I just loaded the new update to my 970 Pre-Amp. Like many people my PC does not have a serial port. Outlaw recommends only loading the firmware via a real serial port. I had read a post in the 1070 forum that people were successful in loading over a USB - Serial adapter. So I have a good (Belkin) USB/Serial adapter and I figured that I would be fine. I was able to successfuly load the update, but it took 9 hours (Yes, 9 Hours)! The tx and rx lights on my adapter only flashed every 4 seconds. I count myself lucky that I didn't make an expensive brick. Luckily the update went through all the phases.

Regards,

Charlie

Very interesting report, brubacca.

That is nuts. My update went very quickly via a regular RS-232 port. However, it took me a good 20 minutes to find my cable. Haven't used it since I moved into the house 6 years ago. I actually was scared that I had given it away and I would very very unhappy if I had to purchase one again.

Yes, it was nuts and not something that I would try again. The great irony is that about two weeks later I moved my regular home PC out to the HT and it is going to stay there. Any future update I will be able to use the real serial port.


Regards,

Charlie

From DVDO link on the 1070 thread: "Other USB to Serial Adapters may also work but they must be based on the FTDI chipset. Some popular brands that are not suitable are Belkin, Keyspan, Prologis and Codi."

And even the FTDI ones seem to have a problem now with most recent driver. So, the only sure way is to use an adapter using the FTDI chipset with a denigrated driver.

These USB to Serial converter problems are not limited to Outlaw products. I have many issues with these converters when I connect to Cisco and other vendor routers/switches at work.

Problem is many of these converters EMULATE a serial port and don't really comply with the 16550 serial communication standards.

Best bet is to try and connect to a hardware based serial port on a PC.