I written to both an FT-60 and FT-8900 using CHIRP daily-20140121 from stored image files for both without reading from the radio first.
And I'm using a modified cable with PL2303 chip. The cable has three different ends, 3.5mm 3 conductor with 4 conductor adapter, 8P8C modular, and 6 pin mini DIN wired all together and works perfectly.
Prior I had only serial DB9 cables for the Yaesu radios.