[chirp_users] Icom ID-880H Macintosh Interconnectivity

[Mike Hannibal]

Just further to my last email.

I plugged the IC-7200 in and tried Download from Radio and immediately got a download. I have another driver for that radio installed however, from this information:

> Where can I get a Mac driver for my ICOM IC-7200, IC-7600, IC-9100, Kenwood TS-590S, Elecraft KX3 or Ten-Tec Eagle USB direct connect ?
> 
> The USB/UART Bridge chip inside the Icom and Kenwood radios is a Silicon Labs USB to UART Bridge Controller and the Mac drivers are available here.
> 
On this page: http://www.dogparksoftware.com/mldxfc_faq.html#connection


That driver doesn't show up in Network Prefs either but it works ;)

###

So spurred on I found this page: http://www.planet-rcs.de/article/mac_serial_port/

The key text is:

> After the installation has finished, you do not need to immediately reboot. Before rebooting your Mac you should plug in your USB-to-Serial Adaptor and open the Apple System Profiler (Apple-Menu > About this Mac > More Information). In the USB section note the Product-ID and Vendor-ID of your USB-to-Serial Adaptor. 
> 
> 
> 
> Now open a terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal), go to/System/Library/Extensions/ProlificUsbSerial.kext/Contents and open the file Info.plist(plist = Property List) in your favourite editor (e.g. vi). Now scroll down to the section starting with <key>067B_2303</key> (it may differ a bit, important is the part "2303"). In this section locate the entries idProduct and idVendor and fill in the values gathered from the System Profiler a few minutes earlier. It should then look something like this:
> <key>067B_2303</key>
>                 <dict>
>                         ...
>                         <key>idProduct</key>
>                         <integer>8963</integer>
>                         <key>idVendor</key>
>                         <integer>1659</integer>
>                 </dict>
> 
> 



Having done that in vi and saved the file I then loaded the kext using kextload and lo and behold I had a new serial port available.

I went into Chirp and it was there and I could download from the ID-880H!!

I thought I'd post this for completeness in case anybody else had this problem.

Kind regards
Mike
VK3ZMH

On 15/09/2012, at 6:25 PM, Mike Hannibal <pelorus32 at gmail.com> wrote:

>>> 1. Can you use the Icom OPC-1529R cable with Chirp and a USB-serial
>>>    adapter?
>> 
>> Yep, should be able to.
> 
> Thanks for the response Dan.
> 
> OK I've tried both the OPC-1529R with the Belkin adaptor and the OPC478UC - the USB cable with absolutely no luck. Both these cables are recommended by ICOM for the ID-880H, but ICOM only supply drivers for Windows.
> 
> I downloaded the Prolific driver which they say works with Mac OS 10.8 ...and I can't get it to load. I then downloaded the Netherlands driver (osx-pl2303.kext) and I've got it loaded and a serial port available. 
> 
> 
> However when I choose "Download from Radio" Chirp simply says "Cloning" very briefly and then "An error has occurred. Unexpected response from radio"
> 
> Important to note that the serial port does not show up in Network Prefs but when I issue kextstat I get this back: 131    0 0xffffff7f81eb6000 0xb000     0xb000     nl.bjaelectronics.driver.PL2303 (1.0.0d1) <122 33 5 4 3>
> 
> So it's loaded.
> 
> I'd really appreciate it if there is anyone out there using Mac OS 10.8.1 and ID-880H and Chirp if they could tell me just exactly what they do to get it to work (it's not _that_ unusual a combination ;)).  I really don't want to have to go the whole memory hogging VMWare route.
> 
> Kind regards
> Mike
> VK3ZMH
> 
> 
>> 
>>> 2. If not which cable do I use - is it the Icom OPC-478UC and if so
>>>    does this work without any drivers on the Mac OS? I'm not after
>>>    cheap eBay cables - just reliable connectivity.
>> 
>> The OPC-478 is the older cable, which has a TTL converter in it. Their
>> newer radios have started to support cloning via the regular RS-232 port
>> that they now have. I can't say I've tried it with the 880, but as
>> consistent as the Icoms are, I'd expect no issues. I have an 880 here, I
>> guess I should check it :)
>> 
>>> 3. If I can use the OPC-1529R then does anyone have a USB-serial
>>>    adapter which they are using on Mac OS 10.8.x with that cable which
>>>    works well? If so which one?
>> 
>>> From my experience, the KeySpan is the best one for your platform. It's
>> big (although I wouldn't call it clunky), but it has a removable cable
>> and does a lot of neat stuff that the others won't.
>> 
>> What chip/driver is in your Belkin? They're usually prolific, which is
>> the most common, but also the most commonly problematic on MacOS, in my
>> experience. I think Tom would argue for FTDI-based gear, but I'll let
>> him speak up.
>> 
>>> Just with respect to a current discussion on the list about Mac where it
>>> was suggested it is a "boutique platform" - I'm not sure that you can
>>> say that about the biggest selling laptop platform in the US for the
>>> last quarter ;)
>> 
>> Heh, I hadn't heard that, and I'm certainly skeptical of such a claim.
>> However, regardless of growth, there's a lot of ground to make up.
>> Further, due to Windows' architecture, some of the driver cores have
>> been around longer than OSX has been a commercial product.
>> 
>> Yikes, I sound like a Windows advocate. Ya'll know I don't own a single
>> machine with Windows on it, right?? :)
>> 
>> -- 
>> Dan Smith
>> www.danplanet.com
>> KK7DS

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