firmware update - lack of any progress indicator

[JMB]

Hi,

I just downloaded NetEdit 3.8, ran the live update and set about updating the firmware in a couple of ECOM100s (one H0 and one H2) that I have.  After clicking Yes on the confirmation dialog it appears as if nothing happens.  The first time I tried this, I managed to crash NetEdit (I think by clicking Scan Network but I'm not entirely sure).  The ECOM100 that I was updating then reported a firmware version 0.0.0.0 when I restarted.  Ran through a second time, touching nothing and eventually received the Success messagebox. 

This is fair enough but I did want to ask if there is supposed to be some sort of progress indicator that I'm not seeing.  If not, would it be possible to put adding one on the NetEdit development queue?  I do realize that NetEdit is free software so there are probably more pressing, paying activities for your developers but I thought I'd ask.

Thanks,
Jacob

PS - I'm a huge fan of the ECOM/ECOM100 cards so thanks very much for developing them.

[BobO]

Yes...something is amiss and I'm not completely sure what's up. I've seen the same thing.

We are definitely waist deep in the MX PLC project right now, but we really shouldn't ignore the issue. We'll look into it immediately and try to get a fix shortly.

[BobO]

Oh yes, it's bigtime broke. We had planned to add a status dialog...but it ain't there...at all. I forgot. Which wouldn't be a big deal, except that it really wants to be there...and behaves poorly when it isn't. Also found another bit of nastiness related to the same changes.

New bits shortly...

[JMB]

Thanks very much for your quick reply.  I look forward to downgrading and re-upgrading my firmware when a fix becomes available.

Jacob

[BobO]

It is fixed, but we are still doing some testing. We will hopefully have something to post tomorrow.

The fix(es) were not too difficult...but...we were trying to do some long overdue maintenance at the same time. NetEdit has historically been compiled with a long out-of-date version of Microsoft Visual Studio. In the process of porting from the very old to the reasonably new, a number of things changed that had nothing to do with the bugs in question. After much hair pulling today, I think it is finally stable. If after a bit more testing tomorrow it is still stable, we'll post it.

Thanks for you patience.

As an aside: The version you have will still successfully update the firmware. The crazy workaround for bug #1 is to keep moving your mouse over NetEdit's window while the update is running. As odd as that sounds, it will keep pumping messages and allow the update to complete successfully. Bug #2 is a stack corruption that will happen immediately after completion of the firmware upgrade. No workaround for that, but it is after the fact and less critical.

[JMB]

I feel your pain.  I have a Windows 3.1 / Win95 era MFC application that I have been trying to convert to use a more modern Visual Studio.  It took considerable effort just to get it to actually compile without errors.  Making sure that there is no data corruption in the move from 16 -> 32 bits is a whole other issue.

I knew that the current NetEdit would update the firmware successfully.  The fact that it requires mouse movements to keep its message pump running explains why it would never complete when I started an update and then switched away to another program but would then finish almost immediately when I switched back to see what it was doing.  I hadn't noticed anything that might be the result of the stack corruption but then I wasn't doing much with it beyond updating the firmware and then shutting down.

Thanks,
Jacob

[BobO]

I believe that 3.8a has been posted.

[JMB]

The new version works well.  I particularly like the status message (it's nice to see what the device is actually doing during an update).  Thanks again for your swift attention to this.

Jacob