Haven't tried the new version yet, but I have managed to get the live install on a USB drive and ready to install so I don't need a cd player. I imagine I will have it running over the holiday.

Jdm- I had never even heard about this programmer until I joined this forum. Building it onto the card is a cool idea, but it missed this rev. I guess I could just build one, but will it really be cost effective when a pickit2 is only $35 for just the programmer?

As an extra bonus, if I could do all this with ubuntu 10 from the machine controller, now that would be something.

Alas, I think it's prolly best to leave the field upgrade out of the equation for just now. And if I do that, I don't even need serial comm. Now I can just focus on getting the basic function done so the machines will work.