Reason to upgrade to 4.20 question

I think you just answered your own question Walt?

Rod

I sorta had to upgrade after one of my two remotes, which was sent to MTH for repair, came back upgraded to 4.20.  Did the other remote and both TIU upgrades without any problems.  Didn't really notice any difference in performance.

Walt,

In your case no. 4.2 added features for PS3 engines only.  Now down the road there may be a reason to upgrade to the next revision level of software.

Steve

Thanks guys for confirming that no one has found any secret improvements in 4.20 that weren't known when first released.

I've worked in software for 30 years and I know that there are occasions where an unexpected benefit can arise, typically found by clients asking why it wasn't documented.

So I thought I'd check back in to see.

Again, thanks - walt

Walt,

   I am in the same position you are, until I order a new remote, which Barry has indicated is scheduled to come out later this year, I will pass on the upgrade.

When I get my new remote, I will probably either get a new TIU or up grade my 4.1.

I am really looking forward to the redesigned hand held remote, and I have a hunch

I will be required to upgrade to use it, especially if they are going to make another TIU revision.

PCRR/Dave

Dave,

which Barry has indicated is scheduled to come out later this year, I will pass on the upgrade.

The remote is very tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2013, not 2012.

I have a 4.2 TIU / Remote.  I purchased a second remote which has 4.0.  Do I need to upgrade that 2nd remote to 4.2?

Although you might not have problems, you also might.

Further, 4.0 has a particularly ugly bug that affects adding engines that was fixed in 4.10, and 4.20 has features (e.g., Recover Engine) that 4.0 does not.

Barry,

Are you "hinting" that there ARE reasons that I should consider upgrading from 4.10 to 4.20, like the recover engine feature???  BTW: isn't that feature already in 4.10 (sorry, never had to use it so I don't know if it's there or not).

thanks - walt (again!)

Walt,

I was responding to Ron's post, not yours. You wouldn't really derive any benefit from 4.2 over 4.1, since the Recover Engine feature was introduced in 4.1.

The only benefit you would get is that if you were talking to MTH about an issue, there's a good chance that the tech would require that you first upgrade to 4.2 to see if that cures for problem, since MTH should not be expected to support past DCS releases.

As a matter of fact, I might also make the same stipulation if I was handed a problem to resolve.

HMMM!  That is one interesting comment!!!!

thanks - walt

Walt,

That is one interesting comment!!!!

Why do you say that?

It's not uncommon for any software tech support to only support the latest release after it's been out for awhile, as has 4.20. This is especially true with smaller companies, such as MTH.

Newer software releases often correct bugs without documenting al of them.

"Interesting" in the sense that it makes me think that I should upgrade even though there may be no real and KNOWN reason for me to do so.  I didn't realize that was MTH's attitude.

As I mentioned, I worked in systems for 30 years and we at times had 4 or 5 versions of our customer-interface code in use, including web applications that we converted customers to on a request basis.  We had to support all questions and not just tell customers "well, I can only answer your question after you upgrade".  Of course that was in a business environment and not a toy train environment, but toy trains are still business as far as I've heard.

Barry, as to your comment about "unknown fixes" (as I also mentioned earlier), I was hoping that if I upgrade it might resolve the run-away train issue that I had with 4.10 this past Christmas that you became aware of.  That's what prompted me to start this thread!!!

- walt

Walt, most of our vendors EOL code by date.  So, I can except support for n years after a release, but not forever.  I don't know how long 4.2 has been out.

For modern consumer gadgets: If you were to call for support on a Blue-Ray player, for instance, they would require me to upgrade the firmware before discussing the problem.  And then if the upgrade did not fix the problem, I would be screwed until some other update did fix it :-)  So, I just upgrade everything before calling support and make sure the problem still exists.

Mike

Mike,

If I owned a home computer I would upgrade in a minute!  When I retired, after working with PCs for many of those 30 years, I couldn't stand to look at them AT HOME right away.  Some day, but not yet.

Not owning one though it's not quite so simple to pull off an update.

- walt

Walt,

I didn't realize that was MTH's attitude.

Hang on a minute!

You should re-read my post. I didn't say anything about "attitude" or policy. I simply stated what could happen, not what would, and that I believed that would be a valid response.

Let em make it easy for you - I think you should upgrade to 4.2.

Thanks Barry.

I don't know how I do it - I try to be non-controversial but for some reason.....

- walt