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MegaConsole

MegaConsole is a free program for your Windows PC. It looks after every MegaPoints System 2 board you own, from one window. Plug in a CAN Adaptor — a small USB stick — and your boards turn up on their own. Nothing to type in. No addresses to go hunting for.

Download MegaConsole for Windows Free

Version 0.9.26 preview · about 50 MB · Windows 10 or 11 · what hardware do I need?

  • The whole layout, one windowEvery board you own is in one list. Open any of them without getting out of your chair.
  • One job, not twentyBack up, set the WiFi, or update firmware for the whole layout in a single go.
  • Save first, change afterMegaConsole copies a board’s settings before it changes anything. You can always put them back.
  • An interruption is not a problemPower cut in the middle of an update? A cheap USB lead and six steps finish the job off.

Step one

Plug it in. Your layout turns up by itself.

Push the CAN Adaptor into your PC. That is the whole setup. Every board on the layout says hello and lands in the list. You can see what each one is, what it is called, which firmware it is running, whether anything newer is waiting for it, and when it last spoke.

MegaConsole showing four System 2 boards found on a layout, with their names, firmware versions, waiting updates and addresses12345
A real MegaConsole window on our own test layout — two Servo‑8 drivers, a Panel Controller and an AutoSignal.
  1. Everything is on this one menu. Your boards, your backups, WiFi and updates. No hunting about.
  2. Your boards find themselves. You never type in an address. Click a board’s name to open its own web page.
  3. What each board is running. Old ones stand out straight away.
  4. What is waiting for it. If we have published something newer, it says so right here.
  5. It keeps listening. The list stays right while you work.

Step two

Change any board without leaving your chair.

Click a board and its settings open beside the list. Change what you like and press Save to board. Changed your mind? Press Undo and the board goes back to how it was. A copy of the old settings is kept first, every single time.

A Servo-8 driver open in MegaConsole with its settings listed and Undo, Save to board and Back up board buttons1234
The same window — the board list stays put on the left while you work.
  1. Your layout stays on the left. Hop from board to board with one click.
  2. It says which board you are changing. No guessing, no wrong board.
  3. Every setting, in plain rows. The same settings as the board’s own pages, laid out for a big screen.
  4. Save it, or put it back. It also shows when this board was last copied to your PC.

Step three

One WiFi password. Every board.

Your boards join your home WiFi so they can be looked after and updated. Type the network name and password once, here. MegaConsole passes it to every board on the layout. You do not have to go round them one at a time, and you never have to remember it again.

The MegaConsole WiFi page, with a saved network and a Send to the layout button1234
Your network is remembered on your own PC, locked to your Windows account.
  1. Your network, kept safe here. Type it once. Keep more than one if you take the layout to shows.
  2. Send it to the whole layout. One press and every board is told.
  3. See who is on the network. Boards that joined show their address.
  4. Take it off again just as easily. Handy before you sell a board or lend it out.

Step four

Keep a copy of everything.

Getting your settings right takes ages. Losing them takes a second. Press one button and every board’s settings are copied to your PC, with the date on them. If a board is swapped, or something goes wrong, put the copy back. You can even copy one board’s setup onto a new board of the same kind.

The MegaConsole Backups page listing dated backups of the whole layout with Restore buttons1234
Real backups from our test layout. A board’s own identity is never copied onto another board.
  1. The whole layout in one press. Every board, every setting, in one file.
  2. Every copy is kept. With the date, and a name you choose, so you can find the right one.
  3. Putting it back is just as easy. Pick a copy and press Restore.
  4. It also copies boards by itself. Right before any firmware is written, without being asked.

Step five

New firmware for every product, fetched and checked.

We keep making the boards better. MegaConsole goes and gets the newest firmware for every product we make, not just the ones you own, and keeps it on your PC. Before a file is allowed anywhere near a board it is checked to make sure it really came from us and has not been meddled with.

The MegaConsole Update Centre listing every MegaPoints product with its newest firmware version12345
Once it is on your PC it stays there. MegaConsole still works with the internet unplugged.
  1. One press gets the lot. Everything new, for every product.
  2. Every product we make. The whole range in one list.
  3. The newest version. A green dot means it is already on your PC.
  4. Early‑access versions. Yours to try when you have an owner key.
  5. All the older versions too. With the notes that came with each one.

Step six

Update your boards over your own network.

When you are ready, MegaConsole hands the firmware to your boards over your home WiFi, straight from your PC. Tick one board, every board of one kind, or the whole layout. One board always goes first and has to prove it worked. Only then do the rest follow, a few at a time, each with its own progress bar.

The MegaConsole Update boards page with the whole layout ticked and the plan of what would be installed1234
Nothing is sent until you say so, and you always see the plan first.
  1. Pick as many as you like. One board, all of one kind, or the whole layout in one press.
  2. Green means ready. This board can take an update straight over your network.
  3. Amber means not yet. That board wants one more update the old way first — MegaConsole tells you instead of guessing.
  4. You see the plan before anything happens. Which version, what changed in it, and how many boards are going.

Step seven

An update that got interrupted? Finish it off.

A board writes its new firmware in one go. If the power goes off part way through, or you are trying out an early version and want to step back, the board is left waiting for the rest of the job. Plug a low‑cost USB lead into it and MegaConsole walks you through six short steps, doing the clever part for you. Your settings stay on the board. And if this gets interrupted too, nothing is broken — you just run it again.

Step one of the MegaConsole board recovery guide, asking which board is on the bench123
There is a practice mode with a pretend board, so you can walk the whole thing through before you touch real hardware.
  1. Nothing here is one‑way. The worst that can happen is that you run the step again.
  2. Tell it what you are holding. Then it reads the board itself and stops if the two do not match.
  3. Six short steps. It says what it is doing at every one, and shows you the board waking up at the end.

MegaConsole Hardware Options

MegaConsole is free, and it does plenty with nothing but your PC. If your boards already talk to each other over WiFi and MQTT rather than over wires, there is a way in that costs nothing at all — tell MegaConsole your broker once and it fills your layout in from what the boards are already saying. After that, two small parts switch on the rest: you do not need both, and you can add either one whenever you like.

What you can do FreeJust your PCYour PC No wiringWiFi & MQTTMQTT Start hereCAN AdaptorAdaptor Just in caseProgrammerLead
Board software on your PC
Get the newest software for every board we make Yes Yes Yes Yes
Keep every older version too, with the notes that came with it Yes Yes Yes Yes
Check every file really came from us before it goes near a board Yes Yes Yes Yes
Keep working with the internet switched off Yes Yes Yes Yes
Have a practice run on a pretend board first Yes Yes Yes Yes
Keep itself up to date, quietly Yes Yes Yes Yes
Seeing your layout
Find every board you own, all by itself No Yes Yes No
Show what each board is, what it is called and where it is No Yes Yes No
Show which boards have newer software waiting No Yes Yes No
Open a board’s own page with one click No Yes Yes No
Watch your boards talking to each other No Yes Yes No
Tell you when something is wrong, in plain words No Yes Yes No
Changing your boards
Change any board’s settings without leaving your chair No Yes Yes No
Move a servo and watch it, before you save anything No Yes Yes No
Save every board’s settings onto your PC in one press No Yes Yes No
Put saved settings back on a board No Yes Yes No
Copy one board’s settings onto a new board of the same kind No Yes Yes No
Give every board your WiFi name and password in one go No No Yes No
Take your WiFi back off a board again No No Yes No
New software onto your boards
Update your boards over your own WiFi No Yes Yes No
Send one board first, to prove it worked, before the rest follow No Yes Yes No
Put new software on one board through the lead No No No Yes
Put an older version back on one board No No No Yes
If something goes wrong
Finish an update that was stopped half way through No No No Yes
Keep all your settings while it does it No No No Yes
Read the board first and stop if it is the wrong one No No No Yes
Show you what a board is saying while it runs No No No Yes
Start a board up again from your PC No No No Yes
Wipe a board’s settings and start fresh No No No Yes
Work on one board on its own, with nothing else plugged in No No No Yes
Things you can do 6 19 21 15
Start hereCAN AdaptorA small stick. USB into your PC, two wires onto your layout. Your boards then turn up on their own.Coming soon →Just in caseSystem2 ProgrammerA short lead that clips onto one board. The one to have if an update ever gets stopped half way.Coming soon →Nothing to buyWiFi & MQTTNo adaptor, no lead. If your boards already talk to each other over WiFi and MQTT, MegaConsole finds them that way too — tell it your broker once and your layout fills in, named and placed.Download →

Not sure which one you want? Ask Dave & Sheila — we would rather you bought the right thing once.

Bits and pieces

One download, nothing else

Everything MegaConsole needs is inside the installer. No extra software. No drivers to find on Windows 10 or 11.

You do not need an administrator password. It puts itself on your Start menu and takes itself off again from Settings > Apps.

It keeps itself up to date, too: new versions arrive quietly in the background and go in when you next start it.

Register it and you’re away

The first time you open MegaConsole it asks for your email address. That is the whole job — no code to type in, no restart, nothing to keep safe.

Your licence then turns up on its own and switches on the parts that change a board: its settings, and putting firmware on it. If you bought your boards from us it is issued the moment your order goes through.

Looking round your layout, downloading firmware and finishing an interrupted update never need it. Registering also puts early‑access versions in front of you, for the products you own, if you like being first.

The first time you run it

Windows may say it does not recognise the app the first time you run a freshly downloaded installer. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

That notice goes away once our signing certificate is in place.