[Elecraft] Firmware updates

[Phil Wheeler]

Consider making your Mac dual boot, Ray -- if it 
will support the newer OS. 10.5.8 is ancient (I 
reckon you need Rosetta for the old apps) and many 
applications no longer support it.

73, Phil W7OX

On 3/31/14, 4:31 PM, Ray Sills wrote:
> I've seen the occasional mention by someone who, 
> when trying to update firmware, comes up with an 
> error.. e.g. there recent "I've bricked my K3" 
> posting.  And part of the advice to remedy that 
> is to make sure that you have the latest version 
> of the Utility.
>
> Well, just for fun, I downloaded the latest 
> version of the KX3 Utility,  HOWEVER.... it does 
> not run on my computer.  Apparently, my OS is 
> "too old" to run the Utility.   Now, I 
> understand that there are reasons to update the 
> utility, because it may have more tasks to perform.
> But, it seems odd to me that I'd need a newer OS 
> to run that application.  After all, the job of 
> the Utility it to locate, either on the web, or 
> on a local drive, the files that it needs to 
> send them to the rig.  I can't believe that 
> there needs to be some extra OS feature for 
> simple serial communication from one device to 
> another.
>
> So, I would like to request that the software 
> gurus at Elecraft make a special effort to make 
> the Utilities "backwards" compatible with as 
> many variants of an OS as possible.  In my case, 
> I use the Mac version of the KX3 Utility, and my 
> OS is 10.5.8.  I can't believe that there is 
> some critical component that is not in my OS, 
> that -is- in the next revision.  It may be that 
> in authoring the latest Utility, it was simply 
> compiled by a machine running a later OS, and 
> therefore the generated code was "stamped" with 
> the requirement to have that OS to run.
>
> This is important to me, because I do not want 
> to "upgrade" my OS (even to the new "free" 
> Mavericks) because to do so will cost me a 
> number of applications which will no longer run 
> on my particular machine.  There's nothing wrong 
> with my KX3, but it would be nice to be able to 
> update the firmware, perhaps adding a feature 
> I'd like to have.  But, I can't do that now.  
> I'll be "stuck" with older firmware.
>
> 73 de Ray
> K2ULR
> KX3 #211