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TK-790H Programming Cable Help

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W8UU

Pilot of the Airwaves
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Going to try to program my TK-790H. Looking on eBay for programming cables and I find some with a USB port and others with an RS232 port. The other end is the round proprietary Kenwood mic plug. Does it matter which cable I purchase? Is there a difference in how the cable will work or extra things I'll need on one vs. the other? Thank you!
 

a417

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Does it matter which cable I purchase? Is there a difference in how the cable will work or extra things I'll need on one vs. the other? Thank you!
The serial one can be built from an old mic cable in about 15 minutes, the USB one has a bit more under the cover and is more demanding to assemble (should you build your own).

The computer that I use for programming has a 9 pin serial port, so I use that. If the computer didn't have that...you'd have to either use USB or provide it a serial port. It depends on the infrastructure at hand.
 

dispatch235

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I have bought several programming cords from this ebay seller and have had zero issues with any of them... but they all have had the ftdi chipset that is plug and play with windows.
This is the one I have programmed several TK-790's with including my own and it has worked flawlessly
 

DeoVindice

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I have bought several programming cords from this ebay seller and have had zero issues with any of them... but they all have had the ftdi chipset that is plug and play with windows.
This is the one I have programmed several TK-790's with including my own and it has worked flawlessly

While I have not used TK-x90 mobiles, I have also bought several USB-serial cables from that seller with excellent results.
 

n7maq-1

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You can also read/write data (I don't believe you can do firmware though)) files via the rear DB-25 with just a plain of the shelf rs232 modem cable. If all you computer has is USB, then try to use an FTDI chip for any RS232 conversion.

Jim
 

sfd745

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I have a few of both usb and serial between radio bags and the shop. i prefer serial but the USB ones from Sundely and such are fine. the FTDI chips are ok, if you can find ones with legitimate Prolific chips, they seem to work the best.
 
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