Homemade XG-100P Cables on Ebay??

[Teotwaki]

I saw these on Ebay and am wondering if anyone has bought one and beat on it for a while. OEM cables are severely overpriced but does this offering deserve it's price of $89 ? I know nothing about the costs to invest in printing these things, sourcing the internal parts and so on. However, are the pins spring loaded and can the body take the strain of being clamped down and not crack after repeated use?

It consists of a "3D printed" connector body with a paper printer type of USB socket and an ordinary USB printer cable to connect to your computer. The connector head is very rough looking and has an additional coat of some kind of goo-looking plastic over the body, maybe to keep it from collapsing?.

Ebay link

 

[bjohnson9614]

I bought one of these a several months ago when I got an XG. The thing feels heavy and fits on pretty well. The thumb screw is captive and holds it tight. I've used it many times and I can't see any major signs of wear. The pins are spring loaded.
The 3d printed casing feels like it was printed with a high infill/wall thickness. I deal with 3D printing for my job, and I've tried to source parts vs printing them ourselves. It gets expensive either paying a company like Xometry or buying your own printer. I will say, the casing on mine looks better than the photos you shared. That extra "coating" on the outside seems to be holding the two halves together.

 

[Teotwaki]

I bought one of these a several months ago when I got an XG. The thing feels heavy and fits on pretty well. The thumb screw is captive and holds it tight. I've used it many times and I can't see any major signs of wear. The pins are spring loaded.
The 3d printed casing feels like it was printed with a high infill/wall thickness. I deal with 3D printing for my job, and I've tried to source parts vs printing them ourselves. It gets expensive either paying a company like Xometry or buying your own printer. I will say, the casing on mine looks better than the photos you shared. That extra "coating" on the outside seems to be holding the two halves together.

Thanks! The pix are straight off of Ebay

 

[bjohnson9614]

Thanks! The pix are straight off of Ebay

No problem. Yeah, it looks like they haven't updated them in a while.

 

[KC8ONR]

Works great , I have one. You wont be disappointed

 

[redbeard]

I use one as well, better than $200 for OEM.

 

[nikronzo]

I saw these on Ebay and am wondering if anyone has bought one and beat on it for a while. OEM cables are severely overpriced but does this offering deserve it's price of $89 ? I know nothing about the costs to invest in printing these things, sourcing the internal parts and so on. However, are the pins spring loaded and can the body take the strain of being clamped down and not crack after repeated use?

It consists of a "3D printed" connector body with a paper printer type of USB socket and an ordinary USB printer cable to connect to your computer. The connector head is very rough looking and has an additional coat of some kind of goo-looking plastic over the body, maybe to keep it from collapsing?.

Ebay link

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Don't bite the hand that feeds you...

 

[W4KRR]

Would this cable work with the XG-75?

 

[adamr368]

Would this cable work with the XG-75?

No - this will only work for the XG-100p and newer radios. There is a serial cable for the XG-75 that's rather expensive, part number: CA-023407-001. I have one of these and it arrived looking much nicer than the pictures and so far works perfectly.

 

[prcguy]

Don't bite the hand that feeds you...

Is that your ad on eBay?

 

[nikronzo]

I don't advertise anything

 

[adamr368]

Works great , I have one. You wont be disappointed

Totally agree - whomever made these did a really nice job and it works perfectly. In reality, this is really a backup plan for Bluetooth programming so it won't be used as much as a legacy serial cable would.

 

[TDR-94]

You can make your own, for less, using a modified quick disconnect audio adapter and a usb cable with a hirose connector. And it wouldn't look like melted cheese. Sorry, but I just couldn't have that hanging off my radio.

 

[northstarfire0693]

I have one and it works great.

 

[splinter34]

And if you're just a little creative, you can use the same audio adapter and make it work for programming and TTL.

 

[redbeard]

You can make your own, for less, using a modified quick disconnect audio adapter and a usb cable with a hirose connector. And it wouldn't look like melted cheese. Sorry, but I just couldn't have that hanging off my radio.

I typically don't wear around my radio with the programming cable still attached either...

 

[redbeard]

...and TTL.

To what end?

 

[TDR-94]

I typically don't wear around my radio with the programming cable still attached either...

I keep the QDA's attached to all my XG-100P's. That way I can just connect and disconnect the cable when need. It saves time from having to screw and unscrew the programming cable and keeps the UDC covered. Plus it also helps prevent wear and tear on the UDC connector itself and the housing.

And.... it doesn't look like something squeezed out of a playdough machine.

 

[NavyBOFH]

You can make your own, for less, using a modified quick disconnect audio adapter and a usb cable with a hirose connector. And it wouldn't look like melted cheese. Sorry, but I just couldn't have that hanging off my radio.

So your alternative is to buy a $35-$50 Hirose adapter, modify it from audio to data lines, and then buy a USB cable and hack a Hirose onto the end of it?

You can do that if you want but $90 to have essentially the same "hackery" done for you is money well spent considering you're up to $70 deep and half an hour out of your life for your "for less" mentality. Whatever to save a buck I guess...

 

[prcguy]

So your alternative is to buy a $35-$50 Hirose adapter, modify it from audio to data lines, and then buy a USB cable and hack a Hirose onto the end of it?

You can do that if you want but $90 to have essentially the same "hackery" done for you is money well spent considering you're up to $70 deep and half an hour out of your life for your "for less" mentality. Whatever to save a buck I guess...

Or you could get the 430-$50 Hirose adapter, move the pins around for programming, loose the Hirose connector and solder a free USB cable to it. Use a grommet or similar at the cable/adapter junction and you would have a good and cheap programming cable you could be proud of.