Mercury II & serial port

[teched]

I have not been able to download the channel information from the STB to the computer.

I have a Mercury II and female-female null modem cable (FFDP9NullMod). Using the software from the Mercury II page on the Fortec Star site, "Channel Editor v.1.0", I get only a message instructing my to try powering off and on the STB.

I am using a usb-serial adaptor on a laptop running Windows XP Professional. I have tried it configured as both COM2 and COM4. I use this adaptor frequently for work, typically at 2400, 9600, 38400, 57600 or 115200.

Is anyone using this software with this receiver and finding success?

Also, are the protocol specifications available for this receiver - is serial control possible in addition to programming?

Receiver info:
S/W Version V1.06
H/W Version V1.00
Loader Version V1.00

[pmb1010]

I'd suggest finding a computer with a real serial port and giving it another try.

The software can be fussy if it doesn't see real serial port hardware.
I have not tried it with a USB converter, but I sure would not want to risk hosing up my receiver in an attempt to try...

[teched]

Originally Posted by pmb1010

The software can be fussy if it doesn't see real serial port hardware.

Please tell me more about what you have seen with this receiver and this software.

Thanks.

[pmb1010]

I can only relate what I've seen with a Lifetime Ultra, and the factory software to update the firmware in the receiver

(found here) ==> Download

I used this software to upload new firmware to my Lifetime Ultra when it did not respond right to USALS commands and a motor. I was quite nervous about the warnings concerning the warrenty, and wrecking the unit by jamming up the thing up with incompatable hardware. Had to do something, the motor just wasn't working to expectations with the relatively new release of the Ultra hardware.

I did try to work on channel editor software, but I didn't see much benefit to it since what I had was OK at the time.

The procedure was easy. Hooked up computer, XP tower clone computer running XP, 1.6Ghz pentium system with 512mb memory. Very typical system. But it did have standard serial ports. Connected the F-F cable as you describe, and make sure the factory software would read the receiver. I figured that if it could read it OK, more than half the battle was done. Used the software to find the new BIN file, and sent it to the box. Reset it with factory code (1668 I think) and it worked with my USALS motor so all was well.

Other on the forum use, and have discussed channel editor software but I've found no need to use it. Maybe thats what you're talking about - if so maybe they can chime in and talk about the how's and why's they use that. Sorting and renaming channels displayed is probably the reason - but i'll defer that to those that use that stuff to say so...

With the use of USB to serial port converts, well some ham radio software ("packet radio") software was very fussy and did not operate right using these devices. Also some radio control did not work right.
It's really hit and miss and depends on how well (or bad i guess) the software is created.
regards...

[wejones]

I know that a lot of people have problems with USB-serial converters, and I have had these problems with some software, however I've been using the Fortec programs for my Lifetime and Ultra with USB-serial converters with no problems. I have 2 of the converters, a real old one, I think it's IOGEAR or something like that, and a newer one that I think came from RS. I think that the RS thing gave me some problems with some software, because it seems to insist on being on high port numbers like 5 or 6 that some software doesn't support, however my old IOGEAR thing has worked with everything I've tried on it, and it lets me choose low port numbers if I like. The RS devise actually lets me change the port number, but it only seems to work well on the one it chooses automatically for some reason.

[teched]

Tried the "real" serial port on the dock of the new laptop without success, but I didn't research it further as I was able to establish serial communication with an older laptop running Windows 98 using ChEditorForM2 from Fortec Star. Either the page offered different software this week or I clicked on the wrong stuff last week.

Also managed to "void my warranty" (it would be nice if new receivers came with a current firmware and a complete changelog was available listing all firmware features/revisions) by upgrading to the 12/20 firmware from Fortec Star.

A subsequent power outage put a halt to my efforts for this weekend.

[DougRuss]

I just updated(yesterday) my "MercuryII" Receiver with the new 1.3 1Version. Everything went well, but when I went to download the "ChEditor" software,I got a Error message. Tried it twice and had the same error msg.( I think it said "Wrong Unit" or something?)