PGDT Serial interface cable ...USB Alternative :D

[expresso]

i checked the site - which you can buy the cable and usb adapter - i tried to get the adapter and when i filled out the form - guess what - USA - America is not one of the countries in the drop down menu -

so We cant order them - only people living in the countries from the drop down menu are able to place an order - still not bad but if anyone in the states USA wants one - someone else would have to order if for them -

unless of course they offer the same service here in the states which i dont think they will - the reason they offer those options there is because dealers - vendors etc, are hard to come by - so the users are giving this option to do it them selves -

i was about to order the usb adapter but wasnt able too - they are out of stock here from PG - i have no word on the cable yet if it will ship today etc, - do you guys think its the best bet to just get the original usb adapter or buy generic one online ? the guy did tell me i can get them anywhere etc, - waiting for PG to open here - so i can give them a call - we are on different time zones -

[Burgerman]

tRIED SEVERAL. nON WORKED. oTHERS HAVE THE SAME ISSUES. tHERE ARE some THAT WORK, And the info is on the forum somewhere...

[expresso]

I just finalized my order from PG - i got lucky again and they had one last Serial to usb connector also - i purchased the cable and connector - shipped out today - i dont know if they will sell again to others - i guess nothing to loose by calling and asking for it - just be ware - they will ask questions etc,

if the link from PG which is selling the cable etc, from paypal - isnt it best to purchase from them in instead of trying to make the cable from scratch ? i know the price is higher etc, - but if nothing seems to be working right now -
thats an option for the people living in those countries and are able to purchase it - i was not able to from here - my country is not on the list - and in those cases - - someone in the country on the list - if they are willing to purchase for someone else and then ship it to them - another added cost but at least you get the cable and connection from PG -

its not that cheap but for what it does and being able to do it yourself anytime - is worth the price for me - total came out to $105 dollars - the serial to usb adapter was alot compared to online etc, - but at least i would know it will work instead of trying cheaper ones from online and hope it works etc, -

i think the best solution is if someone can purchase them for other users and reship to them - as long as they are willing to pay the cost - very little work involved

[Burgerman]

I suspect that when my new cable turns up on monday, it will work just fine. Its the same as woddys original one, and that did work. If it does then we have an easy cheap USB ready solution.

Will update soon! With links to working driver, and exact cable all being well!

[Ashley G]

i think the best solution is if someone can purchase them for other users and reship to them - as long as they are willing to pay the cost - very little work involved

Well, yeah, OK, but what you have to remember is ....

If woodygb and Burgerman can't get it working between them, then we know it's going to be made illegal in the next parliament to even possess one, obviously

The difficult gets done at once. The impossible may take a few moments longer ....

Regards

Ashley
(on cloud 9 cos his shiny new Odysseys arrived today )

[expresso]

If woody and burgerman cant get the cable working - then alot of people would be out of luck for real - i just got very lucky with PG - and i didnt get the cable yet in my hands to try it -

in worst case if no one can get it working again - next best thing would be for someone to purchase it for someone else - and mail it to them etc, - takes a little time and more money - but at least theres another way

if it wasnt for burgerman and woody - we all be out of luck -

thanks to them -

[brax]

Here's a round up of the testing of the USB cables ...
The KPG-4 from Radio Arena appears to be the ONLY cable that is WIN 7 compatible .... all leads seem to work fine on XP.

Woody,
The radio community is also having trouble with the prolific chipsets as well. I'm a ham and belong to the yahoo group HamRadioHelpGroup. This was a post that went across the group just yesterday. (copied with the authors permission)

I've used Prolifics for years with occasional issues, but usually installing yet another in a long line of new drivers has corrected the problem. Then, along came Service Pack 1 for Win 7. I have four different PC's that I use regularly, and after installing this Service Pack on them, two of the machines won't work with any Prolific chipset devices, one machine works with some of them, and the last one - a notebook running Win 7 Starter - works fine with them.

I have updated all the firmware, BIOS, and drivers for everything on two of these machines with no joy - the Prolific devices get an error every time. Researching the error reported leads back to Prolific. Prolific insists that the problem is due to widely circulated counterfeit chips. Personally, I doubt that story, because so many OEM manufacturers are using Prolific chips, and could they all be phony?

Meanwhile, FTDI chips work 100% of the time on all of the machines - no issues at all. Some ham manufacturers are switching to FTDI because of the problems with Prolific.

I, too, was happy with the Prolifics for a long time, but for whatever reason the FTDI's work better for me right now.

peace
brax

[ex-Gooserider]

Well, we know what to expect from Microsoft.... I haven't checked the sources, but for what it's worth, FTDI does have a published free (open) driver in the Linux kernel tree, but I think Prolific is still in the "binary blob" stage - which means that it's not maintainable, while the FTDI driver is... (Remember that Microsoft was KNOWN in the past to deliberately change their OS designs in order to break their competitors programs, and even now tries to block access to the FSF donation page with their filter software...)

I lucked into a P&G serial cable and an FTDI adapter is reported to work with it under Microsoft. I haven't gotten it working with WINE, but haven't put huge efforts into it (yet...) However there are several other options that I could also try, and I'm not going to corrupt my machine with defective by design ware...

ex-Gooserider

[malamar]

My W-7 ultimate 32 bits installed Service pack 1 by itself...
Now purchased a new Photoscanner certified just up to Visa: already trembling...

[woodygb]

Ordered.

How was it wired? Will test ASAP.
It has to work, since the original did...

http://www.radioarena.co.uk/index.php?_ ... ductId=628

kpg4bm.JPG (69.54 KiB) Viewed 14513 times

[Burgerman]

Well now I have 3 cables that dont work, on win7 64, andtwo computers...
Tested masses of drivers, and serial port numbers too.
So for now I give up...

Why was that first cable different?

[woodygb]

Did this cable have the 4 wires?

Why was that first cable different?

Don't ask me ...I'm as confused as you are.

[woodygb]

Whilst it won't help with the Win 7 prob ... you could ..if you feel like it ... try finding someone with an XP based machine and try on that.
The only other thing that I could suggest is using XP emulation mode...PITA ...stupid thing should work on ALL VERSIONS..

I HATE BILL GATES!

[Burgerman]

yEP. SND AND RCV were seperate. Soldered to one pin in the connector by yours truly. Still says "inactive" comm...

Just spent an hour removing every trace of every driver, by the usual contyrol panel, the uninstall built into the setup program, by deleting driver files from the device damager, and then searching the registry for every reference to the files, or the name and deleted every key.

Rebooted, used the minidisk the new cable came with, and it installed the 3.2.00 driver. Still the same!

Pulling hair out here...

[woodygb]

There are plenty of references around the web for Win 7 USB problems ...but I haven't a clue if they'd apply or why indeed a FIX needs applying when the original lead just worked!

I cannot see for the life of me why this should make any difference ...BUT ... I did ...in the process of testing other configurations ...attach the red to the 5v USB at the board.... ( see pic ) ....the red was however just folded back and insulated at the Neutrik plug ...in the orig lead you tested.

P1010014A.jpg (78.56 KiB) Viewed 14817 times

[woodygb]

Have any Windows updates come down in the last 4 months?

[woodygb]

NO idea if it's relevant ...
http://www.google.co.uk/#q=site:answers ... 24&bih=588

[expresso]

that sucks - i just upgraded both my computer and laptop also - last week - my computer is running Win 7 and laptop is Vista -

i hope my new cable will work - i was looking to run the cable off the laptop with vista - since it easier for me to have the chair connected to the laptop -

anyone having a problem with the USB - first check device manager - and see if you have any errors there - you can try to disable USB controller etc, all of them and re start them again - or delete them and reboot to let Win find them again etc, -

hope this gets figured out -

[woodygb]

Again ..
NO idea if it will help ..but I have seen this fix/solution referenced for Curtis 1314 connection problems using Win 7.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/wind ... ws-xp-mode

[gologen]

It's applied to Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise editions. But most of computers in retail have Windows 7 Home Premium edition.

XP.jpg (51.4 KiB) Viewed 14782 times

[Burgerman]

OK. After manually clearing the registry, installing ONLY the 3.2.00 driver (the disk that came with the 4 wire cable) It worked for a few secs...

So I threw away the 3 pin crappy connector, and fitted a new one. Lo and behold we have a solid working connection. Only works on com 8 though. Same on laptop...

So it is a combination of driver, port, as well as in my case a typical shagged xlr connector making intermittent contact.

But FINALLY!!!

confirmed WORKING on 2 machines.

dETAILS NEXT POST...

[Burgerman]

CONFIRMED GOOD:

1. COMPATIBILITY MODE for XP SP3. (been using it since the start - not sure if its needed)

2. THIS cable: http://www.radioarena.co.uk/index.php?_ ... ductId=628


3. The driver on the disk it comes with... Which has a bunch of drivers on it. Just run the disk. It installs 3.2.0.0 driver. Changed this to COM 8 as the others do not work on 2 PCs...

4. Choose com 8 in the PG Drives program. woohoo...

Not sure how much of this was my bad connecting Neutrik plug. They are sh*t...

But the above works flawlessely.

[Burgerman]

Note Active comms bottom right...

And serial etc. And access level C (OEM) all good and for the price of a USB cable thanks to woody...

Screen one of 3...

[woodygb]

PHEW!...GOOD NEWS!

Tried the ICOM's again just to see?

[Burgerman]

Not yet. Need another plug. I suspect that it *may* work. But I knew this had to do because its the same as your original.

Wonder why only com 8 connects? Still as long as it does... No wonder they cause charging problems too.

[woodygb]

Only COM 8 has to be a Win 7 config prob.... perhaps some other previously installed prog has somehow marked the other COMS ports.

I "unhid" all my devices in device manager ... due to all my new installs insisting on picking a HIGH COM port number.

device manager / view / show hidden devices

This showed that I'd filled all the previous numbers with various installs ...many of which were no longer required.

I then deleted the COMS assigned to the greyed out ones ..( they'll re assign when you plug them in again )

[Burgerman]

cOULD BE BECAUSE i HAVE A LOT OF CHARGERS, usb DEVICES ETC ALL EATING UP COM PORTS.

[woodygb]

Here's a pic of my unhidden Human Interface Devices .... Seems to be everything I've ever plugged in!
But only one is actually in use...the optical mouse.

hidden.jpg (48.35 KiB) Viewed 15364 times

[expresso]

Great !!! -


i was looking for that cable here in the states - this is what i have found - is this the correct cable if i wanted to try to make one later on down the line ?

http://shopwiscomm.com/Kenwood-AFTERMAR ... 11484.aspx

i would need the XLR connector and then solder the wires as in the picture posted ?

green and white wire soldered together - black is ground on pin 2 -- and pin one would be nothing ? the red wire is left alone or has to be connected also ?

thanks

[woodygb]

Great !!! -


i was looking for that cable here in the states - this is what i have found - is this the correct cable if i wanted to try to make one later on down the line ?

http://shopwiscomm.com/Kenwood-AFTERMAR ... 11484.aspx

i would need the XLR connector and then solder the wires as in the picture posted ?

green and white wire soldered together - black is ground on pin 2 -- and pin one would be nothing ? the red wire is left alone or has to be connected also ?

thanks

Yes ...follow the pic ..you have the colours correct and ignore the red.

The lead you linked to ...NO IDEA ...that's the BIG PROBLEM ..the ONLY one so far ( WINDOWS 7 ) appears to be that make/model supplied by Radio Arena.