Update - I found the 8.16 config utility and it worked. So, for me, 8.17 failed with the error, but 8.16 says it was successful.
I decided to replace the NEMA14 1.8 degree motors with NEMA17 0.9 degree motors, but for some reason I can't get the config utility to write the new configuration. It errors out with "Write failed. Connection unavailable." I saw this was an issue back in 2017, but since I had previously had success, I'm at a loss to understand what's happened.
It also failed to read my firmware, then corrected it, but could not read the configuration so used default. I made the appropriate changes (only the step angle changed, from 1.8 to .9).
The AstroEQ sure puts on quite a light show - to have it fail is kinda sad.
Thoughts?