Baofeng UV-5R and my PC issue

[KC9HI]

Hello there, I am new here! I just got myself a Baofeng UV-5R and a programing cable. I am using CHIRPS on a Windows 7 machine and I have installed the drivers, downloaded the radio's memory to CHIRPS and in the 5 or so minutes that the radio was hooked up to the computer it got extremely hot near the 2 mounting screws for the belt clip. This is the same area as the battery interface is as well. I unplugged the radio from the computer and took out the battery for a little while to allow for better cooling. The radio cooled off and stayed cool when not hooked up to the computer.

I dont know if the order of hookup had anything to do with the temps or not but just in case here is what I did.

Installed the driver into Windows.
Radio was on and set to a non receiving freq.
plugged the programing cable into the radio.
Plugged the radio into the computer and windows finished the driver install and assigned COM3
Opened CHIRPS and downloaded the radio memory.**

** durring the download process CHIRPS had a message that instructed me how to hook the radio to the computer, stating to have the radio powered off, plug in the cable, power up the radio and choose the com port and download.

Could having the radio powered up before the CHIRPS software instructed have caused the radio to get hot?

Thanks for any help!

Dom

Dom,

It sounds to me like your radio is transmitting when the programming cable is plugged in. This is an indication that you have an incompatible driver installed.

If your programming cable has an unauthorized copy of a Prolific USB-to-serial chip in it (many do) and you are programming with Windows, you will have to downgrade the driver to an older compatible driver.

V2.0.2.1: Windows XP
V3.2.0.0: Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1

See this web page for links to the drivers and instructions to install them.

Prolific FTDI Windows Cable Drivers

Another possibility is that the programming cable is not fully plugged into the radio.

Jim KC9HI

 

[jonwienke]

If your radio is transmitting when the data cable is plugged in it's one of the following:

1. The cable is not seated properly. Unless you get the actual baofeng FTDI-chipset cable, you may have to shave some material off the plug on the side that faces the back of the radio for it to seat properly.

2. Defective cable. If you got yours for $5-6 off Amazon or eBay, it probably uses a fake Prolific chip which is problematic at best and may have wiring shorts. I found this out the hard way.

Spend the money and get this cable ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HUB0ONK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) and all of your driver problems and transmitting-while-programming errors will go away.

 

[temchik]

Thank you, thank you! Downgrading to 3.2 worked like a charm! The radio no longer transmits while plugged in

This is what I had to do - go to Device Manager and right click on Prolific Serial to USB device, go to Properties and Uninstall the driver. Then unplug the cable, download and install the 3.2 driver from the above link. Then plug the cable back in. It still installed 3.4, so go to the device properties again and choose Update driver, Browse my Computer for driver software, then "Let me pick from a list..." and there should be 2 drivers listed now, choose 3.2

Thanks!

 

[temchik]

So, having to downgrade it seems that a cable sold as "genuine" by BaofengTech is, in fact, an unauthorized copy of a Prolific chipset?

 

[KC9HI]

So, having to downgrade it seems that a cable sold as "genuine" by BaofengTech is, in fact, an unauthorized copy of a Prolific chipset?

How long ago did you get this cable. The current BaofengTech website seems to be only selling programming cables with "genuine" FTDI chips. No cables with Prolific chips in sight.

Jim KC9HI

 

[temchik]

I got it from Amazon, the seller was BaofengTech about a month ago

 

[jonwienke]

I have a baofengtech ftdi cable, works first time every time. You have to be careful on amazon, there can be multiple sellers for a single listing, and if you don't manually pick the right one, you can buy from someone you didn't intend to. And get something you didn't intend to.

 

[joeuser]

So true!