On this page: http://www.dogparksoftware.com/mldxfc_faq.html#connection

After the installation has finished, you do not need to immediately reboot. Before rebooting your Mac you should plug in your USB-to-Serial Adaptor and open the Apple System Profiler (Apple-Menu > About this Mac > More Information). In the USB section note the Product-ID and Vendor-ID of your USB-to-Serial Adaptor. 



Now open a terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal), go to/System/Library/Extensions/ProlificUsbSerial.kext/Contents and open the file Info.plist(plist = Property List) in your favourite editor (e.g. vi). Now scroll down to the section starting with <key>067B_2303</key> (it may differ a bit, important is the part "2303"). In this section locate the entries idProduct and idVendor and fill in the values gathered from the System Profiler a few minutes earlier. It should then look something like this:

<key>067B_2303</key>
                <dict>
                        ...
                        <key>idProduct</key>
                        <integer>8963</integer>
                        <key>idVendor</key>
                        <integer>1659</integer>
                </dict>

1. Can you use the Icom OPC-1529R cable with Chirp and a USB-serial
   adapter?

Yep, should be able to.

Thanks for the response Dan.

OK I've tried both the OPC-1529R with the Belkin adaptor and the OPC478UC - the USB cable with absolutely no luck. Both these cables are recommended by ICOM for the ID-880H, but ICOM only supply drivers for Windows.

I downloaded the Prolific driver which they say works with Mac OS 10.8 ...and I can't get it to load. I then downloaded the Netherlands driver (osx-pl2303.kext) and I've got it loaded and a serial port available. 

However when I choose "Download from Radio" Chirp simply says "Cloning" very briefly and then "An error has occurred. Unexpected response from radio"

Important to note that the serial port does not show up in Network Prefs but when I issue kextstat I get this back: 131    0 0xffffff7f81eb6000 0xb000     0xb000     nl.bjaelectronics.driver.PL2303 (1.0.0d1) <122 33 5 4 3>

So it's loaded.

I'd really appreciate it if there is anyone out there using Mac OS 10.8.1 and ID-880H and Chirp if they could tell me just exactly what they do to get it to work (it's not _that_ unusual a combination ;)).  I really don't want to have to go the whole memory hogging VMWare route.

Kind regards

Mike

VK3ZMH

2. If not which cable do I use - is it the Icom OPC-478UC and if so
   does this work without any drivers on the Mac OS? I'm not after
   cheap eBay cables - just reliable connectivity.

The OPC-478 is the older cable, which has a TTL converter in it. Their
newer radios have started to support cloning via the regular RS-232 port
that they now have. I can't say I've tried it with the 880, but as
consistent as the Icoms are, I'd expect no issues. I have an 880 here, I
guess I should check it :)

3. If I can use the OPC-1529R then does anyone have a USB-serial
   adapter which they are using on Mac OS 10.8.x with that cable which
   works well? If so which one?

From my experience, the KeySpan is the best one for your platform. It's

big (although I wouldn't call it clunky), but it has a removable cable
and does a lot of neat stuff that the others won't.

What chip/driver is in your Belkin? They're usually prolific, which is
the most common, but also the most commonly problematic on MacOS, in my
experience. I think Tom would argue for FTDI-based gear, but I'll let
him speak up.

Just with respect to a current discussion on the list about Mac where it
was suggested it is a "boutique platform" - I'm not sure that you can
say that about the biggest selling laptop platform in the US for the
last quarter ;)

Heh, I hadn't heard that, and I'm certainly skeptical of such a claim.
However, regardless of growth, there's a lot of ground to make up.
Further, due to Windows' architecture, some of the driver cores have
been around longer than OSX has been a commercial product.

Yikes, I sound like a Windows advocate. Ya'll know I don't own a single
machine with Windows on it, right?? :)

-- 
Dan Smith
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS