Wow. What a lot of sanctimonious, self-centered crap. Everybody who *might* *possibly* have anything other than an official Prolific chip is supposed to bow down and beg forgiveness because the great AE7Q got his shorts in a knot.
Frankly, I don't know what chip is in my cable. When I bought it I installed the 3.2.0.0 driver from the Miklor site because that's what was recommended at the time I installed Chirp, and because the newer drivers weren't working with the Baofeng software. It works, and I have no reason to suspect anything or upgrade the driver.
I had to purchase a Win8 laptop this month when my Win7 machine died. And guess what, O Great One? The 3.2.0.0 driver works on Win8, so my cable and CHIRP do as well.
Now, can you prove that Prolific decided not to support Win8 on certain (probably older) chips because of counterfeiting, or are you just throwing crap out to try to make yourself look smart? Companies drop support for older hardware all the time. Writing new drivers for old hardware is a business decision. Some do, other don't. That's life. Some companies deliberately make older products obsolete in order to force customers to buy new. Those are companies I try to avoid when I can, but that's not always possible.
The point is, of course, that those older chips might very well have been obsoleted by Win8 even without pirating.
Who the hell are you, Dean, to feel entitled to accuse everyone on a mailing list of being pirates? I don't give a damn what software you've written or how many websites you've done. Those things don't give you the right to make unsubstantiated accusations against an entire group. Of course, The Great One will try to claim that my pique automatically means that I've bought pirated stuff. No, it doesn't. I think I've made clear that I'm deeply offended when some jerk tries to accuse an entire group of making his life more difficult in some way.
Dean, the world doesn't revolve around you. Get over yourself.
To the rest of the group: Sorry about the rants. It won't happen again, because I'll be leaving the group. I'd been thinking about it anyway, with the long, drawn-out threads about what a UV-5R will or won't do. That kind of stuff had already caused me to give up the Baofeng group. But The Great One's post made up my mind. I won't be part of any group with Dean Gibson as a member.
As far as Win8: As I mentioned at the top of this post, I installed 3.2.0.0 on Win8, per the instructions on the Miklor site, and it works fine. If you're in need of a new machine, don't let this issue dissuade you from buying a PC which otherwise meets your needs. The "modern" Win8 GUI is garbage, but there are 3rd party utilities that let you boot straight to the desktop and restore the start menu. I'd still rather have Win7, but with the utilities I can live with 8. I can't guarantee, of course, that any particular cable will or won't work on Win8, but the 3.2.0.0 driver does.
To everyone except Dean, 73's
Alan
On 2/26/2013 8:01 PM, Dean Gibson AE7Q wrote:
I would like to address this to everyone who buys a cable with a counterfeit Prolific USB-to-serial converter chip:
You may not think you are hurting anyone, but you are. Aside from the legal and ethical issues with buying counterfeit goods, you are financially affecting more than just Prolific (who sells legitimate chips).
You are financially affecting *me*. And in a very concrete and tangible way.
Because of the extensive counterfeiting of their USB-to-serial converter chip (and the theft of their intellectual properties: http://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=155&pcid=41 ), Prolific has taken certain steps:
- They have designed a new USB-to-serial converter chip that is supposed to be more difficult to counterfeit, and selling that to legitimate cable makers. This chip will be supported in Windows 8.
- The present USB-to-serial converter chip will *not* be supported in Windows 8: http://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=225&pcid=41
So, how does this affect me? I have and use thirteen USB-to-serial converter cables with the old (legitimate) Prolific chip. These cables will *not work* when I upgrade to Windows 8. Instead, I will have to buy new USB-to-serial converter cables.
I will pay the *twice the price you would have paid* (times thirteen), than if you had bought a legitimate cable. Once, for each legitimate original cable, and once again for a new cable.
So, for those of you who knowingly bought counterfeit cables *and continue to use them*: *Thanks, guys*.
As a person who has contributed code to the Chirp project, has written other open-source software for the amateur community, and has maintained a couple amateur radio support sites (free and without ads) for the past decade, you have made my heart very warm with feelings of appreciation. Or maybe just a bit hot.
Sincerely, Dean Gibson / AE7Q