PRO-160 cable

[w2lpa]

Resurrection of the closed thread Whistler and GRE/RS USB Programming Cable DIY
I recently got a PRO-160 from eBay. I was looking for an analog scanner with CB coverage and tags and happened into this one.
Went to try to program it with the two packages that work with it. ARC160 demo and ScanCat Lite.

Without having a programming cable, I tried a USB to 3.3V RS232 CP2104 board to stereo 1/8" jack, hooking up ground, TX, and RX.
The scanner did go into WIRED mode from Clone when I used ARC160 and told it to copy all banks. Other than that, it did not work.
ScanCat didn't work at all.

This is the first time I've failed at rigging up my own homebrewed cables (PRO 2041 and 2052 were straightforward RS232), so I'm giving up until I can procure a real one.

 

[w2lie]

The PRO-160 uses the mono cable to program. On the old RS cables, there was a Stereo to Mono cable adapter supplied so that you could program the older PRO series scanners.

 

[fxdscon]

so I'm giving up until I can procure a real one.

.
Use the included stereo to mono adaptor to connect to the PRO-160:

Radio Shack GRE Whistler FTDI Chipset USB Scanner Programming Cable 20-546 | eBay

Many people prefer FTDI because they know they work, while others want to save money or are not aware of the differences. What is the difference between FTDI and Prolific USB serial cable other than the FTDI are more expensive?.

www.ebay.com

 

[wtp]

29-54 / 108-174 / 179-512 / 764-956* / 1240-1300 MHz

if this is right, it will not do CB.
CB is 26.965 to 27.405
i did more checking it starts at 25, so you are good.
25-54 : VHF Low Band
108-137: AIR Band
137-174: VHF High Band 1
216-320: VHF High Band 2
320-512: UHF Band
764-956: 800MHz Band

 

[w2lpa]

29-54 / 108-174 / 179-512 / 764-956* / 1240-1300 MHz

if this is right, it will not do CB.
CB is 26.965 to 27.405

That's not right for this scanner. The PRO-160 definitely does CB, it's even in one of its preset search bands.

 

[wtp]

yep i edited my post in between after checking some more thanks !

 

[w2lpa]

.
Use the included stereo to mono adaptor to connect to the PRO-160:

Radio Shack GRE Whistler FTDI Chipset USB Scanner Programming Cable 20-546 | eBay

Many people prefer FTDI because they know they work, while others want to save money or are not aware of the differences. What is the difference between FTDI and Prolific USB serial cable other than the FTDI are more expensive?.

www.ebay.com

I tried using a stereo to mono. Didn't help.

 

[tvengr]

I tried using a stereo to mono. Didn't help.

Did you install the driver for the cable? Do you see a COM port when you plug in the cable?

 

[w2lpa]

Yes. To clarify, this is an FTDI USB to Serial board that I use with my Arduino Pro Mini and it works just fine with that.

 

[w2lpa]

Yes. To clarify, this is an FTDI USB to Serial board that I use with my Arduino Pro Mini and it works just fine with that.

Anyway, it's good to taste failure sometimes: after the successes of getting all of my other computer-interfacable scanners working. If I happen across the cable cheaply, I'll come back to it.