This document describes how to update the firmware on your HD24
    using an Ethernet connection and the built-in ftp server on the
    HD24.  It assumes this is being done from a PC running Microsoft
    Windows (since I have no experience of doing this from a Mac).


     0. Check if your HD24 at all needs a firmware update, using
        the "Utility" menu of the HD24:
        Utilxx: Sys Info --> cursor through the records until
        you come to "OS Ver": if this is anything less than "1.20",
        you might benefit from an upgrade.  If it's already "1.20",
        there probably isn't anything to upgrade to (see below).
        [NOTE: I have referred to "Utilxx" above, since <xx> is
               different for different firmware revisions.]


     1. Download the firmware System Exclusive (SysEx) file (with
        an extension .syx) from either the "Files" section on the
        HD24 groups page, or from the Alesis website.  This is
        usually available zipped, so extract the .syx file from the
        Zip archive, and keep it available.  The .syx files are
        usually named "HD24_OS_Vnnn.syx", where <nnn> is the
        specific revision number (casing is irrelevant).
        [NOTE: The latest firmware revision as of this writing is
               V1.20, and it is highly likely that this will be the
               final one.  The .syx file for this is named
               "hd24_os_v120.syx".]


     2. If you have not already done so, set up the parameters for
        the HD24 ftp server (and the TCP/IP properties for the
        Ethernet connection on your PC, if necessary), as outlined
        in the HD24 user's manual.

        If you are going to use a network hub to connect both your
        PC (that has the .syx file on it) and the HD24, make sure
        that you assign an IP address to the HD24 that does not
        conflict with other addresses on your network.  If you want
        to simply connect the HD24 directly to the Ethernet port on
        your computer, you *might* need a special Ethernet cable,
        called a "crossover" cable (depending on the vintage of
        your PC and/or the version of Windows you are running).

        You'll also need to set up the ftp account login ID on the
        HD24, as well as the login password for that account: please
        see the HD24 user's manual for details.


     3. Set the HD24 in ftp server mode: 
        Util06: Enable FTP? --> cursor to "Yes".
        The display will read "FTP Server Ready".
        [NOTE: To get out of this mode, you will need to press "Stop"
               on the HD24.]


     4. Connect your PC and HD24 through your Ethernet connection, and
        check the connection: bring up a Windows command shell
        (Start -> Run... -> cmd), and execute "ping <IP_address_of_HD24>"
        in it; you should get a response something like what is shown
        below (assuming 192.168.1.100 was the IP address you assigned to
        the HD24, and the address you used with the "ping" command):

            Pinging 192.168.1.100 with 32 bytes of data:

            Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=255
            Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255
            Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255
            Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255

            Ping statistics for 192.168.1.100:
                Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
            Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
                Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms


     5. You are now ready to establish an ftp session in-between your
        PC and the HD24.  For this, you could use any commercially
        available ftp client software, or see the "Files" section
        of the HD24 group page for Alesis-recommended upload software.
        Using an internet web browser to perform ftp can sometimes be
        error-prone and is not recommended (for an alternate to any
        GUI-based client, see Appendix A below).

        Once you have established an ftp session, you will "see" a
        file called "HD24_OS.syx" at the top-level of the directory
        tree on the HD24: it is the contents of this file that you
        will be replacing by the firmware update.


     6. Upload your .syx file from step (1) exactly as is to the
        HD24.  During the upload, the HD24 will automatically
        recognize the newly updated file as an OS file, and upgrade
        itself, the process culminating in the HD24 re-booting itself.
        During this process, the HD24 display will first show
        "Updating OS", with the progress bar advancing, then show
        "OS Updated", and finally show "Restarting ...", at which
        point the HD24 will power down, and then start up again.


     7. You are now at the new firmware revision.  Check it through
        the procedure given in step (0).

        Note that if you were to check the "HD24_OS.syx" file on the
        HD24 at this point, it would still show up as "HD24_OS.syx",
        and not the file "HD24_OS_Vnnn.syx" that you uploaded: this
        is because, as pointed out in this group, "HD24_OS.syx" is a
        "virtual" file, and is always called "HD24_OS.syx",
        regardless of the version you upload.


    APPENDIX A:

    If you feel comfortable with using command line tools on a computer,
    here is a way to use the Windows command line ftp client for
    steps (5) and (6) above (it comes standard, at least with Windows
    XP Pro).

    The listing below shows a "screen capture" for a Windows command
    shell, with an example ftp session to upload the firmware
    update.  It is assumed that 192.168.1.100 is the IP address of
    the HD24, "MyName" is the ftp account user ID on the HD24,
    "xxxxxxx" is the corresponding ftp account password, and that
    the session is initiated from a directory on your PC where the
    .syx file (for upload) is located; the (default) prompt from the
    ftp client is "ftp> ", and the portions to the right of it are
    what you type in:

            C:\home> ftp 192.168.1.100
            Connected to 192.168.1.100.
            220 Alesis HD24 FTP server ready.
            User (192.168.1.100:(none)): MyName
            331 User name okay, need password.
            Password: xxxxxxx
            230 User logged in, proceed.
            ftp> pwd
            257 "/" is current directory.
            ftp> ls
            200 PORT Command okay.
            150 File status okay; about to open data connection.
            AIFF
            WAV
            Readme.html
            Readme.txt
            HD24_OS.syx
            226 Closing data connection.
            ftp: 49 bytes received in 0.00Seconds 49000.00Kbytes/sec.
            ftp> bin
            200 TYPE Command okay.
            ftp> put HD24_OS_V120.syx
            200 PORT Command okay.
            150 File status okay; about to open data connection.
            226 Closing data connection.
            ftp: 814634 bytes sent in 19.58Seconds 41.61Kbytes/sec.

    Note that after this, the ftp connection is left hanging, since
    the HD24 has re-booted itself without closing the connection;
    at this point, you can simply enter "Ctrl+C" to terminate the
    ftp client process (the normal way to achieve this is to enter
    "quit" at the ftp client prompt).

    [The "pwd" command just shows the current directory on the HD24,
    and the "ls" command lists its contents: they are not necessary
    for the upload process itself.]


    Hope this is of help to folks.

    -Ankan-  [apramanick@gmail.com]