with the FW installation.

Apparently, those messages that I was receiving on the Orion screen were indicative of the FW code being loaded albeit at a very slow pace.  I went back and tried it again several times and on some occasions the transfer would stop at an early line and the update software would close.  The furthest I got before the transfer stopped was program flash 266.  The speed seemed to be erratic, but it was generally quite slow.  It made little difference whether I used hardware flow control or none and 57.6K speed or slower.  Even though I usually received the error message that there was no communication between update software and the Orion, the Orion display showed 

I am currently using a multi-serial port PCI card for serial ports.  It has worked flawlessly for several years with a number of different applications.  I tried Jim's suggestion of using a USB-to-serial adapter and his port settings, but there appeared to be nothing happening based on no info being displayed on the Orion screen.  I went back to the PCI serial port and now, unlike my earlier experiences, saw no info displayed on the screen that indicated data transfer (or anything else for that matter).  (So Jim's remedy may have been working, but I couldn't tell.)

Finally, I ran a serial port analyzer program and it showed that communication between the port and the Orion was established practically instantaneously, but then the data transfer slowed to a snail's pace when the update software started transferring code.  (This is when the error message about loss of communication is generated.  Apparently, it has slowed, but it has not stopped.)  One line of code was being transferred every 6-7 seconds.  I decided to allow the transfer to continue overnight and by this morning about half the code had been loaded and there are still no messages on the orion screen.

I haven't the vaguest idea why I'm having this problem.  It seems that most users have had no problems, although a small minority have had problems similar to mine.  I never had any problems loading Orion I FW with the same setup.  Really mysterious.

73, Joe
K2XX



/I had the same problem, others have mentioned it also.  I finally had to buy
a cheap USB to serial converter and use it.  I suspect that something in the
latest indows version doesn't like the older serial card I was using.  I
think some folks think it may be a Windows XP or Vista problem.  But also be
sure you have your serial port set to 57600 bps, no parity, hardware flow
control.  You do this in the Windows Device Manager, under COM and LPT
ports.  

-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]
On Behalf Of Joe Giacobello
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 5:35 PM
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] FW Update Problem w/O2

I have just been trying to install FW 2.041XL and have major problems.  
After starting the update, I first get an error message indicating that 
there's no communication with the radio.  If I repeat the update one or 
two more times, I finally get a message on the Orion screen that says 
"Erase Flash" which then switches to "Program Flash 1."  The number in 
that message continuously increments every 10 seconds or so, but nothing 
else happens.  I can stop the numbers from incrementing by just shutting 
down the update software.  So there must be some communication between 
the software and the O2.

I've tried both master resets and RAM clears w/o any effect, and I also 
re-downloaded the FW file.  I can't even re-install the original FW.  
Never had problems updating the original Orion.

Anyone seen anything similar or have any thoughts on what might be going on?/