Firmware Download and Installation Instructions for the LEC Series Controllers

Initial Connection

When you first launch the LEC Device Manager, you will see a dialog that looks like this:

The main points of interaction are the 2 drop down boxes that are labeled “Device IP Address” and “Manage”.

The connection is initiated by selecting the device you want to update by clicking the down arrow of the “Device IP Address” box. If the LEC (or Maestro) is powered on and connected to the same network as the PC running the LEC Device Manager, then this list should have the name and MAC address of your LEC controller.

Once you have a board selected, you can proceed to the operation you wish to perform on the controller.

In the sample image above, the LEC controller is in the LEC-2 family, but these instructions work for both LEC-1 and LEC-2 based products.

Backing Up the Current Firmware

When you have a board selected in the Device IP Address box, you can select the type of operation in the Manage drop down. For the firmware backup and upgrade, you want to choose “Firmware” from the list presented.

You will then see the application change to this interface:

From here you can choose to either backup the current firmware or install new firmware. Notice that the default behavior is to keep the user settings – this is what the “Preserve User settings” checkbox in the lower left is for. To do a “clean update” you should uncheck this box before continuing.

Backing up

The backup button will present a dialog box asking for a location. This is where the backup will be made to. In the end, you will have a .lcf file that contains the firmware and settings as they were arranged on the controller at backup time.

This of course can be ‘restored’ to the board at any point by using the Update.

Updating

Before you update the controller, you need to decide if you want to keep your customized settings, or if you want to do a ‘clean’ install. The default is to preserve your laser / lens / job files, but if you want to do a clean install, then uncheck the box “Preserve User settings” in the lower left before pressing the Update button.

To update the controller, press the “Update” button. You will be prompted for the firmware file that you want installed. The firmware files have the extension of .lcf, and are specific for different version of platforms. See the section on Platform Types for more information about what firmware goes onto which platform.

Platform Types

There are presently 2 different families of LEC controllers – which are named LEC-1 and LEC2. The LEC-1 has 10 years of experience and has had 1 major update in that time frame.

The 2 LEC-1 different platforms have different firmware version lineages, so if you are updating an LEC1, you need to know which platform you are targeting so you know what firmware is OK to use.

The LEC-2 is a newer generation of the LEC product line, and has no major updates now, so therefore only has 1 platform type and one firmware lineage.

All together there are 3 platforms – 2 for the LEC1, and 1 for the LEC2, and therefore there are 3 different lines of firmware. The table below shows the version numbers that are supported for each platform type.