It is possible that the programming cable could be bad. But it is even more likely (unless you are running Linux) that the installed driver is the issue.
Which driver is installed? If you are running any recent version of MS Windows (Vista, 7, 8), you must downgrade the automatically installed driver to V3.2.0.0 so it will be compatible. Most Prolific style chips are unauthorized copies and drovers newer then this are (intentionally) incompatible.
The miklor.com website is a sourced for the needed driver and also has instructions for installing it.
http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_Drivers.php
There is a similar incompatibility with OSX requiring that a generic driver to be installed.
A way to test the programming cable without having to deal with driver issues is to use CHIRP Live CD. I can be "burned" to flash memory (a USB thumb drive) instead of a CD or DVD. Then you can boot from the flash memory completely bypassing the operating system installed on the computer.
Jim KC9HI
On Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 11:36 PM, Thomas Fancher thomasf@nwi.net wrote:
I am having difficulty getting my laptop to communicate with the IC-208H. It is easy to start the radio such that it displays "CLONE". Pressing the "SET*LOCK" button gives "CL OUT" but quickly clicking on the "download" in Chirp only gives an error message that there is a failure to communicate.
John (kc2txv) was kind enough to send me a file that he has used with his Icom IC-208H. I modified the frequencies as applicable for my area and attempted to simply download the image file to the radio without having first accomplished an upload. That gives the message: "An error has occurred Failed to communicate with the radio: Unexpected response from radio."
I verified that I have the "Prolific" USB cable set to the correct com port. However, I do not know of a good way to test the cable.
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