Just wondering if anyone can point me in the direction to an interface I can build to communicate chirp with a Yaesu 8800 mobile radio.
There is a cable guide on the Chirp wiki that has information on buying as well as building cables for some radios. It needs more contributions.
http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/CableGuide
Are the 409shop cables genuine PL-2303 or FTDI?
I don't think 409shop or any of the direct from China sites sell FTDI cables.
If a cable seems inexpensive (< $15-20) it's got one of the counterfeit prolific chips that have driver issues with Windows 7 and later, especially 64 bit. Mac OS also seems to require some experimentation to find a driver that works.
At this point I don't know if there is such as thing as genuine Prolific PL-2303 that is worth anything since Prolific has intentionally crippled the drivers to try to detect the counterfeit chips. I believe they are trying to push OEMs to using some new chip and just hoping to put the whole PL-2303 thing behind them.
409shop also has cables, which work fine for me.
At this point with all of the information out there about driver support for the different operating systems, statements like that are really unhelpful. It works fine for you because you only use Linux? Because you only use XP? Because you've followed the steps to pick the old driver and make sure it didn't get updated?
Please we've all wasted so much time on these cables, if you are going to recommend that someone "save a few bucks" let them know what they (and we) are in for since everyone seeks advice on the mailing list first. At least give them pointers to the miklor site.
For a few bucks more, I got a multi-cable kit that had like 6-in-1 interchangeable tips that worked with my vx-2,3,6 and ft-7900 (should be same din plug as 7800/7900/8800/8900).
It's interesting that they are selling those. You don't need to buy a USB to serial converter for every radio. The multi-cable kits that I could find all use the Prolific clones. At least one ebay seller mentioned "don't work with Win7 64 bit" ;-)
It might be worth it to buy this kit, and then replace the USB to serial converter with an FTDI cable that winds up with the same 3.5mm TRS.
Which brings me to this question:
So this cable has level converter built into it, or is a level converter not needed.
It depends on the radio. Many radios use TTL signalling 0-5VDC and not RS-232 signalling so no level converter is needed from the USB serial chips which are 5Vdc and powered from the USB bus.
However, there are radios that do use RS-232 voltage levels, or worse use 3.3V low voltage ttl signalling, so you better know what you are doing or you may windup blowing something on either end of the connection. Those nice 3.5mm TRS plugs and jacks makes it easy to blindly play.
The cable guide on the chirp wiki would be a good place to continue collecting information including voltage levels used for each radio.
Hope this helps, --Rob