Upgrading the AquaLogic Firmware

I purchased my AquaLogic in 2006. I eventually wanted to replace my single-speed Hayward pump with a variable-speed one, but the firmware on my AquaLogic (v2.61) was too old to support it. Hayward generally tells people that in order to upgrade the firmware you have to replace the entire board (though apparently they do have a custom field-service tool to do this). Fortunately someone on troublefreepool.com did some digging and discovered that the AquaLogic is driven by a Microchip PIC and can be re-flashed using an off-the-shelf PICKit programmer. See this thread for the details.