[chirp_users] Baofeng Programming Cables

Dave B
Sun Sep 23 03:54:25 PDT 2018


Quiet frankly, better to go to the chipset makers own website and get
the correct and likely mallware free ones.

Not to say Miklor website is bad, but it's just another third party
website with a collection of files, that "could" not be safe.

They might also not be the latest copies of the official drivers.

I'm sure they (whoever "Miklor" are) take care to keep things clean, but
they would not be the first or only site to have their repository of
useful stuff compromised.

http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_GettingStarted.php   States the situation
very well.

However, they wrongly state that FTDI devices don't have that problem. 
Sorry, but yes they do, there are just as many fake FTDI chips out there
as Prolific!  The difference is that the official drivers will usually
work with them*.  But, if you need to alter their behavior (the
handshake or status lines, or "which way up" the data lines work) then
you'll find that functionality is missing from the fake chips.

* FTDI a while ago did create a storm however, by putting code in the
"official" drivers, that could detect the fakes and in turn reprogram
the VID/PID info to all zero's rendering them unusable.  It is however
possible to re-program that information, but it takes some research plus
confidence with command line tools on a Linux PC.  (As far as I know,
the tool for that isn't, or wasn't available for Windows.  I can't even
remember what it's name is either.)

FTDI soon after, then pushed out a driver that did not disable the
things, but for all we know, it may report back to FTDI, or somewhere,
any instances of fake chips.  No, I did not say they DO that, just that
they could.  If it was my IP that was ripped off, I'd want to know how
bad the problem was, and that would be a way to find out.

The Fake chips are actually micro-controllers programed to emulate the
real devices.  That they do amazingly well, but not 100%.   I have
encountered some that were marked up as FTDI, but were functioning as
Prolific devices!   The supplier I used had no idea, but did apologize
and gave me a full refund on the return of the stock I bought for a work
project.

I wouldn't trust Amazon either to only ship non-counterfeit cables
either!   In Amazon's defense, it's often not their fault, and often the
actual vendor doesn't know either!   (See above...)

I usually make up my own cables using known good modules from the makers
themselves, or from known reputable resellers.  It's not difficult, and
you learn stuff too.  (Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing?)

The SiLabs USB/Serial bridge products are also very good, and as yet(?) 
Not counterfeited, unless someone knows different.

Take care.

73.

Dave G0WBX


On 22/09/18 20:00, chirp_users-request at intrepid.danplanet.com wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Sep 20, 2018 at 8:28 PM Richard AG5M via chirp_users
>> <chirp_users at intrepid.danplanet.com
>> <mailto:chirp_users at intrepid.danplanet.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     I have two different Baofeng programming cables.? In Windows Device
>>     Manager, one shows "Prolific USB to Serial Comm Port", the other shows
>>     "USB-Serial CH340."? Both work equally well under Windows XP,
>>     Windows 7,
>>     and Linux Mint with multiple different Baofeng HTs.? However, only the
>>     "USB-Serial CH340" works with Windows 10.? What's the difference??
>>     Anyone else having this issue?? Any thoughts how to make "Prolific USB
>>     to Serial Comm Port" work with Windows 10?? I'm really beginning to
>>     hate
>>     Windows 10.? Tnx, Richard AG5M
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>
> Miklor website.  Get drivers.  Install drivers.
>




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