My Son’s vol FD moved over to a Phase 2 system a couple of years ago and one of the guys knowledgeable about scanners suggested a bulk order for BCD996P2’s for those individuals interested. An order was placed and the programming was done by the guy who suggested the scanner upgrade. Fast forward to yesterday when I updated the scanner for my Son, adding a couple of systems that had recently changed their mode… and the supplied black data cable that came with the BCD996P2 did not work. So I used one that I had with success. My cable color is white as opposed to the black cables that Uniden supplies, it must have come from some other device, possibly from a dash cam from Garmin. My Son never used the data cable that came with the scanner. So, there it was, in the box with a wire tie wrap inside a plastic bag, ready for its first ever usage, and it failed. But since the cable I used was NOT one from Uniden I wondered if there was another item in the mix such as a driver that recognized the white cable I have and overwrote any common driver that is normally included in Windows 11? It’s been way too long to remember if I had to install a driver for any Garmin dash cams. So, there it is… Is my Son’s “never used” cable defective? Anyone else experience the same problem? (I do have the cable for my SDS100, which uses the same USB plug as the BCD996P2, but the white cable was readily available so I tried that one first and didn’t bother to see if the Uniden cable for the SDS100 worked or not. And since I no longer have my Son’s BCD996P2, I can’t test that out.)
BCD325P2/BCD996P2: BCD996P2-Bad data cable
- Thread starter n1chu
- Start date
No it is just a Standard USB cable I would agree with you bad cable.
Good to hear! It’s too late to do a warranty inquiry but there’s no need as I’ve got a spare or two. Thanks for your input.
I came across almost the exact same issue just six weeks or so ago! Basically, the OEM supplied USB cable would not work when trying to upgrade the firmware on my BCD325P2 as per Uniden’s own instructions! It wouldn‘t get very far before completely locking up. If memory serves me correctly ProScan was working fine regardless, but the firmware application just wouldn’t run!
See, the driver that Windows uses for serial communication over USB is a very basic driver that’s baked into the OS and hasn’t changed in many years. You’re not going to need to mess with it, but if it was a custom dongle with its own controller like those used to program a Baofeng that would be a different story. These are standard cables, so they use the de facto Windows driver.
That said, in the above case, I discovered that it was a simple bidirectional communications issue as there are settings associated with the COM Port in question. You could simply go into the Windows Device Manager to access those settings, but you’re NOT changing the driver. In my case, all that I needed to get the firmware upgrade application to work was enable “Hardware Flow Control” as it was previously “off.” The “Flow Control” setting will allow any bidirectional “handshaking” to take place. Additionally, it’s quite possible that the different USB cables are also showing up as different COM Ports, especially if plugged into different physical USB Ports!
I would start by simply ensuring that you’re using the correct COM Port for the OEM cable, e.g. if it shows up as “COM5” in the Device Manager, make sure that your programming application is looking on “COM5!” Next, verify that “Flow Control” is on and set to “Hardware” as that would definitely cause issues with bidirectional syncing! And, finally, I would plug in the white cable if it’s working and just note all of its settings in the Device Manager and subsequently ensure that the black cable is using the same settings. Other than with “Flow Control” this could make a difference, especially when different applications could be programmatically using the serial connection slightly different!
It sounds like a lot, but it really should only take you between 5 and 15 minutes to run through these steps. If it’s still not working thereafter, yeah, toss the cable. Take a look at my original post as I went through the steps that I took to figure it out and get it working that evening. That post could be found here:
BCD325P2/BCD996P2: - Easy Fix For BC_VUP3 Firmware Updater Locking Up After Selecting A COM Port
Hi all! I had an interesting issue with upgrading my BCD325P2 to the latest firmware this evening as the BC_VUP3 Firmware Updater would consistently lockup upon selecting a COM Port and clicking “next.” I felt it was safe to force close the program as (a) nothing indicated active connectivity...
Good luck and please let me know if this helped solve it or if it was just a bad cable!
As I won’t get a chance to update my son’s scanner for some time, you shouldn’t expect a reply concerning the cable anytime soon. But thanks for the input. I will save your post complete with the hyperlinks for when I do get my hands on the scanner.
And, although unrelated, I mistakenly referred to my son’s FD as upgrading to a P2 system. That is incorrect. First, it was the police dept in his town that caused the FD to look at buying in bulk to save money (each member paying out of their own pockets) and secondly, It’s a Project 25 system, not a Phase 2 system.
And, although unrelated, I mistakenly referred to my son’s FD as upgrading to a P2 system. That is incorrect. First, it was the police dept in his town that caused the FD to look at buying in bulk to save money (each member paying out of their own pockets) and secondly, It’s a Project 25 system, not a Phase 2 system.
