Do all PowerPro headstocks have the same firmware?

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:51 pm

I am just curious because I hear people describing different issue that I have never seen. My firmware is "v9.02xa05 2010".

The firmware version is displayed very briefly when you first power up the machine, the only way I could capture it was to use my iPhone to take a photo, and it took three tries.

Is the firmware upgradeable?

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:47 pm

paulmcohen wrote:I am just curious because I hear people describing different issue that I have never seen. My firmware is "v9.02xa05 2010".

The firmware version is displayed very briefly when you first power up the machine, the only way I could capture it was to use my iPhone to take a photo, and it took three tries.

Is the firmware upgradeable?

I don't know from where but I am under the impression that it can be updated but only by sending your headstock to Shopsmith.

The very fact that it has a version number I think tells you it can be updated.

nuhobby · Post by **nuhobby** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:50 pm

My firmware rev. is the same as yours, but mine was one of the 1st 10 units shipped in 2010, so that's probably not the recent sample population you're wanting to hear from.

In the particular industry I work in, "firmware" is usually mask-fabricated memory code in an IC which cannot be upgraded. After this there are "patch codes" which usually can be field upgraded (flashed) via a serial bus, somewhat more involved than updating "calibrations." However these terms often overlap and aren't defined the same in each product industry.

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:27 am

nuhobby wrote:My firmware rev. is the same as yours, but mine was one of the 1st 10 units shipped in 2010, so that's probably not the recent sample population you're wanting to hear from.

In the particular industry I work in, "firmware" is usually mask-fabricated memory code in an IC which cannot be upgraded. After this there are "patch codes" which usually can be field upgraded (flashed) via a serial bus, somewhat more involved than updating "calibrations." However these terms often overlap and aren't defined the same in each product industry.

My unit is from late 2010, I don't remember the exact date. I worked for Intel for 26 years and still remember the first 2K EPROM, but I have not heard of masked ROMs in years. I thought they stopped making them in the 1990's. Even the microcode in microprocessors are mostly flash since shortly after the famous FDIV issue.