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Alan,

Make certain that the 1/8” jumper cable is stereo.

Also, make sure that, when you insert the cable, that the TIU is not receiving power,. It must be powered up with the cable in place.


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the MTH Consumer Loader V5.0.0  comes up as the "Conumer Loader". So you can tell from the start that this program was written by grammar school level programmers who don't bother with spell check!!

This is the worse most frustrating program I have ever used and not just because it doesn't work consistently.  It cannot find the Com port it is connected to and seems to be hung up on COM 1; irrespective of the USB Port to which it is connected. It doesn't allow you to pick the port.

The really odd thing is that it found the TIU for the remotes but suddenly can seem to find the very same port for sending code to the TIUs.

So I am stuck with version 6.1 on the Remotes and version 5 on the TIUs. 

It is understandable that there are a lot of enthusiasts that are going back to operating without the fancy-made made electronics because of the poorly written software. 

STILL FRUSTRATED.

When you power on the TIU with the stereo cable plugged in, the red light won't blink at all. If that red light blinks, you need to check your stereo cable.

Thousands of TIU's have been upgraded by Conumer Loader without the frustrating issues you have described. The program does allow you to choose which serial port your TIU is connected to. Look under the OPTIONS menu item and then select Serial Port. If you have a bunch of Bluetooth virtual serial ports it will take the program a while to scan those ports to determine which ones are active.

I don't like using the "Auto" COM Port selection, as I have many virtual Com Ports on my computer and it takes forever to find my TIU. I prefer to select the Com port I know my TIU is connected to. I assume that you are connected to the TIU with a USB cable and it can be tricky to identify exactly with COM Port your computer created to access the TIU.  This same information applies when connecting a USB to Serial adapter into your computer for the pre-version L TIU's.

You'll need to go to your device manager and expand Ports (COM & LPT).
Take note of what is listed and then plug in your TIU and see what changes, the new COM port number is the one you want to select in the CONUMER LOADER, from the Options drop down menu serial port setting.

Also remember that MS Windows will track the which USB port you plug your TIU into. If you plug your TIU into a different USB port, Windows will create a new COM Port to access it.

 

Last edited by H1000

FRUSTRATION LEVEL REDUCED 2/3rds.

After repeating the process a number of times, I finally got the program to upgrade on a specific COM port ( not COM 1) for two(2) of the TIUs  (YEAH!)

On the version G TIU no success; the stereo cable is new.  My tries did NOT allow me to SELECT the COM port as it continues to show COM 1;

I just plugged my  USB connector into various USB ports on my PC.  the program will not find the specific port ( even when I try that feature)  just says COM 1 each time.

Ken (see above) will try to do this for me . . .  thank you Ken.

I still think that this LOADER needs work. I used be a software developer and wrote engineering design software for civil/structural engineers. Well written software even complex software needs to be easy to use and a bit intuitive knowing how the user is likely to use the software. I don't think the LOADER qualifies on all counts. 

I think your PC needs some work.

What shows up in Device Manager? Does the USB to Serial dongle appear in under Ports (COM & LPT)? What new serial port number shows up?

Again if you have any Bluetooth devices that create virtual Com Ports, it will take the loader a while to determine which ports are active. The program will almost freeze while it waits for Windows to report this information to the Loader software.

Please don't expect the loader software to find the Com Port if Windows (which provides access to the Com Port for the loader) doesn't recognize it first.

Below is a screenshot from the software of where the serail port setting is located. Sorry but the computer I am currently using only has one physical serail port (COM 1) and I don't have any other ports to demonstrate how this list can be populated.

dcsserport

 When i get access to my laptop, I will post a new picture with a more complex array of Com Port options.

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Last edited by H1000

Here is a shot from my laptop that I use to upgrade my TIU's. Many of these are virtual ports created by bluetooth devices and the MS Bluetooth stack takes quite a while to actually show me this list of ports.

ldr2

I have a lot of trouble using the AUTO setting because the Loader software randomly scans each available port and take forever to finally reach COM1 which is a physical 9 pin port on my laptop (hard to find laptop with these 9 pin ports on them anymore).

I know my TIU is on COM1 I select it, and it works every time.

My only gripe with the software is that when you close it, it won't save the com port setting.

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  • ldr2
gunrunnerjohn posted:

Go into Device Manager and uninstall all those phantom ports, it'll speed the process.

When I installed the The Bluetooth devices, it actually installed two ports per one device. The first port is used for outgoing requests and the second one is used for incoming requests. For example, COM8 & COM9 are used for an RTK GPS reciever. If I remove COM8, it'll cause the entire connection to fail when I use the Bluetooth link for that device.

The loader software won't ever scan the COM ports that are listed as "unavailable" it rather looks for a connection on the communication (COM9) port which then invokes the MS Bluetooth stack to attempt a Bluetooth connection on the outgoing port (COM8). This is where the waiting starts and drags on forever. There really isn't a way around this other than specify in the Loader which port to use.

Even when I click on the Serial Port icon in the loader to see what ports are available, it takes about 50 seconds to get the list. The program goes unresponsive during this time.

 

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