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Concerto To Grand Concerto Upgrade
Posted by
Shinyshoes
,
16 February 2011
·
1147 views
While I was struggling to make progress on the USBUIRT front, I finally recieved my MCU Board from my local Nuvo Dealer.
First some background: I while ago I found a used Nuvo Concerto on Ebay with none of the wall plates included. It was considerably cheaper than buying one that was complete, so I ended up with a really good deal. Since I was going to use some touch screens to control the system, I didn't need all 8 control pads anyhow. This also allowed me to look into the "upgrade kit" from Nuvo to turn my Concerto into a Grand Concerto. I called my local Nuvo Dealer for a price and he told me the upgrade kit would be almost $2K!! Wow. You could almost get a Grand Concerto off of Ebay for that price.
I called a couple of other placed that I found online, including a couple in the USA. One of the American stores I called informed me that they wouldn't be able to sell to me anyway, I would have to go through a Canadian dealer. Makes sense to me. This is when he gave me the greatest advice. He suggested I just purchase the MCU board as a replacement part rather than buying the Whole Upgrade Kit. I didnt need all the wall plates that came with the kit, and the software in that kit is available on the internet for free.
I called my Nuvo dealer again and asked for a price to get just the MCU board replacement part. He quoted me $400 and I jumped. The drawback was that it took 6-8 weeks to get it......
Well, it arrived and with all the roadblocks I have been experiencing lately, I needed a win. I pulled out the concerto and removed the cover. If any of you have ever replaced a video card in a computer before, the process was very similar. I didnt even look up directions, I just eyeballed which card was roughly the same size as the replacement MCU in the package. There were no screws or anything, just pull the old MCU out and stick the new MCU in. Put the case back together and thats it. I plugged it in and hooked up a Grand Concerto wall plate that I bought off ebay and it works great.
Now I just need to get it working in Premise........
First some background: I while ago I found a used Nuvo Concerto on Ebay with none of the wall plates included. It was considerably cheaper than buying one that was complete, so I ended up with a really good deal. Since I was going to use some touch screens to control the system, I didn't need all 8 control pads anyhow. This also allowed me to look into the "upgrade kit" from Nuvo to turn my Concerto into a Grand Concerto. I called my local Nuvo Dealer for a price and he told me the upgrade kit would be almost $2K!! Wow. You could almost get a Grand Concerto off of Ebay for that price.
I called a couple of other placed that I found online, including a couple in the USA. One of the American stores I called informed me that they wouldn't be able to sell to me anyway, I would have to go through a Canadian dealer. Makes sense to me. This is when he gave me the greatest advice. He suggested I just purchase the MCU board as a replacement part rather than buying the Whole Upgrade Kit. I didnt need all the wall plates that came with the kit, and the software in that kit is available on the internet for free.
I called my Nuvo dealer again and asked for a price to get just the MCU board replacement part. He quoted me $400 and I jumped. The drawback was that it took 6-8 weeks to get it......
Well, it arrived and with all the roadblocks I have been experiencing lately, I needed a win. I pulled out the concerto and removed the cover. If any of you have ever replaced a video card in a computer before, the process was very similar. I didnt even look up directions, I just eyeballed which card was roughly the same size as the replacement MCU in the package. There were no screws or anything, just pull the old MCU out and stick the new MCU in. Put the case back together and thats it. I plugged it in and hooked up a Grand Concerto wall plate that I bought off ebay and it works great.
Now I just need to get it working in Premise........
