On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 2:58 PM, chirp.cordless@xoxy.net wrote: ...
So, I've got a working solution. I might try troubleshooting my Prolific cables, but that has lost a great deal of its urgency and interest... It's possible that RT Systems won't keep their driver up to date for OSX 10.9 or 10.10, but I should have a working solution for a couple of years at least. If I'm still alive and still care when I can't still at least boot to 10.8 from my external clone backup, I'll deal with it then.
FWIW, neither I nor my micrometer can see any significant physical difference between the 3.5mm 4-conductor radio plugs on the RT cable vice the Kawamall / eBay cables. I'm guessing the most likely issue is bad Prolific chips or the assembly/connections to them, then driver issues, with a probably pretty small chance it's a Chirp problem.
Thanks for all the support. I hope my experience will help someone else navigate this a little more surely.
-dan
Glad you got it working!
It sounds to me like you got bit by the Prolific drivers and possibly counterfeit Prolific chips (seems to be about 90% of the topics on this mailing list). Considering both your Kawamall cables exhibited the same symptoms, I doubt it was a manufacturing anomaly.
FWIW, I buy the serial version of cables for all my radios. This way I can use my proven FTDI USB-serial cable with all of them. Having just one type of USB cable means I only need one driver (serial cables don't need drivers). This means I don't have to mess with drivers when I buy a new cable.
Tom KD7LXL