Retrotink 2X PRO firmware update

Howdy! So I decided to try it out (the Retrotink I mean). Bought it, received it, looks good. Now as it is shipped with an outdated firmware, which "contains the necessary code for the factory to program the anti-piracy measures", whatever it means I need to update the firmware. When I read that

*DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FLASH THE HEX FILE DIRECTLY TO THE PCB VIA THE ICD PINS. YOU MUST USE THE RETROTINK SOFTWARE. THE FIRMWARE CONTAINS AN ANTI-PIRACY MEASURE THAT CAN PERMANENTLY DESTROY THE DEVICE. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT CAN OCCUR IN THIS CASE.

1. Download the FTDI D2XX Drivers and install. (huh??)
2. Download the RetroTINK Firmware update tool and install by unzipping and running RT_FWUP.

thare was already a large yellow warning light flashing inside my head. Obviously - the mentioned "drivers" and "update tool" are for a family of operating systems I stopped having much to do with in.. 2002 AFAIR. But hey - no problem, I still have a machine, I keep for one of my old chip programmers device so I just dig this machine out, install whatever's needed and I'll be as right as rain in no time, right? Well - wrong, of course. While the machine accepted installation of all the stuff, I get a lovely

Prerequisite check for system component Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 (x86 and x64) failed with the following error message: "Installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 is not supported on this operating system. Contact your application vendor.

output when I try to run the "tool". I wrote on the Dropbox hosted download page (which seems to be the closest to contacting the application vendor" but this didn't help me getting the firmware updated. Surely I am not going to buy a new Windows just because I need to flash firmware to my hobby device! After a day or two somebody reminded me that I don't really have to buy Windows these days but I could use a trial version instead. Bingo. So I downloaded the disk image from Microsoft, went through the installation in a fresh virtual machine, installed the "drivers" and the "update tool", ran it, selected the only option of FT232something (the FTDI converter chip), selected the "HEX" file, pressed what I was supposed to and voila!

************* Exception Text **************
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
   at Cognionics_Firmware_Tool.CogBootloader.FlashHex(Int32 devID, String fname, Action`1 setProg)
   at Cognionics_Firmware_Tool.Form1.button3_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


Now I am admittedly well pissed-off with all this waste of non-negligible amounts of time so far but I am also still stuck with a device, which cost substantially more than a glass of beer and I am out of ideas how to install the firmware on it.

Any clues how to get this to flash my device with all the anti-piracy measures and whatnot?




BTW - I posted this also on Lemon:

https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76588
-- 
SD!