EFJ 5300 Programming Cable

[AESFTW]

Looking to purchase a cable for the 5300 non lightning head. Been through the loops and dumped money to RFGuys to no avail.

 

[FedFyrGuy]

If all else fails: EF Johnson 5100, 5300 programming *Can do CAP codeplug!* | eBay

 

[DeoVindice]

I have one. If you build a codeplug and send it to me, I'll load it into your radio for the cost of shipping.

 

[buddrousa]

Looking to purchase a cable for the 5300 non lightning head. Been through the loops and dumped money to RFGuys to no avail.

This cable did not work? What is the problem?

 

[MTS2000des]

Most likely RF Guys never shipped the cable. Apparently the owner passed away and they are no longer taking/processing orders:

RFGuys.com Update

The owner of RFguys has recently passed away and we will be temporarily shutting down the website while we figure things out. This means we will not be receiving orders or shipping items from or to our customers. This shutdown could be anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years. We are...

docs.google.com

 

[W0VNE]

I designed a pretty nice one for the 5300 series. I bought one of the RF guys cables and it worked more often than not but really puzzled me why not all the time so I found that they use the old current loop (Think WWII teletype connections) and
I used to sell them on EBAY for $50.00 I am sorry to hear about the owner passing he had cables for.... everything! Anyway I would sell you one (Mine has blinky lights to show data and power from the radio) but I'm overseas taking care of my girlfriend. If you are interested I'm going to try to get back into the world of rehabbing 5100 and 5300 radios after some health, relationship (Ha EVERYTHING) problems shut me down. All fixed, divorced plus I bought a place with an acre of land for wire antennas. Anyhow if you can wait until April 8th (Actually she is starting to get better so if the airlines aren't too persnickity about date changes I might be home sooner.

 

[n2mci]

If you Google EFJ5300 service manual, there is a schematic in it near the end. Page 8-85? It's a little more involved than a TTL RS-232 cable.
Might be worth a shot, if you can't find anything. Good luck, Pete

 

[AESFTW]

This cable did not work? What is the problem?

Paid several months ago. Never received the programming cable or any communications. I have sent numerous emails to no avail. Funny though as my keyload cable came almost immediately.

 

[AESFTW]

I designed a pretty nice one for the 5300 series. I bought one of the RF guys cables and it worked more often than not but really puzzled me why not all the time so I found that they use the old current loop (Think WWII teletype connections) and
I used to sell them on EBAY for $50.00 I am sorry to hear about the owner passing he had cables for.... everything! Anyway I would sell you one (Mine has blinky lights to show data and power from the radio) but I'm overseas taking care of my girlfriend. If you are interested I'm going to try to get back into the world of rehabbing 5100 and 5300 radios after some health, relationship (Ha EVERYTHING) problems shut me down. All fixed, divorced plus I bought a place with an acre of land for wire antennas. Anyhow if you can wait until April 8th (Actually she is starting to get better so if the airlines aren't too persnickity about date changes I might be home sooner.

That would be great! Take your time and do what you need to do, I would gladly purchase one.

 

[W0VNE]

Thanks for being patient. Just an update. I'm in the UK taking care of my Girlfriend who had some major surgery so I can't do anything until I return which is supposed to be 7 April but if she continues to improve may be sooner. I've been out of the business myself for a while due to really scary health stuff that thankfully was resolved plus selling my house and moving into a new (130 year old house) which needed serious work to be able to live in without freezing (ha..) Anyway I'm collecting equipment and some radios to refurbish. I have a small mountain of EF Johnson 5300 / 5100 series 800 MHz (700 MHz) radios which is not my thing but here maybe some folks here are into them? I focus on VHF radios for use by the Civil Air Patrol. Anyway I've lots of catch up to do with some customers who got stuck where I just wasn't able to repair stuff sent in and so forth. But... I do have a supply of programmers for the 5300 series which with a few parts to solder are ready to go. I'm sort of proud of these. The current loop stuff in ancient history like me so I think its done properly and work 10 out of 10 times and thanks to a friend who actually has done design to sales (I just did design) I learned enough to build and be able to sell making a few bucks and not have the cost of the thing make it too crazy. So $50 when I get home and you get blinky leds when data is moving and Leds to tell you if your connection to the radio is firm. And I actually still make a few bucks? *I've never designed with cost of materials being thought out very much. I always had a guy that would do component purchase and the stuff I worked on was sort of like Harris or Thales designs. Gold plated everything not intended to be affordable by anything less than government with deep pockets. And speaking of those two outfits I'm working on adding them to my little micro business.

 

[_Tix_]

That would be great! Take your time and do what you need to do, I would gladly purchase one.

Hi Everyone! Adding / maybe reviving this thread for my first post here.

Was anyone able to actually build a cable? I too am willing to pay to obtain one as my EFJ 5300ES is unusable w/o programming.
Also, does anyone happen to know where to find a driver for Win OS?

Thank you much!

 

[Houston7831]

Adding my own reply as I'm in the same boat. Since RF Guys is out for the forseeable future I am also looking for a 5300 Programming cable for the lightning head, and a 5300 keyloading cable.

Hopefully you guys have some leads.

Thanks!

 

[ee1993]

Reviving old thread here: I am just now loading new code plugs in 53ES and old 5300 radios. I have never found a USB to serial adapter that would work with the mobiles but they do work for me with 51xx portables. I have a Windows 10 Pro older Dell Optoplex 7020, bought refurbished $200 from Walmart online. It has a 9-pin physical serial port connector. I use the EF Johnson 023-5300-000 RIB. Works for all versions except 1.30.7 will not run on the PC. 2.18.6 is latest I have for the version 6 radios. The install for 2.18 required some kind of security program so I was expecting it to ask for a key device, but no, it worked.

My main programming computer was a lenovo ThinkPad XP laptop with a PCMCIA serial card installed for the serial port. It does run 1.30. However, the serial card broke and I can't get another one to work even though it is installed and enumerated as a COM port. Likely different chipset. I have also used a RF Guys cable in place of the RIB to program a 5318 with HHC. That worked no problem but with the old laptop. Whish I could find a good Panasonic ToughBook with serial port and XP.

You can get all the software here: EF Johnson - W9CR

 

[ee1993]

software

Reviving old thread here: I am just now loading new code plugs in 53ES and old 5300 radios. I have never found a USB to serial adapter that would work with the mobiles but they do work for me with 51xx portables. I have a Windows 10 Pro older Dell Optoplex 7020, bought refurbished $200 from Walmart online. It has a 9-pin physical serial port connector. I use the EF Johnson 023-5300-000 RIB. Works for all versions except 1.30.7 will not run on the PC. 2.18.6 is latest I have for the version 6 radios. The install for 2.18 required some kind of security program so I was expecting it to ask for a key device, but no, it worked.

My main programming computer was a lenovo ThinkPad XP laptop with a PCMCIA serial card installed for the serial port. It does run 1.30. However, the serial card broke and I can't get another one to work even though it is installed and enumerated as a COM port. Likely different chipset. I have also used a RF Guys cable in place of the RIB to program a 5318 with HHC. That worked no problem but with the old laptop. Whish I could find a good Panasonic ToughBook with serial port and XP.

You can get all the software here:

Any way I can edit my last post? Should read you can get documents here

 

[kd4efm]

Any way I can edit my last post? Should read you can get documents here

you have like 15 min to edit the post before it locks down.

 

[DeoVindice]

Reviving old thread here: I am just now loading new code plugs in 53ES and old 5300 radios. I have never found a USB to serial adapter that would work with the mobiles but they do work for me with 51xx portables. I have a Windows 10 Pro older Dell Optoplex 7020, bought refurbished $200 from Walmart online. It has a 9-pin physical serial port connector. I use the EF Johnson 023-5300-000 RIB. Works for all versions except 1.30.7 will not run on the PC. 2.18.6 is latest I have for the version 6 radios. The install for 2.18 required some kind of security program so I was expecting it to ask for a key device, but no, it worked.

My main programming computer was a lenovo ThinkPad XP laptop with a PCMCIA serial card installed for the serial port. It does run 1.30. However, the serial card broke and I can't get another one to work even though it is installed and enumerated as a COM port. Likely different chipset. I have also used a RF Guys cable in place of the RIB to program a 5318 with HHC. That worked no problem but with the old laptop. Whish I could find a good Panasonic ToughBook with serial port and XP.

You can get all the software here: EF Johnson - W9CR

I've been using a Keyspan USA-19HS adapter with an RFGuys cable and operating systems up to Windows 10 for years now with no issues.

 

[ee1993]

I'll order a Triplite Keyspan USA-19HS adapter.

One note: The 5317 VHF radios are now hard to find. I have had good success with the large trunk mount 100W VHF with remote head (or HHC). These are essentially a 5318 with a bolted on two transistor amplifier. They come as high-band split so the will not cover the lower CAP channels. However, you can change the band-split using PCTune. The radio's power then drops to exactly fifty watts (CAP compliant). The only thing different is that the current on transmit will be about two amps higher than a 5317. The HHC can make for a stealthy installation.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I use the EFJ URI myself with both raw serial data and a Brainboxes US-235 for the 5300 series. I even have the adapter to adapt over to the lightning head (though I've found having a bench jig with a spare standard head is a good alternative).

Still working on keyloading. I've not yet found a working pinout for building a standard head keyload cable. Even when trying to adapt EFJ keyload cables over.

 

[ee1993]

I've been using a Keyspan USA-19HS adapter with an RFGuys cable and operating systems up to Windows 10 for years now with no issues.

Yes, just got the Keyspan USA-19HS adapter and it works. I understand that it has full positive and negative swings whereas most low cost adapters only go positive.