Hi Michael,
If the main (or only) reason for upgrading the QCon firmware is the added Reaper mode, I am not sure that it will be worth it.
I purchased a QCon Pro not too long ago, which has the Reaper mode, but I found that the Reaper mode has very limited use.
The reason for this is: for the best results with any MCU-like control surface (and the QCon is more or less an MCU clone) you should use the Klinke MCU extension for Reaper. This offers much more functionality than the standard Reaper MCU extension. And I found that the Klinke extension seems to work best with the QCon (Pro) in "Logic Pro" mode, which I believe is already available on the (non-Pro) QCon. Using Klinke with the QCon "Reaper mode" maps various functions to weird buttons while the "Logic Pro" mode puts everything in its logical place.
So, before going through all the trouble of upgrading the QCon firmware, try the Klinke extension with the QCon in "Logic Pro" mode and see how that works.
Maybe that combination already gives you everything you need.
For more details also look at
this post.
The main thread about the Klinke MCU extension is
here.