[TenTec] OT: Programming Cheap Chinese Handhelds

[geoffrey mendelson]

On 9/8/2014 7:52 AM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
>
> The easy solution is to buy your cable either with a Baofeng or Wouxon label
> on it.
> That way you get a good cable with a matching driver.
> Perhaps this should be common sense but I didn't realize there were clones
> being sold as originals.
>
Baofeng does not sell cables. Nor AFAIK does Wouxon. The Baofeng cables 
sold by Chinese vendors are just cheap cables they just happen to  sell 
with the radio. They all have a counterfeit PROLIFIC USB to serial 
bridge chip in them.

These chips work fine with the regular Prolific drivers for Windows XP 
(and most are listed as XP only cables). There are Windows VISTA drivers 
that work with and there are later ones that do not. Windows 7 requires 
the earlier VISTA drivers. Linux works fine with all of them.

This is well documented on the UV-5R Yahoo groups FAQ file and the web 
page they tell every new user to go to. A link is included at the bottom 
of every post.
The web page has instructions on how to determine which chip you have, 
what drivers you need,  download links, and how to prevent Windows from 
replacing them with broken drivers.

I believe KENWOOD actually sells cables with legitimate chips in them, 
but they cost about $100 and you never really know until you receive it 
what it is.

The other option is to buy a USB to RS-232 adapter with either a real 
Prolific chip, an FTDI bridge chip, or a Silicon Labs Cp2102 bridge 
chip. You then connect it to an RS-232 Kenwood type cable.

The cheapest option is to spend $2 and buy a CP2102 based USB to TTL 
serial converter, 2 matching plugs, and run the 3 wires to them. :-)

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson 4X1GM/N3OWJ
Jerusalem Israel.