Are firmware release notes posted anywhere?

[chuckd]

Anytime we get a new version of the LOR PC software, it has accompanying release notes telling us what's fixed or new. Does the same thing exist for the controller firmware? I'm having some weird sporadic display problems, and am wondering if upgrading firmware in those boxes will help.

Thanks,

Chuck

[-klb-]

Firmware release notes have been asked for before, but I am not aware of any that have been formally documented, short of some minimal info that has been posted here about the new features supported under the latest three releases.

4.40 - Supports CTB16PC V2, and latest CTB16D
4.32 - Adds support for NC triggers on CTB16PC (and others?)
4.30 - Adds support for fading shimmer and twinkle

4.02 was shipping on CTB16PC in 2007?

As a personal observation, either 4.30 or 4.32 must have made some change in triac triggering or zero detection that smoothed out fading with some LED strings.

[chuckd]

I've got some 4.01 version controllers that have some weird flickering problems at times. There seems to be some concern that updating firmware when the controllers are in a network can be a problem. Plus, updating during the 'show season' just goes against my better judgement, unless I'd be confident of a fix.

If it's recommended to take the units offline and upgrade individually, then I'm out of luck this year (there's about 40+ units with 4.01 firmware).

[-klb-]

I upgraded 8 controllers here on the side of the house, while they were all connected. It is probably safer to do them individually, but it is not a no no to do them while chained. The no no is trying to upgrade over an ELL.

I did have one upgrade fail due to com problems. When I rescanned the network (the one controller) it came back as something like 08-CTB-Bootloader. After I rebooted the PC to resolve the USB com problem, I was able to download the firmware correctly.

Are your issues primarily the flicker, or do you have other items going on?

[rwertz]

I did all 4 controllers that were on my network last year with no trouble. I've also heard several people say they've done larger networks with no trouble. But it is a little scarry. Be sure you don't have 2 controllers set to the same address (to mirror each other).

The reason I did the firmware update was a flicker issue like yours, and it did fix it (after trying everything else I could think of). I don't even think it was a different version, just a fresh upload.

[Guest wbottomley]

I did all 32 of mine while on the network.

No problems here.

[Dale]

I was having weired light problems after upgrading to the new LOR software so I tried to upgrade the firmware while all the units where still connected and i hosed 3 units after going back and upgrading the firmware one at a time all is better now and with the new firmware all the weird light problems went away



Dale L

[chuckd]

The last few days I've seen in the middle of the day with no show running, quite a few strands on one of my mega trees flickerng or stuck on. These strands are attached to nearly 10 different 1602's.

Also, they flash at odd times during the show. These are all 4.01. The 4.3's work fine. They're spread all over that network segment, so I don't think it's a network issue.

[-klb-]

If you are willing to take the risk of having to pull, or upgrade by laptop one controller, I would probably (from rough memory) start upgrading the controllers in place, with the one closest (by cable) to the show PC first, and work outward. With a little luck, you make it all the way through the chain, with no issues. By doing it in that order, you hopefully maximize the number of controllers upgraded before you hit that one that is a problem.

[chuckd]

Well, I'm happy to report that I spent the afternoon updating all 40 of my 4.01 boxes to 4.30 (the 'good' boxes are running 4.30, so why go beyond that for now?), and I had a 100% success rate with upgrading them in-place.

It did make me a bit nervous doing that all at once this time of year, but we'll see if my weird problems go away.