Lazy zero flash tool with windows 8 problem

epic.engineering

Senior Member
So I downloaded the Lazy Zero Flash Tool in preparation for my HK multirotor flight control board v3. I'm running windows 8 and have been searching for well over an hour. I managed to open the flash tool without going to AVRdude file. Every time I click it a command promp type screen flashes for less than a second and that is it. No extract option. If I just go to my multicopter flash tool file and click it I can open the tool. Then I pick my board, then I go down to firmware and I have ZERO options. I can't select my copter type.

With that said I don't have the board yet and I'm not sure if it has to be connected to generate the firmware list. I believe the problem is that I can not run the AVRDude app.. has anyone had this problem with windows 8. Thanks in advance
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
Did you scrap Win8 and go back to one that actually works?

(sorry, I can not stand Win8 OS, it takes twice as long to work with it swapping back and forth between apps and a real computer...)
 
Last edited:

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
I use Windows 8 at work and made the boss buy me Start 8 which adds the start menu back on the desktop. It also makes the desktop the default UI so I rarely ever see the windows 8 start screen. Not bad for $5.
 

epic.engineering

Senior Member
Did you scrap Win8 and go back to one that actually works?

(sorry, I can not stand Win8 OS, it takes twice as long to work with it swapping back and forth between apps and a real computer...)


I went back into it when into setting and verified that online mode was on, which it was. I went back to the firmware section and it started working great. Now my next question is whats the best firmware for the tri
 

epic.engineering

Senior Member
I use Windows 8 at work and made the boss buy me Start 8 which adds the start menu back on the desktop. It also makes the desktop the default UI so I rarely ever see the windows 8 start screen. Not bad for $5.

I actually like windows 8, the overall look, but it is slightly annoying not being able to access some things as easy as I used to. It was really designed for touch.. But I do have my ugh moments.. like today trying to get lazy zero working.
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
I actually like windows 8, the overall look, but it is slightly annoying not being able to access some things as easy as I used to. It was really designed for touch.. But I do have my ugh moments.. like today trying to get lazy zero working.
For me it's more interfacing with older equipment on the laptop. The type where XP was actually the best, and still is for some of them, or not just best, but required. For personal stuff, 8 is fine but you are very correct in that the UI is very geared towards touchscreens. It sucks on regular lappy's...
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
I work in IT for a newspaper, which means that I have to cater to a lot of people who only use computers because they have to, and software that only gets upgraded when their end of life has been announced. Windows 7 with XP mode has been the best OS to date. Microsoft made some big mistakes with Windows 8 for corporate environments. We'll be sticking with Windows 7 for as long as we can.
 

Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
I quit Windows at Vista Ultimate which was a gift from Microsoft. Linux for everything humanly possible now. Unfortunately 3DR Ardupilot Mission Planner is a Windows App. so I am stuck with Windows on at least one PC.

Thurmond
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
Too many things in my work rely on Windows based systems for me to go Linux. I'd like to learn it but have so many other things that take most of my time so I just settle with keeping old Windows OS's running as long as possible, basically until the comp gets replaced...and then it's forced on you.
 

epic.engineering

Senior Member
My brother made umbuto linux that you could boot and run from a usb jump drive. I never got into it. I like tech but windows is so "ready to go" to me. windows 8 has some serious compatability options. I just couldn't get one to work. I did find out that you can basically emulate all the way back to windows xp (service pack3) and its built in to windows 8
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
Emulation doesn't always work though. Had a ring we were turning up a month or so ago and it wouldn't let us log in to the node on any machine, even running in XP compatibility mode until I went home and got out an old dinosaur XP machine I had held onto because I hadn't pulled pictures and stuff off of it yet. Good thing I had it or we would have been dead in the water.
Every upgrade moves the OS further into AOL territory and buries even deeper the settings we need to access in order to communicate with different equipment. Like when Vista got rid of Hyperterminal...that was completely unexpected!

Sorry...<rant off>
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
Vista, like Windows ME got a bad rap, mostly because of external factors. Vista because of the lack of third-party drivers and significant changes under the hood, and ME because at that time the industry was going through a significant hardware revolution. Computers were getting cheaper because functions previously on add-on cards were being integrated into the motherboard as highly integrated chips. At the same time, budget processors like the Celeron were released. Since the average person didn't look inside the computer, they blamed the poor performance on what they could see; the operating system.
When I evaluated ME and Vista, I did so on known working systems. I had no more issues with ME than I did with Windows 98. With Vista, there was a learning curve with the new way of doing some things, and frustration with some third-party manufacturers like HP who wanted me to buy a new printer or scanner rather than releasing a Vista compatible driver for perfectly operable hardware.

I like Linux as well. But as a desktop OS it's just not on a par with Windows or Mac. More importantly it doesn't run the specific software I need. I do use it for appliances such as storage area network or network attached storage. But that's about it.

Windows 8 lacks a smooth transition to the interface Microsoft intends as the next step, and it lacks a method of supporting legacy software still needed by corporations, namely an XP mode. Which by the way is not an emulation, but a virtual machine.
Everything else is manageable.
 
Last edited:

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
I wasn't trying to badmouth Vista. In fact, with the exception of drivers and lack of hyperterminal, I liked it once I learned where Microsoft buried my network communication settings. I have Vista on this desktop I'm on right now. I have laptops with both 7 and 8 and also one on XP for certain node boxes...
Unless it insists, I try not to let the OS get in the way, but sometimes it makes a point of doing just that...
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
Not to worry, there was no offense taken. And I am certainly not a defender of Microsoft or any other operating system. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. But working in the industry, I don't like to see any software unjustly maligned. And my OCD nature compels me to tell it as I see it. Verbosely and unbidden. :rolleyes:
 

Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
I retired from the industry 4 years ago so other than a very few programs I want for windows machines all I need is Web Browsing mostly so Puppy Linux is what I use. It is small and makes old XP level hardware faster than my newest stuff.

Thurmond
 

RoyBro

Senior Member
Mentor
I haven't tried puppy Linux. Most recently I tried Ubuntu Linux. But on my main computer I run Windows 7 Pro so I can, RDC into the work computers. I also personally use Photoshop and Premier Elements to edit pictures and videos. For most Internet browsing I use android tablets.
 

Cyberdactyl

Misfit Multirotor Monkey
Thank you guys for confirming how I felt about Win8. I don't like it at all. And don't have a want or need to use a touch screen. I also hated Vista. I liked XP SP3 and love Win7 64b.

I thought I was just getting old not liking Win8. . . :p