Nhassey48

On 17/01/2021 at 12:59, dhinson919 said:

Unfortunately Sky Watcher has left its customers in the dark with respect to the newer HC updates.  The reason the firmware loader can't find the device is because they haven't supplied the needed virtual COM port driver for the USB chip in the HC.  Fortunately this is easily corrected without their "support".

- Go to Device Manager and under "Other devices" you should see one named "USB-Serial Controller D".  You'll notice it has a yellow triangle beside it.  (Bad.)
- Right click on it and select Properties.  Under the General tab in the default status windows you'll see "The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)".  This is the root cause of the problem.
- Click the Details tab and select the Hardware Ids property.  This string is how the USB device identifies itself to the host.  The host then tries to find a driver for this but it cannot.  So we'll have to go hunting for one.
- Copy the string and Google it.  You'll see a link for "PL2303 Windows Driver Download USB to UART RS232 Serial" at prolific.com.tw.  This sounds promising.
- Clicking on it should take you to a download page for PL23XX_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v204.zip.  Download it, check it for viruses (my AVG Free found none), then unzip it somewhere.
- You'll find PL23XX-M_LogoDriver_Setup_v204_20201208.exe.  This is the chipset driver installer.  Run it.
- When it's finished look at Device Manager again.  The "USB-Serial Controller D" has been transformed to "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COMx)" where COMx is the virtual COM port where the device is now listening.
- You can confirm this by running PL23XX_checkChipVersion_v1020.exe in the unzipped files.  Set the COM port to the value indicated in the name and the result should be "This is a PL-2303 SA chip".  Bingo!
- Now run SynScan Firmware Loader (Ver. 3.3 in my case) and leave Auto-detect COM port checked.  It should find it automatically and start the firmware loading.  I was able to update from 04.39.06 to 04.39.15.

Thank you, Prolific.

This worked perfectly! Thank you!

On 15/01/2021 at 12:22, paul mc c said:

Did it work....

It worked! Thanks. Camped outside with the kiddos all night thanks to you. Much appreciated. And wouldn't you know, today the website is working. lol.

You are a life saver! Thank you so much!

Nate

Every link on their website gives me the same error. I cant even look at products. The home page works fine though.

Hello, I am new here and just recently bought a ZWO ASI224MC camera. When I try to go to the link to download the drivers, I get a "404 server not found" error. Does anyone know of a source where I can get the drivers for this camera other than ZWO's website? Or guidance on making the ZWO site work? Thanks!

Nate