Programming cable USB/Serial question

[Radioman_911]

I just bought a BC346XT scanner and it included the programming cable but connection for a serial port... i went to ham radio outlet and they sold me a special cable that converts serial to USB for $25. My question is if i return that cable and just went and picked up a basic serial to USB adapter it should work the same as that Serial to USB cable that Ham Radio Outlet sold me right?

 

[ofd8001]

I tried that with no success. I got the Uniden USB cable and it works like a champ.

https://www.scannermaster.com/USB_Cable_p/01-551038.htm

 

[rmosier]

I remember there being something about the scanner requiring a different voltage than a regular USB cable will provide. The Uniden cable compensates for this. Maybe the scanner was designed that way intentionally to sell the cables.

 

[ProScan]

I remember there being something about the scanner requiring a different voltage than a regular USB cable will provide. The Uniden cable compensates for this. Maybe the scanner was designed that way intentionally to sell the cables.

That's not true. The signal's at the scanner are at standard RS-232 levels which are plus and neg. 12 volts. USB converters gets its power from the computer side. Most likely the driver is not the latest or could be a 32 bit driver for a 64 bit system that's the issue.

 

[jackj]

ProScan is correct. Any USB to RS-232 converter should work without problems IF the driver is written for the computer's operating system.

I would also like to point out that both RS-232 and USB are serial protocols.

 

[rmosier]

My bad. I was thinking of the data slicer in the cable for my AR8200. Sorry about that.