Thank you so much for this great feedback and continued assistance.  I feel that we are really making progress with the troubleshooting.

To help get the camera fully functional, can you please provide the name of the correct firmware (and if possible a link to the GitHub download page) and also a link to the correct USB cable on Amazon.com?  My guess would be that  this cable would be the right one, but if you can confirm, I would greatly appreciate it.  The camera didn't come with a cable.

Quick update - I was able to find the right cable at Best Buy and then found the firmware just posted on GitHub.  Thanks again for your help.  My camera is now working.