Common VCI-100 Firmware Questions

[midifidler]

@Mycole

Glad to hear you found a cable which worked. Ill check out the LEDs on my VCI when I get home, I'm pretty sure the header which you have to remove to fit the vci update is the cable which connects to the jog whell LEDs.

[caliborn_g]

I got this message previously when I was using the incorrect COM port. Check your Device Manager under Ports (COM &LPT) to see which COM ports are available on your system. You can get to your device manager by going to the Control Panel ->System, click on the Hardware tab and then click Device Manager. By using a COM port listed here, I believe you should at least get past this issue.

Hope this helps...

THANKS MICPHONO!! That's exactly what I needed to do! Unfortunately, immediately after updating my firmware my laptop crashed... all signs point to a dead HD (WTF, right?). I'm using my macbook, but cant even try out the upgrade until I resolve this new, much more expensive, issue..

[B33SON]

So I'm embarrassed to say my jog wheel issue was caused by an ill adjusted jog wheel sensitivity knob. It was just up too high so that whenever I touched the jog wheel it wouldn't turn off again. I turned it down and everything works fine now. Thanks Midifidler!

[MicPhono]

Alright I got my issues out of the way and was able to upgrade tonight. In the end the issue was my serial cable. I had a female to female 9-pin serial cable and bought a gender changer so I could connect it to the upgrade board. The cable itself worked but I think the gender changed is bad. I went to Fry's today and bought a $3.99 male to female 9 pin serial cable and everything worked without any issues.

I'll post in the successful upgrade thread as well.

THanks!!!

[B33SON]

I went to Fry's today and bought a $3.99 male to female...

I think you can get those in the tenderloin too.

[Steel]

There are two types of a DB9 serial cable. The one that you should use is called modem cable and the other one is called null modem- or crossover-cable.
A null modem cable use to be female to female and a modem cable use to be male to female.
With a null modem connection the transmit and receive lines are crosslinked.
If you try to use a null modem cable you will get an error when writing the firmware.
Therefore use a regular DB9 serial modem cable and NOT a null modem cable.

[DaHesu]

Thanks Steel and everyone else.
I was trying to upgrade using a null modem cable with a gender changer but i had all the problems described above.
Went out yesterday and got a proper serial cable, and everything worked flawlessly. Now i just have to figure out how to use the new configs.

Thank you everyone for your help - this thread really hepled.

/D

[miyuru]

I just wanted to say that you must power the VCI using a USB cable, as using a power adapter will not work (at least it did not work for me, despite the lights being lit up and everything).

EDIT: I mean when you're powering the VCI during the flash.

[EanGolden]

Thanks Steel and everyone else.
I was trying to upgrade using a null modem cable with a gender changer but i had all the problems described above.
Went out yesterday and got a proper serial cable, and everything worked flawlessly. Now i just have to figure out how to use the new configs.

Thank you everyone for your help - this thread really hepled.

/D

Thanks for the posts guys, could you please post the exact error you received when using a null modem changer? Then i can post that in the common problem thread.

[rcolbourne]

How to adjust FDT to work with USB to Serial cables. In the directory which you installed FDT, there will be a file called "FDTAdvancedSetup.exe". You can use this file to adjust the delays sent by FDT.

Essentially, a USB connection is way quicker than a serial connection and as such, sometimes your connection will be too quick for the software. The connection gets ahead of the instructions and the instructions get lost resulting in time outs.

So, back to FTDAdvancedSetup... go into this, you will see two boxes you can click on: "connection settings" and "configure serial port...". Click the "configure serial port..." box. In here, you will see a box "enable serial port delay fix". You want to make sure that's checked. Then where it says delay value, enter 1000 or something (1000 worked for me, you may need to go higher depending on the cable). Disregard where it says the lower the value the better, that doesn't really apply to us as we're just downloading the file, not doing live programming.

This should fix all those time outs and connection errors when using a USB to serial adapter.