TK-862G-1 - KPG-56D - Noob Question

[uuacallis]

Good Morning,
So Picked up 2 of the Kenwood TK-862G-1's from an online auction last week, both came in so I was getting around to playing with them.

I have a FTDI based USB to 6 wire KP-4 cable which from all accounts is pinned out to work on KP46 as well.

I have tried running on Windows XP, Windows 7, DosBox, and Mac natively yet I am having absolutely no luck.

1) I got the USB Working properly so it recognizes it as a serial port
2) I got the KPG-56D software installed (tried 2.0 and 4.2)
3) When I tell it to "read from radio" the little red light on the radio comes on and the "P" shows up on the display where the channel would be
4) Immediately comes back and says "Check your communication" as if the radio is not responding.

Is there some magic step or other trick that needs to occur on these things to get the software to be able to read / program them?

thanks,
Adam

 

[KK6ZTE]

I used KPG-56D v4.22 on Windows 7 and Windows 10 with no issues whatsoever.

I think the problem is likely in your programming cable. Since you said you're sure the cable is an FTDI chipset, drivers are not likely the issue (though should be checked). There's no "programming" mode you have to manually enter like on the older radios.

It has been awhile since I've had a 60 series radio, but I used a KPG-4 equivalent cable like you have and it works fine. It's not great on the contacts inside the radio, but it's a moot point.

Verify your drivers are up to date, and see if the cable will work on another radio. Short of that, find a computer with a real serial port and get a serial programming cable. Was your choice of programming cable solely based on cost?

Sometimes they don't step down to TTL properly.

 

[uuacallis]

I did get the latest drivers for windows xp, windows 7, and even the mac os to see if any could support it.

The issue with the real serial port is the TTL levels vs the RS232 levels. Unfortunately none of the hardware I have laying around can handle TTL and only one box has an actual old fashioned serial. Everything else is USB to serial adapted.

So the cable wasn't a cost issue, more of a convenience since I don't have any non-USB computers.

I do have an RealTek cable that I know worked before for a Yaesu that has a combined TX/RX.
I have built the dual buffers to make it separate TX from RX. Perhaps that is the best bet at this point..

Argh..

 

[KK6ZTE]

Even the actual serial cables have a chip that converts RS232 to TTL logic. If you have the Yeasu cable, I don't see why you couldn't make an adapter to make it work with the Kenwood temporarily.

You might try one of the cheapo Prolific clone cables. Ironically I seem to have less issues with those (once I get the correct driver selected) than the FTDI.

 

[uuacallis]

Ok, well I confirmed it is indeed the cable.

I ended up buying a serial version and using a separate USB to serial adapter and low and behold it works.

thanks all for the help on this one, going to post a separate question momentarily.