Mesa firmware versions and updating

I have purchased 2x 7i96s Mesa cards. I have found the PDF documentation to be rather good except for the PCB overlay images which are unreadable when printed out

I would like to know how to

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(i) determine the firmware version running on the 7i96s -- is there a simple way to do this?
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On page 38 of the 7i96s manual (www.mesanet.com/pdf/parallel/7i96sman.pdf) I can see the that the FW version is at address "0012 FirmwareVersion" in "MEMORY SPACE 7 LAYOUT". But how to access this version number?

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(ii) determine the firmware version of the latest FPGA code -- is there a simple way to do this?
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www.mesanet.com/software/parallel/7i96s.zip


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(iii) determine location of the latest canonical FPGA files to use for flashing
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(iv) re-flash the FPGA
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According to "Mesa Configuration Tool V2" (gnipsel.com/linuxcnc/mesact/index.html):

"The Mesa Configuration Tool is designed to create the configuration files needed by LinuxCNC for Mesa Electronics motion control cards."

Additionally, the config tool can "Firmware Flash, Reload, Verify Mesa cards", however the FW page link is broken (gnipsel.com/linuxcnc/mesact/firmware.html).
 

I don't see an issue with the pdf drawings (just printed both)

For the LBP16 version: (and a bunch more)

mesaflash --device ethernet --addr [card-address] --verbose

for the individual module versions:

mesaflash --device ethernet --addr [card-address] --readhmid

Parallel because the Anything I/O cards all started as fancy parallel DIO interfaces.

You can download firmware for the 7I96s (or any Mesa FPGA card) from Mesa's webstore
(in the specification tab for the card)

Try to read the USER LED designators on the attached pic. Or the W_ jumper designators. Perhaps it is my PDF viewer?

Hey guys, you are too fast I still trying to format the text with this diabolical editor, and you have already answered my questions !!!

i why?
ii why?
iii why?
iv if you do need to:

Why would I NOT want to have the latest FW ? I'm confused as to why you would ask "why?".

Thanks for the rest of the reply

RNZ wrote:

Hey guys, you are too fast I still trying to format the text with this diabolical editor, and you have already answered my questions !!!
 

The trick is to never edit any fancy formatted posts or you will go crazy and wish to punish whoever wrote the editor...

Yes, I have those feels right now

To be clear, I have a Raspberry Pi 5 and have been having ethernet stability issues when connecting to my 7i96s card. Thus during debugging I want to make sure I have the latest / most stable software versions installed.

Of course, latest does not equal most stable, so it would be helpful to know whether I am running version 1.0.0 or 1.0.15 if you get my drift.