n2jtx
Member
I have never used a genuine Radio Shack cable with a PRO-163. When I got a PRO-163 back in July 2011 on eBay, I downloaded a trial copy of PSREdit300 and discovered that a programming cable I have for a Yaesu VX-7RB, that uses a PL-2303 chip, worked fine. So I paid for a full version of the software and used that setup for years until the cable was disabled in Windows due to issues with the PL-2303 chip in the cable being an unauthorized Chinese clone. I replaced the cable with a genuine FTDI chip based cable and continue to do programming with it to this day.
What I discovered though is neither VX-7RB cable could upgrade the firmware. It never made any sense that the cable could program the radio without issues but the v1.08 and v1.10 upgrade modules could not interface to the radio with the VX-7RB cable. On a wild hunch, I tried a PL-2303 based Yaesu CAT cable for my Yaesu FT-879D, using a quick and dirty cable to convert the 8-pin mini-DIN plug to a stereo plug, and found it did work with firmware programming. I got my PRO-163 up to v1.08 and later v1.10 without any issues. I later discovered the same quick-and-dirty cable, using a stereo to mono adapter, could also program a PRO-2018 using ProLink.
Fast forward to his past July. I got another PRO-163 on eBay for $29 total that was described as not powering on. Turned out the power transformer cable was broken. A different power supply worked fine. The radio came with firmware v1.07. It did work but I really wanted to upgrade to at least v1.08 so I could get the line 4 alpha tag enhancement and also get rid of the startup beep. However, no matter what I did, I could not get the PC to communicate with the PRO-163. Even the first PRO-163 I had. I thought that it might have been related to the fact that the last time I did a firmware upgrade I was running Windows XP but now I was running Windows 10. Well, after three weeks I suddenly had the idea to test my little mini-DIN to stereo plug cable. Oops! It turned out the RX data wire in the mini-DIN jack had broken off LOL. Never thought to check it earlier. So after soldering it back, I was able to upgrade the PRO-163 to v1.10 and all is well. The alpha tag on line 4 is present and it does not beep when it powers on.
What I discovered though is neither VX-7RB cable could upgrade the firmware. It never made any sense that the cable could program the radio without issues but the v1.08 and v1.10 upgrade modules could not interface to the radio with the VX-7RB cable. On a wild hunch, I tried a PL-2303 based Yaesu CAT cable for my Yaesu FT-879D, using a quick and dirty cable to convert the 8-pin mini-DIN plug to a stereo plug, and found it did work with firmware programming. I got my PRO-163 up to v1.08 and later v1.10 without any issues. I later discovered the same quick-and-dirty cable, using a stereo to mono adapter, could also program a PRO-2018 using ProLink.
Fast forward to his past July. I got another PRO-163 on eBay for $29 total that was described as not powering on. Turned out the power transformer cable was broken. A different power supply worked fine. The radio came with firmware v1.07. It did work but I really wanted to upgrade to at least v1.08 so I could get the line 4 alpha tag enhancement and also get rid of the startup beep. However, no matter what I did, I could not get the PC to communicate with the PRO-163. Even the first PRO-163 I had. I thought that it might have been related to the fact that the last time I did a firmware upgrade I was running Windows XP but now I was running Windows 10. Well, after three weeks I suddenly had the idea to test my little mini-DIN to stereo plug cable. Oops! It turned out the RX data wire in the mini-DIN jack had broken off LOL. Never thought to check it earlier. So after soldering it back, I was able to upgrade the PRO-163 to v1.10 and all is well. The alpha tag on line 4 is present and it does not beep when it powers on.
