[chirp_users] "length 0" error DLing from FT-8900

[Charles Boling (AD7UF)]

Hi, longtime CHiRP user for Icom,Yeasu,Wouxun,Baofeng here.  I just got
a Yeasu FT-8900R (and a USB programming cable) and am having difficulty
getting it to download.

I'm running CHiRP 0.4.0 on Python 2.7.8 under Ubuntu 14.10.

I put the radio in clone mode, have CHiRP waiting for the data, and as
soon as I press the V/M button to send the data, I get the error:
	"ord() expected a character, but string of length 0 found"
and the radio shows a clone error.

I read the recent (May 4) thread on this list between Dan & Benjamin
entitled "Chirp IndexError" that describes the same error. In his case,
Benjamin wasn't getting anything from the radio, and it proved to be a
loose cable.  Not so with me.

In my case, here's what I know:

I can connect a terminal program (PuTTY) to the correct port and get
echo.  I also receive data from the radio when pressing the V/M button
that looks right.  Specifically, the radio sends this string, viewed in
PuTTY:
	AH008$.$    ("." is non-ASCII char)
I captured it to a file and this is the exact data stream in hex:
	41 48 30 30 38 24 80 24

The correct data stream only appears at 9600 baud, which is what
ft7800.py says it should be fixed at.   AH008 is the model that the code
shows for the FT8900.


Here's the terminal output from the failure:
...
User selected Yaesu FT-8900 on port /dev/ttyUSB1
Clone thread started
Download finished in 1 seconds
-- Exception: --
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/chirpui/clone.py", line 227, in run
    self.__radio.sync_in()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/chirp/ft7800.py", line 320, in
sync_in
    self.check_checksums()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/chirp/yaesu_clone.py", line
209, in check_checksums
    if checksum.get_existing(self._mmap) != \
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/chirp/yaesu_clone.py", line
156, in get_existing
    return ord(mmap[self._address])
TypeError: ord() expected a character, but string of length 0 found
------
Clone failed: ord() expected a character, but string of length 0 found
Clone thread ended
--- Exception Dialog: ord() expected a character, but string of length 0
found ---
None
----------------------------


Any ideas?