[TenTec] FW Update Problem w/O2

Mon Mar 2 10:47:58 PST 2009

Ron, Peter and you were correct!  I went back and rechecked that the 
other radio on one of the other ports of the PCI card was still working 
and now it wasn't working.  I found a second, unused USB-to-serial 
adapter in my garage and installed it.  The update went forward 
flawlessly in 315 seconds.  I used 57.6 K speed and hardware flow 
control, but I don't know if that was essential.

I have to conclude that when I originally started the update, the serial 
port was not completely failed and there were some data flowing.  When I 
began switching serial ports, I must have damaged ports by hot plugging, 
as Peter suggested.  I will go back and recheck everything, but it looks 
like that PC card will have to be replaced and, maybe, that other 
USB-to-serial adapter that I first tried.

Thanks to all for your help.  All seems to be working fine now.

73, Joe
K2XX

Ron Castro wrote:
> This still sounds like a COM port problem in the computer.  I have 
> been using a USB to serial port converter for a couple of years and it 
> has worked perfectly on the my Orion II, a friend's 'original' v. 1x 
> Orion, my old TS-870, plus numerous other devices.
>
> FWIW, I found that all USB-to-serial converters are based on two 
> different chips...one seems to work all the time and the other is 
> flakey, but I don't know which one is which!  What I do know is that 
> the one made by "Cables To Go" works for me every time, so I bought 
> four of them and keep one everywhere I think I might need one.
>
> BTW, I use this on a Sony P-4 laptop with XP Pro.
>
>         Ron  N6IE
>      www.N6IE.com
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Giacobello" <k2xx at swva.net>
> To: <tentec at contesting.com>
> Cc: <jmiller1706 at cfl.rr.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 6:40 AM
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] FW Update Problem w/O2
>
>
>> 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?/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> TenTec at contesting.com
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