Posted: 3/13/2013 8:20:05 PM EDT
Let me just say that CHIRP + FTDI cables = WIN!  Let me also say that Prolific cables = EPIC FAIL!  After struggling with Prolific for 5+ years I switched to FTDI & programmed all but one of my radios in about an hour. Why did I not do this sooner? ETA for clarity. |
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Yep, hear a lot of Prolific problems all around, and not just ham gear. I saw a thing on the UV-5R yahoo group where a guy made a cable from a Silicon Labs CP2102 UART USB chip. (What's a UART?) I ordered a few of those, real cheap, under $3 each. The chip is on a little circuit board, with pins on one end and USB plug on the other. I made a cable with some old audio cables. I plugged it in, let Windoze find the driver online, and then plugged in the radio. Right off the bat I had solid read-write from computer to HT. And it had little flashy red LED's showing it was communicating.
On the Miklor site it tells you how to get the right driver for your Prolific cable. http://miklor-uv5r.99k.org/ |
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Yep, hear a lot of Prolific problems all around, and not just ham gear. I saw a thing on the UV-5R yahoo group where a guy made a cable from a Silicon Labs CP2102 UART USB chip. (What's a UART?) I ordered a few of those, real cheap, under $3 each. The chip is on a little circuit board, with pins on one end and USB plug on the other. I made a cable with some old audio cables. I plugged it in, let Windoze find the driver online, and then plugged in the radio. Right off the bat I had solid read-write from computer to HT. And it had little flashy red LED's showing it was communicating.
On the Miklor site it tells you how to get the right driver for your Prolific cable. http://miklor-uv5r.99k.org/ I'm getting good results on a Windows Vista machine with driver version 3.2.0.0 [7/31/2007]. |
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Quoted: Yep, hear a lot of Prolific problems all around, and not just ham gear. I saw a thing on the UV-5R yahoo group where a guy made a cable from a Silicon Labs CP2102 UART USB chip. (What's a UART?) I ordered a few of those, real cheap, under $3 each. The chip is on a little circuit board, with pins on one end and USB plug on the other. I made a cable with some old audio cables. I plugged it in, let Windoze find the driver online, and then plugged in the radio. Right off the bat I had solid read-write from computer to HT. And it had little flashy red LED's showing it was communicating. On the Miklor site it tells you how to get the right driver for your Prolific cable. http://miklor-uv5r.99k.org/ I'm getting good results on a Windows Vista machine with driver version 3.2.0.0 [7/31/2007]. I rolled back the Prolific driver to 3.2.0.0 from a later version but no change; VX7 Commander can't read from the radio & neither can Chirp. Just for fun I tried to write to the radio & Commander said it did, but the read didn't take. I upgraded to FTDI cables for my 857 & 1802 but still have the Prolific for my 8900 & VX7. For some reason the 8900 cable works every now & then but the VX7 doesn't. Go figure - the $12 cable that I bought with my TYT UV3R has a Prolific chip & it works fine, but the Prolific cables for the expensive radios are finicky. ETA: Looks like my chip, a PL2303HXA, is EOL as of October 2012. Per the latest Prolific driver package release notes: ** Prolific recommends using PL2303HXD (HX Rev D) or PL2303TA chip version ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NOTE: PL-2303HXA (HX Rev A) and PL-2303XA have been discontinued (EOL) on October 2012. Customers and end-users are advised to change to PL2303HXD or PL2303TA chip. |
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Quoted:I upgraded to FTDI cables for my 857 & 1802 but still have the Prolific for my 8900 & VX7. For some reason the 8900 cable works every now & then but the VX7 doesn't.
I'm using this cable (which is really this plus this plus this) to program a FT-7900R and a FT-60R with Chirp. It looks like the same cable should work with your 8900 & VX7. |
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Quoted: Quoted:I upgraded to FTDI cables for my 857 & 1802 but still have the Prolific for my 8900 & VX7. For some reason the 8900 cable works every now & then but the VX7 doesn't. I'm using this cable (which is really this plus this plus this) to program a FT-7900R and a FT-60R with Chirp. It looks like the same cable should work with your 8900 & VX7. I saw that on the VX7 cable list here but it's not specifically listed as an FTDI chipset, & judging by the filenames of the USB drivers on 409shop I'd bet it's a Prolific. It would be nice to have a single cable that would work on both radios, though, seeing as how I've already sprung for the 857 & the 1802 FTDI cables. That would save me a few $. Does the cable work OK for you? Can you check to see what chip it uses? |
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Quoted: Quoted: Can you check to see what chip it uses? The value of the Hardware IDs property is USB\VID_067B&PID_2303&REV_0300. Is that what you're looking for? Not exactly, since there are a number of 2303 chipsets. The newest set of drivers here, third link down, includes a utility called CheckChipVersion Tool. I think you can extract just the tool & run it without installing the entire driver package. I did that & found I have the PL2303HXA chip that's EOL. |
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Quoted:
The newest set of drivers here, third link down, includes a utility called CheckChipVersion Tool. I think you can extract just the tool & run it without installing the entire driver package. I did that & found I have the PL2303HXA chip that's EOL. checkChipVersion_v1006.exe reports "This is a PL-2303 XA / HXA chip". |
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Not sure if this off topic but I had no problems using this cable http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R21P7Q/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and then followed instructions here http://miklor-uv5r.99k.org/UV5R-Drivers.html to program my UV5R with CHIRP. The cable came with a disk which I assume was drivers but I didn't even see what was on it. |
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Quoted:
Go figure - the $12 cable that I bought with my TYT UV3R has a Prolific chip & it works fine, but the Prolific cables for the expensive radios are finicky. You should double-check that the correct driver version is loading when your cable is plugged in: 
For what it's worth, I can program my Baofeng without consulting the manual, but I have to refer to the "cloning" section of the manual when programming my Yaesus. 
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Well,
The problem with the prolific USB cables come from counterfeit or cloned chips... Prolific cables from china and even some here from the us are not legitimate chips but fakes...or copied chips.. Prolific after the 3.2.0.0 driver lookes for the cloned chips and won't work... So, if you have a legitimate chip it will be fine...else you can't go beyond the driver version 3.2.0.0 I have a legitimate and a china clone copy cable too....I use both of them testing... Just FYI... Bret |
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Quoted: Quoted: Go figure - the $12 cable that I bought with my TYT UV3R has a Prolific chip & it works fine, but the Prolific cables for the expensive radios are finicky. You should double-check that the correct driver version is loading when your cable is plugged in: I'm using the same driver.  Quoted: For what it's worth, I can program my Baofeng without consulting the manual, but I have to refer to the "cloning" section of the manual when programming my Yaesus. Same here. The TYT Chinese radio I have is easier to program than the Yaesus. What's so frustrating is that I have two VX7s that I program to be identical & the cable works on one radio but not the other. I read from the radio every time before writing, but only occasionally does that work. I've even tried doing a full microprocessor reset but even that doesn't work reliably. |
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Quoted:
What's so frustrating is that I have two VX7s that I program to be identical & the cable works on one radio but not the other. I read from the radio every time before writing, but only occasionally does that work. I've even tried doing a full microprocessor reset but even that doesn't work reliably. That sounds like it could be an issue with the radio. Does a speaker-mike work okay in that radio? |
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Quoted: That sounds like it could be an issue with the radio. Does a speaker-mike work okay in that radio? Great question. Speaker mic works fine. I just did a full microprocessor reset & tried to program several times, first reading from the radio & then writing each time. It worked on the 4th try. I'm at a loss as to why this happens.  I think the most likely explanation is the cable. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
That sounds like it could be an issue with the radio. Does a speaker-mike work okay in that radio? Great question. Speaker mic works fine. I just did a full microprocessor reset & tried to program several times, first reading from the radio & then writing each time. It worked on the 4th try. I'm at a loss as to why this happens. I think the most likely explanation is the cable.
Well, it could be a cable issue... Also, make sure the cable is really into the radio...some of the cheap,cables go in really tight and some even need a bit of trimming of the rubber around the actual jacks...it sorta hangs up... I've got a dozen of these radios and they all work 100% with chirp... I'd just trim away a,bit of the rubber from the jacks and then go from there... Look here about 3/4 the way to,bottom shows the trimming of the cable... 
Bret |
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Quoted: Well, it could be a cable issue... Also, make sure the cable is really into the radio...some of the cheap,cables go in really tight and some even need a bit of trimming of the rubber around the actual jacks...it sorta hangs up... I've got a dozen of these radios and they all work 100% with chirp... I'd just trim away a,bit of the rubber from the jacks and then go from there... Look here about 3/4 the way to,bottom shows the trimming of the cable... http://imageshack.us/a/img809/2613/cableafter1.jpg Bret I trimmed it a little more & fully removed the ridge around the circumference of the connector. If I have time I'll try the cable again tonight, but if not I'll try sometime this week. Hopefully it'll connect without issue, but meanwhile both radios are programmed properly. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Well, it could be a cable issue... Also, make sure the cable is really into the radio...some of the cheap,cables go in really tight and some even need a bit of trimming of the rubber around the actual jacks...it sorta hangs up... I've got a dozen of these radios and they all work 100% with chirp... I'd just trim away a,bit of the rubber from the jacks and then go from there... Look here about 3/4 the way to,bottom shows the trimming of the cable... http://imageshack.us/a/img809/2613/cableafter1.jpg Bret I trimmed it a little more & fully removed the ridge around the circumference of the connector. If I have time I'll try the cable again tonight, but if not I'll try sometime this week. Hopefully it'll connect without issue, but meanwhile both radios are programmed properly. Great, let us know... Once you get all the USB drivers at 3.2.0.0 and the cable trimmed to fit in the radio and the software all figured out...it's a breeze .... :) Pc programming these radios is actually easy...the biggest problem is the cheap cables with the fake cloned prolific chips... If there wasn't the fake cheap cables from china it would be a lot easier... If you need help with anything else post... I've got many of these radios...and they perform well.. Bret |
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Quoted:
Well, The problem with the prolific USB cables come from counterfeit or cloned chips... Prolific cables from china and even some here from the us are not legitimate chips but fakes...or copied chips.. Prolific after the 3.2.0.0 driver lookes for the cloned chips and won't work... So, if you have a legitimate chip it will be fine...else you can't go beyond the driver version 3.2.0.0 I have a legitimate and a china clone copy cable too....I use both of them testing... Just FYI... Bret I came here to post this. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Well, The problem with the prolific USB cables come from counterfeit or cloned chips... Prolific cables from china and even some here from the us are not legitimate chips but fakes...or copied chips.. Prolific after the 3.2.0.0 driver lookes for the cloned chips and won't work... So, if you have a legitimate chip it will be fine...else you can't go beyond the driver version 3.2.0.0 I have a legitimate and a china clone copy cable too....I use both of them testing... Just FYI... Bret I came here to post this. Good, I've seen and helped out lots of people on this issue... Even some retailers have the cloned prolific chips...they are in the regular supply chain too... The Chinese jumped on cloning these chips and the prolific released new software to detect the cloned chips... Both are the business model for china...cheap...and prolific to maximize profits... Neither is wrong...and stuck in the middle is John q. Public....and neither will give support...especially on the cloned chips.... I have one official kenwood prolific chip real programming cable... I have another that was bought stateside from a reputable vendor...but it's a clone...when I brought that up...they immediately offered refund and new cables... In the end they found about 1/2 of thier stock was fake cloned prolific chips...they all come from china even the real ones... Bret |
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Tried the VX7 again today, & had some issues the first few times. Got it to work on about the 4th try. On the 3rd try the memory got zeroed out, not quite sure why. I'm going to try occasionally & see if there's a repetitive pattern of failure that I've just missed up until now. |