$1 for a Baofeng Programming Cable?

[Anna625625]

Found a site $1 for a Baofeng Programming Cable including shipping. Is it reliable?
2 Pack 2015 Baofeng GT-3TP Transceiver US + 2 Remote Speaker + 1 Programming Cable -Online Shopping for Gadgets & Electronics

 

[k6cpo]

"You get what you pay for..."

 

[Blackswan73]

The GT3 is a non-compatible UV5R, which is not a bad thing, it just means the UV5R accessories will not work with it. Mainly the drop in charger, and extended battery packs. The programming cable at that price is likely based on a Chinese clone of the Prolific chip. What that means is you will have a very difficult time getting it to work with newer Windows computers. The problem is there are no updated drivers for that chip, and the current drivers are designed to crash when used with clones. You need a STDI based cable.

 

[wkm]

Those cables have a typical counterfeit prolific chip. May or may not work depending on if the cable was soldered right. The chip board will work with the older prolific driver. If you want to possible have to rebuild that cable like I did you can just buy usb to ttl/uart chip boards on ebay for about the same price.

 

[Anna625625]

Might be a promotion because it looks like a new-launched site... I guess I will look for a STDI based cable like what you suggest, but I'll keep an eye on the Selloutwow.

 

[N0ZJT]

I took a chance and purchased 2 of these cables when they were $1 each. Received them today and they worked great with CHIRP to program my Baofeng and Wouxun. Just plugged them into my laptop running Win 8.1, picked the COM port assigned to them, and away I went. With that being said, I was previously using a serial programming cable with a USB to serial adapter, so it might have already loaded the correct driver for the cable.