Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Download to 861 fails

I have good communication between my 861 and my computer so I thought I would add a few thoughts. I have two serial ports and four comm ports available on my windows 98 computer. I personally use comms port four for my communication to the 861, as I dedicate that port to it. I remember a few years ago there was a software release that had suggested settings for the comms port. Of special interest was a suggestion to set the maximum bits per second to 38400 in the port settings section of the comms port used ( in my case four). I got noticeably more reliable results using 38400 and have used it since. For what it is worth, since I have two serial ports, I leave one hooked up and available for the 861 at all times.

The other thing that I do is always perform a fetch before doing a send. I find that if the 861 will successfully perform a fetch, it will perform a send immediately after it. If the fetch doesn't work, I turn the 861 off and then on and that usually does the trick.

I also use 38,400 bps and find it to be no more or less reliable than the slower speeds.

The problem is with Win2K/XP and their communication library. It works fine on ME/98SE/98/95.

The library they use is 16-bit and very old.

There is hope. At least one of them is now running XP, so they will experience what we experience. Before that I don't believe anyone was running XP. Companies standardize on an OS and software and stay with it for a long time.

Older engineering apps are DOS based and don't always work under Win2k/XP. New versions of the same apps don't always support designes created on old versions (D0S) of the apps either. Then there is the cost of engineering apps. Yikes!

[This message has been edited by sspears (edited 02-03-2003).]

My 2 cents:

Why don't they write a java based app or do it in HTML. This way, the app can run on Apple, Unix, Windooze and the lot. Better even, create a built in webserver and connect through ethernet. Look at how cable modems, printservers are configured.

This would solve all the issues of connecting and it would be much more user friendly for other users. I have always gone through loads of effort getting my 561 connected to my apple powerbook. It works fine but it is such a hassle. Virtual PC isn't exactly quick either.

Just a thought...

Does Meridian's music server use ethernet?

[This message has been edited by richardkrol (edited 02-03-2003).]

Meridian's music server is apparently based on the imerge products. those support ethernet, so presumably Meridian's offering will.
http://www.imerge.co.uk/products/improductshtml/ipmain.html

but that doesn't mean they'll all of a sudden have the tech to do 800/861 stuff via ethernet.

doody.

The complexcity will go up when you want a ethernet connection. You have to have a IP stack for communication. You cannot compare a amplifier directly to a cable modem or printserver, as they already have a network layer and IP stack.

Jaco

[This message has been edited by jaco (edited 02-04-2003).]

I have also experienced this failure on my 861.v2 with BOTH Win98SE and XP on 2 different laptops. So, until a must have software revision or new card installation comes along, I do any tweaking right at the 861, rather than by laptop. This really hasn't presented any problems, as my overall configuration hasn't significantly changed since 2.8 was (fitfully) uploaded.