No such thing as a dumb question, dude. Look at me, asking all sorts of questions (I'm a new owner myself)! Your question I would defer to BRD.
You have to use a flash drive. The advantage is that you only have to bring the flash drive out to your car to update, instead of a laptop, USB-Serial cable, etc. Makes updating easier, though not quite as real-time, since you have to do your settings/firmware on a computer, then copy to a flash drive and bring out to the car.
Also, if you use the USB extender that comes with the ALP, and have the port in an accessible spot, you can bury the CPU in the dash and you don't have to pull things apart to get at it to do updates.
Hopefully down the road the Bluetooth app will give you all that capability within the car, no computer or flash drive required.
Ok did the install today 3 heads up front factory reset then setup and control set update two for the back cable to short need two extenders put on order did it all still have not registered it yet but doing that as soon as i post this seems to be up to speed.
Hi guys I just got a A new al system and did not do any of the updates before hand did not know they were required :( and everything is buried in the dash. Im using the bluetooth module and don't have the the wired controller hooked up is there anyway to do the update when connected to bluetooth or do you have to have the controller hooked up ? please advise thanks in advance
If your system is running and operating with Bluetooth module then you had an update at some point and would no longer need the control module. If its brand new your installer should have used the Control Module to install the initial updates. If your system is running with the Bluetooth then you should be fine. Whoever installed the system should have installed the USB Extension cable somewhere convenient for you to load updates.
I installed it myself. i ran the update cable i did not do any updates initially i just plugged everything and powered it up. I don't think its operating as the car does not turn blue and the parking sensors don't even seem to work I downloaded the update to a usb and plugged it in but again it does not appear to have done anything different. when i turn the system on it blinks the led a few times and thats about it my phone connects to the system or at least the bluetooth module but not really anything else ? confused
You need to connect the Control Module and do the updates as described above. Once unit is updated the firmware will now fully recognize the Bluetooth module and you will not need the Control module any longer but for the first update you will need to connect the Control Module.
I installed an ALP system yesterday for a friend and it went smooth. I download the firmware, control software and settings file with his serial number but I did not complete the factory reset step.
I have a question about the factory reset. Is it still required for the latest firmware? It seemed to updated without the reset but I want to be sure.
Factory Reset lets the system know the install is done and that it needs to memorize all the sensor locations. Without doing it if you have a sensor failure you will never know since you never did the reset to tell the ALP your install is set. Once you do the factory reset just reload the settings file and you will be good to go and if you have a sensor error in the future the ALP will let you know and also tell you which sensor is having the issue.
I didn't see this mentioned in the first post or the rest of the thread, but if you have the HiFi module make sure you also download the voice pack file. I just spent about an hour banging my head on why I was only hearing loud beeps. :)