Attention VirtuaPin customers! Please click here for an important warning. If your KL25Z comes from a VirtuaPin plunger/nudge kit, please be aware that installing the Pinscape firmware on your KL25Z will erase and replace the VirtuaPin firmware that came pre-installed on your board. The KL25Z cannot run two firmware programs at once - installing new firmware will permanently erase the old software. I strongly advise that you install Pinscape only on "blank", un-pre-programmed KL25Z boards, which you can find at many retailers (Amazon, Mouser.com, eBay) for only about $15-20. If you bought your KL25Z from VirtuaPin, you paid extra for the firmware it came with, so please don't erase it unless you're sure that you don't want to use it any more. VirtuaPin doesn't provide any way to back up their firmware, and they don't allow you to re-install it at home, so if you erase it, the only way to restore it will be to physically ship your board back to VirtuaPin so that they can reinstall it for you.
This procedure will set up your KL25Z with the Pinscape firmware.
If you have any other KL25Z's plugged in to your system other than the one that you want to set up, this would be a good time to unplug them! We don't want any confusion over which one we're going to initialize.
Before we begin, is this a new, factory-fresh KL25Z that you just took out of the box, or have you installed Pinscape on this KL25Z before?
Great, that makes this easier. We only have to copy the firmware onto the device.
For a brand new KL25Z, we might have to update the core "boot loader" firmware before we can install Pinscape. Let's check your KL25Z to find out if this is necessary.
Please plug a USB cable into the programming port on the new KL25Z as shown at right, and plug the other end into a USB port on your PC.
We'll now walk you through the process of updating the boot loader firmware on your KL25Z. This is a one-time procedure that you'll never have to repeat in the future for this device, no matter how many times you want to reinstall the Pinscape software.
The whole point of this update is that the old factory firmware isn't compatible with modern Windows versions. The update will permanently fix the problem for this unit, but it creates a Catch-22 if you're using Windows 8 or later...
Warning!
This procedure will fail on Windows 8 OR LATER. It won't work on ANY LATER VERSIONS:
Windows 8 - FAIL
Windows 8.1 - FAIL
Windows 10 - FAIL
Anything else later than Windows 7 - FAIL
You must perform these steps using Windows 7 or earlier: XP, Vista, or Windows 7 will work, and only these versions will work. This is due to a bug/limitation in the KL25Z factory firmware.
After the upgrade, your KL25Z will work on all Windows versions.
To upgrade the factory firmware, follow these steps:
If any of this doesn't match what you see, the update might not have worked. If you attempted the upgrade from Windows 8 or higher, that's probably the problem. The original factory firmware is incompatible with Windows 8-10 and will fail silently and mysteriously (with no error messages) on these systems. If you did the update from Windows 7 or earlier and it still didn't work, it's possible that the procedures have changed since this writing. Try looking for instructions (.txt and/or .pdf files) in the downloaded ZIP to see if there's any information on new procedures.
We're now ready to proceed to the next step, which is to install the Pinscape Controller software onto the KL25Z.
Important! In the future, DON'T press or hold the Reset button while plugging in the KL25Z. Doing so triggers the boot loader update process, which you've now finished! This normally won't ever have to be repeated for the same card.