kenwood style programming cable failure rate?? just got a new one and.......

[WalterEKurtz]

i just bought a new baofeng cable for programming a new uv-k6 and the software says "paired" on the device manager ch340 etc. but then wont actually link up. ive got the factory non modified software running with all of my chosen freqs. entered successfully but it keeps indicating that the link is no good even with new radio, cable and software!!,,,IS THERE A HIGH ENOUGH FAILURE rate on these kenwood style cables for these radios that i need to buy another new cable or what??

thanks for any info.,, im new to this and dont have the hundreds of dollars that a lot of people obviously do.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I've never had an issue with them. Granted, I tend to use OE Kenwood cables, serial when possible.

 

[Listener1440]

I have a version of the Quansheng UV-K5 and use two different cables with chirp. There was an issues with drivers earlier but that was cleared up. May I suggest you look at the Budget and Entry Level Transceivers forum. There is a lot of discussion on these radios.

 

[mm9351]

i just bought a new baofeng cable for programming a new uv-k6 and the software says "paired" on the device manager ch340 etc. but then wont actually link up. ive got the factory non modified software running with all of my chosen freqs. entered successfully but it keeps indicating that the link is no good even with new radio, cable and software!!,,,IS THERE A HIGH ENOUGH FAILURE rate on these kenwood style cables for these radios that i need to buy another new cable or what??

thanks for any info.,, im new to this and dont have the hundreds of dollars that a lot of people obviously do.

Hey Walter, not to worry as I experienced the same issue. I was unable to link to my PC and when I tried to flash the memory using said cable it would only get to around 50 % at best during a flash procedure. Then the radio appeared bricked, as the display no longer worked (incomplete flashing). On many low-cost i.e. cheap programming cables even those branded "Baofeng" they are not manufactured to tight tolerances, meaning the pin lengths and distances on the K1 connector are off. Making matters worse is the socket on the K6 is deeply recessed further leading to a bad connection. So... what you need to do is press and hold the connector VERY FIRMLY into the radio port when pairing or flashing your radio. After dozens and dozens of failures...I got it to work... after many others would have completely given up. I persevered. You may want to buy another cable or 2 which will have a better fit and then toss the bad cables to the recycle bid as I did. Good luck and let me know if this helps.

 

[kayn1n32008]

i just bought a new baofeng cable for programming a new uv-k6 and the software says "paired" on the device manager ch340 etc. but then wont actually link up. ive got the factory non modified software running with all of my chosen freqs. entered successfully but it keeps indicating that the link is no good even with new radio, cable and software!!,,,IS THERE A HIGH ENOUGH FAILURE rate on these kenwood style cables for these radios that i need to buy another new cable or what??

thanks for any info.,, im new to this and dont have the hundreds of dollars that a lot of people obviously do.

You're buying $20 radios that have zero QA/QC. You get what you pay for.

Most of my programming cables are from a couple different vendors on ebay, about $35/cable. My XPR portable cable came from a random chinese seller and its worked just fine. I've not had any issues with any of my cables including my home made XPR4550/5550 cable.

 

[ladn]

I've had good results with this cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HUB0ONK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[mc48]

Some of the cables have an unsupported chipset, make sure the one you have is the correct version. I believe you need a FTDI chipset but verify for yourself. PL2303 chipset is not supported in Win11.

 

[sallen07]

PL2303 chipset is not supported in Win11.

Please don't tell the two PL2303 USB-to-serial converters I have connected to my Windows 11 PC that.

 

[mc48]

Won't work with either of mine according to Chirp pop up. Unsupported driver. It worked with my old Win10 machines though.

 

[sallen07]

Have you tried downloading the latest drivers?

Products

I quit using Chirp and deleted it from my PC quite a while ago, but that doesn't really matter since these are scanner connections anyways. Perhaps it's a Chirp-specific problem.

 

[WalterEKurtz]

Thanks to everyone for the tips, i dont think its a "brick" yet because it seems to operate correctly if you manually enter the freqs. but that is way to tedious when you consider all of the other info. that needs to be entered for each freq. (at least for me) Ive got another cable on the way so maybe it will work.

 

[sallen07]

@mc48 ... I see what you mean now. I went downstairs and grabbed a TYT "K-type" programming cable and plugged it into my Windows 11 PC and got this in device manager:



I guess this cable uses the "PL2303TA" varient, which is NOT supported in Windows 11. (There are a bunch of other variants that ARE supported.)

As I said earlier, I quit using Chirp and strictly use RT Systems programming software now except for a couple radios where I have to use the vendor software.

@WalterEKurtz here are a couple better cables:

Wouxun WXUSB USB Radio Programming Cable – BetterSafeRadio

Easily program your Wouxun radio from your PC (Windows or Mac with Parallels) over USB. Free programming software. Fits most Wouxun Two-Way radios.

bettersaferadio.com

Kenwood, Wouxun, TYT, TDXOne & Baofeng USB-K4Y Cable

www.rtsystemsinc.com

I bought the Wouxun cable from buytwowayradios.com but looks like they are sold out. That's the cable I use if I am programming a radio with a K connector and not using RT Systems software. The second one is the RT Systems that *must* be used with their software, but I think will work with other software like Chirp too.

 

[WalterEKurtz]

Another possibility??? i read somewhere that you cant use firefox browser to do the programming on these particular type radios, that youve got to use chrome. ive tried both with the same results (bad) but i normally run firefox and have never had problems when programming my uniden bct15x or the bc125at with a windows 7 64bit OS. and (freescan). ive tried out the higher operating systems and i hate them. (im old gimmee a break). all of the minimum requirements that are listed by all of the different manufacturers in question that im trying to use indicate that win7 is still ok. some of them will still even work on XP. the programming software im using is the "QS Portable Radio CPS" . ive also tried freescan and chirp with the same results. i guess im just gonna wait till the new cable gets here, sorry for buggin you guys, this is just really getting old fast.

 

[mc48]

I had to upgrade that cable and my USB to serial cable last spring after I upgraded my PC and laptop. PITA that nothing is compatible, Bad for consumers but good for manufacturers. Both computers had to be replaced as neither of those was upgradeable to Win11 either.