PSR-500: Drivers and Win10... a little advice sought

[chrisn]

Hi folks,

I have a GRE PSR-500 I bought a couple of years ago. It didn't come with the USB cable (nor the CD), so after a year or so of programming by hand I decided to try to track down a cable. I managed to find one recently and have just been trying to get it all going, with my Win10 PC and ARC500 software.

Ok, so... I can't get drivers to install properly. I've tried the GRE ones (v1.11 and 1.3a) from the GRE website, the Radio-Shack one from the ScannerMaster website, and the FTDI one from the FTDIChip website. I was hoping at least *one* would work!

The first of these, and one with which I persisted longest, was the GRE 1.3a driver. What I find, is when I try to install (running it as administrator), it comes up with this:

Trying to install *subsequent times* does not give this error, but the driver appears to get installed *twice* for some reason:


Note: the installation procedure (little DOS window with '.' chars, only stays up for about 1 second, and only shows one or two dots... which I suspect is a bad sign.

Anyway, I plug in the scanner and turn it on, and fire up ARC500. I'm getting no sign of life, this being the best I can get:

I presume the grey horizontal bar in the middle is a progress bar... it just stays grey.

I've spent a good couple of hours, trying all drivers (uninstalling after each attempt), USB2 and USB3 ports, and have had no luck whatsoever.

I'm pretty sure the cable is the right one (RADIOSHACK TRS USB Programming Cable) so presume this is mainly/solely a driver issue.

Having gone through these forums and elsewhere I cannot seem to find anything obvious as to why this is happening.

Would anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Chris in Oz

 

[buddrousa]

That is not the Radio Shack Cable that is a HOMEMADE EBAY CABLE.

 

[chrisn]

Hi Buddrousa,

I realise it's not an original... I thought Radio Shack (or Tandy Electronics as it was here in Australia) no longer existed? I didn't think one could purchase originals (except perhaps from the fairly unlikely case of someone selling one second-hand), and bought this from a company that makes up radio-specific cables. I would definitely have preferred an original. But I do think the driver is of greater concern at this point.

Regards,
Chris

 

[sallen07]

I would definitely have preferred an original. But I do think the driver is of greater concern at this point.

One option would be this:

Radio Scanner PC Interface Cable for WS1010/1025/1040/1065

PC Interface Cable for WS1010/WS1025

whistlergroup.com

I'm pretty sure the PSR-500 uses the same physical interface as its modern equivalent (WS1040).

I think there are three possibilities at this point:

1) The cable you bought is defective
2) The cable you bought uses a counterfeit FTDI chip. The newest FTDI drivers will not work with them.
3) The drivers that you installed are from 2009. I'd uninstall them and try the latest FTDI-supplied driver instead.

Does the cable even show up in Device Manager?

 

[jaspence]

None of the previous drivers will work with Windows 10. Uninstall all of them, restart the computer, and plug in the cable. IF the cable is good, the driver should be installed automatically. I am still using the cable that I purchased and used with Windows XP on my Windows 10 computer, so buddrousa likely has you on the right track.

 

[ka3jjz]

Actually why mess around with fleaBay when this cable from Whistler is known to work?

Radio Scanner PC Interface Cable for WS1010/1025/1040/1065

PC Interface Cable for WS1010/WS1025

whistlergroup.com

Mike

(edit) The WS1040 is really a PSR500 in another box

 

[ka3jjz]

And another possibility...

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

Radio Shack GRE Whistler FTDI USB Scanner Programming Cable 20-546 - Aftermarket equivalent to Radio Shack 20-546Includes adapter to program both mono jack (PC/IF) and stereo jack scannersNo programming software includedLength: 41 inchesAftermarket Scanne

www.valley-ent.com

Mike

 

[chrisn]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the feedback, and for the links to those cables. I'm open to everything, so yes perhaps my cable is at fault. For the record it was not purchased on eBay, but from a local-ish company that supplies and makes radio cables for the radio industry. It claims to be compatible with the Pro-106 and Pro-197 so I presumed it should also work with the GRE.

This is the first radio I've ever attempted to program via a PC, so the whole cable/driver/app side of things is new to me. It seems that my following the instructions to the letter (1. Install driver. 2. Plug in cable. 3. Run application software - *don't plug in the cable before installing the driver*) may not be so relevant in the current era. But because I could not get step 1 done without an error, I had been suspecting the driver/computer/OS.

Yes, it appears to come up in Device Manager:

And here are it's properties:


I tried the full uninstall and just plug in the cable without explicitly installing drivers, but it's still the same.

I presume one does not have to put the scanner into a "comms" mode for it to communicate with the computer? You just plug in and turn on, correct?

Cheers,
Chris

P.S. Thanks for the links to those cables!

 

[sallen07]

It claims to be compatible with the Pro-106 and Pro-197 so I presumed it should also work with the GRE.

I presume one does not have to put the scanner into a "comms" mode for it to communicate with the computer? You just plug in and turn on, correct?

OK it definitely appears to be loading the correct driver, and AFAIK it should work with the GRE if it works with the 106/197. You don't have to do anything on the scanner.

One thought ... as silly as it may seem, others have had this problem (and I've done it myself when re-arranging scanners): Make sure the cable is plugged into the PC/IF jack, not the Headphone jack (it will fit into either of them).

Have you tried unchecking the "cable type 2" box?

 

[tvengr]

Does your cable have a stereo or mono plug? The PSR-500 requires a TRS stereo plug. If your cable has a mono adapter on the end, remove it.

 

[tvengr]

I presume the grey horizontal bar in the middle is a progress bar... it just stays grey.

If the cable is working OK, ARC500 will show data transfer even if it is not plugged into a scanner.

 

[chrisn]

@sallen07 : Indeed, using the wrong socket wouldn't be hard to do, but no it's been plugged into the PC/IF socket on the side. And yep I've tried unticking that "cable type 2" box (I try with and without each time).
@tvengr : Yep, it's TRS, three conductors separated by two black rings. Good to know re the data transfer progress bar with the cable *unplugged* - it does indeed work, for *upload* but not for download (which I guess makes sense, seeing as there's no data source!) That's made me want to try uploading with the cable plugged in, but I don't want to lose all the stuff I'm manually programmed over the last year or so, which I suspect it might do.

So my testing has been essentially just this: Download From Scanner, and Virtual Control. I've done this for each of the three USB ports on my PC (2 x USB3 and 1 x USB2) just in case there was something freaky going on in their configuration. And I've tried most of these combos with and without the downloadable "drivers" (both versions) on the GRE website, and the FTDI drivers. But in all cases, no response whatsoever.

I think I'll send the cable back and see if they can make sense of it.

Much appreciate the feedback guys!

Cheers,
Chris

 

[gmclam]

I know many people have issues with the official cable's cost of ~$35, but you get what you pay for. Certainly if you understand the upload/download process technically, you could make most cables work. But it's not that simple. The official cables are designed to work with all GRE models (WS are the same design). You are better off to get the official cable, which has an FTDI chip, and will therefore utilize an FTDI driver.

 

[budevans]

chrisn,

If all else fails, you should try the following. Several days ago, Microsoft posted FTDI updated drivers. Here's where to find them. Settings - Update & Security - View optional updates.

 

[chrisn]

Thanks Bud, will give it a try.
Chris