Cannot communicate with Bus Pirate - "Bus Pirate malfunctioning" error

[philpem]

I cannot get this version of pyBusPirateLite to talk to my Bus Pirate -- the port opens correctly, but any attempt to communicate with the BP (even attempting to put it into bitbang mode) results in a long wait followed by a "bus pirate malfunctioning" error.

This is on Windows 7, Bus Pirate v3a, firmware v6.1.

If I use the version of pyBusPirateLite from the Dangerous Prototypes website (http://code.google.com/p/the-bus-pirate/downloads/detail?name=pyBusPirateLite-r597.zip), the BP works fine.