[chirp_users] Programming Cable Guide

[Dan Smith]

> Yes, the FTDI chips can be used with either a Virtual Com Port (VCP)
> driver which provides a COMn interface under windows and then you have to
> figure out what com port to open or it can be used with a direct driver (D2XX)
> where the USB bus is searched for a matching Vendor and Product ID (VID/PID).

Right, okay. I guess I didn't realize it was a typical FTDI chip, but 
again I've never had my hands on one.

> Yes, it would be difficult for CHIRP or other cross platform software to
> work with the FTDI direct interface because of the binary issues.
>
> There are libraries (libftdi) that can be used.  I've seen stuff use
> it though some of the stuff that uses it is for bit banging and other
> cases where more direct control is needed.
>
> As I mentioned there are two types of work around:
>
> 1.) Change the VID/PID<->  driver associations so you get the virtual comm port
>       style driver (or the linux ftdi_sio driver to load, like in your icomsio.sh script)
>
> or
>
> 2.) Change the VID/PID on the FTDI chip to the standard VID/PID for FTDI serial adapters.
>      (which I think is in eeprom but never tried it)

Yep, these are good to know, and worth documenting for sure. However, 
for most "normal folk" this means it won't work with CHIRP or other 
programming software. So, maybe not malicious on their part, but I'd 
still steer people away from their cables if they're hoping to do 
anything else with them.

If you want to document the windows or linux procedures for above on the 
wiki, that'd be awesome.

-- 
Dan Smith
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS