[chirp_users] KT7900D/QB25 driver for macOS 10.13 (Mojave)?
I was recently given a Radioddity QB25, which is also a QYT KT7900D. It came with a programming cable. I got CHIRP up and running on my MacBook Air, and followed the steps to turn off the radio, connect the cable, and turn the radio back on. But there is no USB port in the ports list in CHIRP, and when I try the default Bluetooth port, I get a message that the radio is not in clone mode. I suspect a driver issue. I tried to search the archives of this mailing list and found some information about macOS drivers for various cables (including some built-in Apple drivers), but didn't see anything specifically about the cable that's supplied by Radioddity. Their website only has Windows driver software. (They say the cable itself works with Windows 7 without a driver but you need a driver for Windows 10.) I tried the generic driver linked from the CHIRP MacOS Tips page, but that didn't work. (Was I supposed to have restarted the MacBook? I only quit and relaunched CHIRP.)
There are other macOS drivers listed on that page, but without knowing what kind of cable/chip Radioddity supplies, I don't know which driver to look for. Does anyone here happen to know what's in the QB25 cable and which driver works with it? I could try contacting Radioddity, but they appear to know nothing about Macs and might not give me sufficient information.
Thanks/73,Patty N6BIS
Go to Miklor.com. There they explain that most cables have counterfeit Prolific chips. When Windows updates itself automatically, it installs the latest Prolific driver. That one does not work with counterfeits. You have to roll the driver back to a previous version. Miklor.com not only provides a link to download that driver but it tells you how to tell your computer how not to update it in the future. Chris Knowles, N1CAK
On 1/20/2019 3:04 AM, Patty Winter via chirp_users wrote:
I was recently given a Radioddity QB25, which is also a QYT KT7900D. It came with a programming cable. I got CHIRP up and running on my MacBook Air, and followed the steps to turn off the radio, connect the cable, and turn the radio back on. But there is no USB port in the ports list in CHIRP, and when I try the default Bluetooth port, I get a message that the radio is not in clone mode.
I suspect a driver issue. I tried to search the archives of this mailing list and found some information about macOS drivers for various cables (including some built-in Apple drivers), but didn't see anything specifically about the cable that's supplied by Radioddity. Their website only has Windows driver software. (They say the cable itself works with Windows 7 without a driver but you need a driver for Windows 10.) I tried the generic driver linked from the CHIRP MacOS Tips page, but that didn't work. (Was I supposed to have restarted the MacBook? I only quit and relaunched CHIRP.)
There are other macOS drivers listed on that page, but without knowing what kind of cable/chip Radioddity supplies, I don't know which driver to look for. Does anyone here happen to know what's in the QB25 cable and which driver works with it? I could try contacting Radioddity, but they appear to know nothing about Macs and might not give me sufficient information.
Thanks/73, Patty N6BIS
chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Christopher Knowles at cknowles@tiac.net To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com
On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 3:07 AM Patty Winter via chirp_users chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com wrote:
I was recently given a Radioddity QB25, which is also a QYT KT7900D. It came with a programming cable. I got CHIRP up and running on my MacBook Air, and followed the steps to turn off the radio, connect the cable, and turn the radio back on. But there is no USB port in the ports list in CHIRP, and when I try the default Bluetooth port, I get a message that the radio is not in clone mode.
I suspect a driver issue. I tried to search the archives of this mailing list and found some information about macOS drivers for various cables (including some built-in Apple drivers), but didn't see anything specifically about the cable that's supplied by Radioddity. Their website only has Windows driver software. (They say the cable itself works with Windows 7 without a driver but you need a driver for Windows 10.) I tried the generic driver linked from the CHIRP MacOS Tips page, but that didn't work. (Was I supposed to have restarted the MacBook? I only quit and relaunched CHIRP.)
There are other macOS drivers listed on that page, but without knowing what kind of cable/chip Radioddity supplies, I don't know which driver to look for. Does anyone here happen to know what's in the QB25 cable and which driver works with it? I could try contacting Radioddity, but they appear to know nothing about Macs and might not give me sufficient information.
Thanks/73, Patty N6BIS
Hi Patty,
I am assuming that the programming cable you have was manufactured with and unauthorized copy of a Prolific USB-to-TTL chip. The device driver written and supplied by Prolific (the chip manufacturer) is designed to be incompatible with counterfeit copies of their chips.
The simplest solution to get you going should be to get an FTDI chip based programming cable like the PC-04 from Baofeng Tech (the radio dealer in the USA). My understanding is that the native Apple FTDI device driver is recommended for FTDI chips. Baofeng Tech sells direct on their website and also via Amazon, so with an Amazon Prime membership you could have a PC-04 programming cable in 2 days.
https://baofengtech.com/pc-04-programming-cable
A possible solution to use the programming cable that you already have would be to purchase a device driver from a 3rd party. I have read where the device driver from the link below has been used successfully with programming cables manufactured with Prolific type chips. It costs EUR 7.90 (about $9.00) and you would be able to download it right after purchasing it. They do offer a money back guarantee if their support can't get you going.
https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/
Here is their page for OS X Serial Driver Installation
https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/docs/support/installation.html
Good luck, Jim KC9HI
Hi, Jim and Pat. Thank you for your replies. Jim, is it your impression that the cable supplied by Radioddity probably has one of those counterfeit Prolific chips in it? That sounds sleazy.
Pat, I downloaded the Miklor driver you recommended and restarted the MacBook. Unfortunately, I'm still getting the "Radio did not enter clone mode" error. And I'm seeing no evidence that the MacBook is detecting the radio. There's still no USB or Serial option in the port list on CHIRP, and when I look at the /dev directory on the MacBook, there is no cu file that mentions USB or serial; just the Bluetooth and Wireless files that were already there. Oddly, when I go into System Profiler, I do see mention of a Prolific USB-Serial Controller. I can't figure that out since every other indication is that I don't have a USB-serial interface running. It was even still there after I disconnected the USB cable.
Does the fact that CHIRP is seeing the radio but not able to download data from it mean that this is indeed a driver problem? Is it possible that there simply is no driver for Mojave that will work with the cable supplied by Radioddity? I had seen the same comment Jim mentioned about the difficulties of finding drivers that work with fake Prolific chips, so maybe I need to buy a known combination of cable and driver. But first I'll write to the Mac cable place that Jim recommended and see whether they think their driver will work in my case.
Patty
--------
On Sunday, January 20, 2019, 4:43:07 AM PST, Jim Unroe rock.unroe@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Patty,
I am assuming that the programming cable you have was manufactured with and unauthorized copy of a Prolific USB-to-TTL chip. The device driver written and supplied by Prolific (the chip manufacturer) is designed to be incompatible with counterfeit copies of their chips.
The simplest solution to get you going should be to get an FTDI chip based programming cable like the PC-04 from Baofeng Tech (the radio dealer in the USA). My understanding is that the native Apple FTDI device driver is recommended for FTDI chips. Baofeng Tech sells direct on their website and also via Amazon, so with an Amazon Prime membership you could have a PC-04 programming cable in 2 days.
https://baofengtech.com/pc-04-programming-cable
A possible solution to use the programming cable that you already have would be to purchase a device driver from a 3rd party. I have read where the device driver from the link below has been used successfully with programming cables manufactured with Prolific type chips. It costs EUR 7.90 (about $9.00) and you would be able to download it right after purchasing it. They do offer a money back guarantee if their support can't get you going.
https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/
Here is their page for OS X Serial Driver Installation
https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/docs/support/installation.html
Good luck, Jim KC9HI
The only other thing I can think of is that your cable might not be fully plugged into your radio. I do not think your Mac is "seeing" your radio - if you chose it from the drop-down boxes for Vendor and Model, CHIRP remembers these settings. Until you see a driver in the Port drop down box (other than Bluetooth etc.) there is no way your Mac or CHIRP is "seeing" the radio. I have not gone "down deep" in the Mac for about three years (when I switched to Linux, which has a mutual admiration society with CHIRP) but as I recall the Mac implements the driver through a .plist file, and it has pl2302 in the name.This is probably getting a bit beyond the normal expectations for user interaction on a Mac! Sorry can't be more helpful!
On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 11:08 AM Patty Winter via chirp_users < chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:
Hi, Jim and Pat.
Thank you for your replies.
Jim, is it your impression that the cable supplied by Radioddity probably has one of those counterfeit Prolific chips in it? That sounds sleazy.
Pat, I downloaded the Miklor driver you recommended and restarted the MacBook. Unfortunately, I'm still getting the "Radio did not enter clone mode" error. And I'm seeing no evidence that the MacBook is detecting the radio. There's still no USB or Serial option in the port list on CHIRP, and when I look at the /dev directory on the MacBook, there is no cu file that mentions USB or serial; just the Bluetooth and Wireless files that were already there.
Oddly, when I go into System Profiler, I do see mention of a Prolific USB-Serial Controller. I can't figure that out since every other indication is that I don't have a USB-serial interface running. It was even still there after I disconnected the USB cable.
Does the fact that CHIRP is seeing the radio but not able to download data from it mean that this is indeed a driver problem? Is it possible that there simply is no driver for Mojave that will work with the cable supplied by Radioddity? I had seen the same comment Jim mentioned about the difficulties of finding drivers that work with fake Prolific chips, so maybe I need to buy a known combination of cable and driver. But first I'll write to the Mac cable place that Jim recommended and see whether they think their driver will work in my case.
Patty
On Sunday, January 20, 2019, 4:43:07 AM PST, Jim Unroe < rock.unroe@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Patty,
I am assuming that the programming cable you have was manufactured with and unauthorized copy of a Prolific USB-to-TTL chip. The device driver written and supplied by Prolific (the chip manufacturer) is designed to be incompatible with counterfeit copies of their chips.
The simplest solution to get you going should be to get an FTDI chip based programming cable like the PC-04 from Baofeng Tech (the radio dealer in the USA). My understanding is that the native Apple FTDI device driver is recommended for FTDI chips. Baofeng Tech sells direct on their website and also via Amazon, so with an Amazon Prime membership you could have a PC-04 programming cable in 2 days.
https://baofengtech.com/pc-04-programming-cable
A possible solution to use the programming cable that you already have would be to purchase a device driver from a 3rd party. I have read where the device driver from the link below has been used successfully with programming cables manufactured with Prolific type chips. It costs EUR 7.90 (about $9.00) and you would be able to download it right after purchasing it. They do offer a money back guarantee if their support can't get you going.
https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/
Here is their page for OS X Serial Driver Installation
https://www.mac-usb-serial.com/docs/support/installation.html
Good luck, Jim KC9HI _______________________________________________ chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Pat Anderson at anderson5420@gmail.com To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com
Pat, you'll see from my other message that it was a driver issue and I found one that works. But no problem tossing terms like ".plist" at me! I've been a UNIX command-line user for decades, so I'm quite comfortable in the macOS Terminal program. Supposedly the communication drivers are in the /dev directory as .cu and .tty files; I don't know whether they also show up in plists. There's still no sign of the first few drivers I tried to install (if I get around to it I'll grep the system for them), but the one from Repleo (mac-usb-serial.com) is in the /dev directory and working fine.
Patty ----------
On Sunday, January 20, 2019, 10:33:56 AM PST, Pat Anderson anderson5420@gmail.com wrote:
The only other thing I can think of is that your cable might not be fully plugged into your radio. I do not think your Mac is "seeing" your radio - if you chose it from the drop-down boxes for Vendor and Model, CHIRP remembers these settings. Until you see a driver in the Port drop down box (other than Bluetooth etc.) there is no way your Mac or CHIRP is "seeing" the radio. I have not gone "down deep" in the Mac for about three years (when I switched to Linux, which has a mutual admiration society with CHIRP) but as I recall the Mac implements the driver through a .plist file, and it has pl2302 in the name.This is probably getting a bit beyond the normal expectations for user interaction on a Mac! Sorry can't be more helpful!
Watch out for Excel, it is evil on CSV files. It mangles them, I use both CHIRP and programs for my DMR radios, and I am moving stuff in and out of CSV files, found out the hard way that Excel does not excel when it comes to CSV. Libre Office is a good option or you can look at it with note or any other text processing app.
On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 12:43 PM Patty Winter via chirp_users < chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:
Pat, you'll see from my other message that it was a driver issue and I found one that works. But no problem tossing terms like ".plist" at me! I've been a UNIX command-line user for decades, so I'm quite comfortable in the macOS Terminal program. Supposedly the communication drivers are in the /dev directory as .cu and .tty files; I don't know whether they also show up in plists. There's still no sign of the first few drivers I tried to install (if I get around to it I'll grep the system for them), but the one from Repleo (mac-usb-serial.com) is in the /dev directory and working fine.
Patty
On Sunday, January 20, 2019, 10:33:56 AM PST, Pat Anderson < anderson5420@gmail.com> wrote:
The only other thing I can think of is that your cable might not be fully plugged into your radio. I do not think your Mac is "seeing" your radio - if you chose it from the drop-down boxes for Vendor and Model, CHIRP remembers these settings. Until you see a driver in the Port drop down box (other than Bluetooth etc.) there is no way your Mac or CHIRP is "seeing" the radio. I have not gone "down deep" in the Mac for about three years (when I switched to Linux, which has a mutual admiration society with CHIRP) but as I recall the Mac implements the driver through a .plist file, and it has pl2302 in the name.This is probably getting a bit beyond the normal expectations for user interaction on a Mac! Sorry can't be more helpful!
chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Chuck Hast at kp4djt@gmail.com To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com
Thanks for the tips, Chuck, I was wondering how well that worked. When I exported my radio's memory data from CHIRP to a .csv file, I made a copy of it as an Excel file so I could add my own notes. I haven't touched the .csv file yet and may or may not get brave enough to do that and re-upload to the radio. :-) If I do, I'll edit that file in TextEdit instead of Excel.
Patty N6BIS
On Monday, January 21, 2019, 8:58:02 AM PST, Chuck Hast kp4djt@gmail.com wrote:
Watch out for Excel, it is evil on CSV files. It mangles them, I use both CHIRP and programsfor my DMR radios, and I am moving stuff in and out of CSV files, found out the hard way thatExcel does not excel when it comes to CSV. Libre Office is a good option or you can look at itwith note or any other text processing app.
Yes, I found out the hard way, I murdered a BIG DMR csv file, thank goodness I had saved a backup.
On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 11:30 AM Patty Winter via chirp_users < chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:
Thanks for the tips, Chuck, I was wondering how well that worked. When I exported my radio's memory data from CHIRP to a .csv file, I made a copy of it as an Excel file so I could add my own notes. I haven't touched the .csv file yet and may or may not get brave enough to do that and re-upload to the radio. :-) If I do, I'll edit that file in TextEdit instead of Excel.
Patty N6BIS
On Monday, January 21, 2019, 8:58:02 AM PST, Chuck Hast kp4djt@gmail.com wrote:
Watch out for Excel, it is evil on CSV files. It mangles them, I use both CHIRP and programs for my DMR radios, and I am moving stuff in and out of CSV files, found out the hard way that Excel does not excel when it comes to CSV. Libre Office is a good option or you can look at it with note or any other text processing app.
-- Chirp + Editcp + MD380Tools on Linux Celestial!!! Chuck -- KP4DJT _______________________________________________ chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Chuck Hast at kp4djt@gmail.com To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com
Success! I went over to mac-usb-serial.com as Jim suggested, intending to send them email asking whether the Radioddity/QYT cable was likely supported. They had a button on their home page to download a serial detection app, and when I did that, it saw the cable immediately and gave me a link to the order page for the correct driver. Three minutes and $9.30 later, I was successfully retrieving data from my QB25. I exported it to a CSV file so I can peruse it in Excel. Thanks for the help, guys. If either of you are involved in CHIRP development, perhaps you can suggest that mac-usb-serial.com be mentioned on the MacOS Tips page. Their detection app makes it easy to tell whether you can get a compatible driver without all the trial and error of downloading other drivers. I still don't know what happened to the other 2-3 drivers I installed. They said "Installation successful" but I don't see them on my Mac.
73,Patty
On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 1:34 PM Patty Winter via chirp_users chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com wrote:
Success!
I went over to mac-usb-serial.com as Jim suggested, intending to send them email asking whether the Radioddity/QYT cable was likely supported. They had a button on their home page to download a serial detection app, and when I did that, it saw the cable immediately and gave me a link to the order page for the correct driver. Three minutes and $9.30 later, I was successfully retrieving data from my QB25. I exported it to a CSV file so I can peruse it in Excel.
Thanks for the help, guys. If either of you are involved in CHIRP development, perhaps you can suggest that mac-usb-serial.com be mentioned on the MacOS Tips page. Their detection app makes it easy to tell whether you can get a compatible driver without all the trial and error of downloading other drivers. I still don't know what happened to the other 2-3 drivers I installed. They said "Installation successful" but I don't see them on my Mac.
73, Patty
This is great news. Have fun with your radio and CHIRP.
Jim KC9HI
PAtty Please be carefully with Excel as it truncates trailing commas which upsets Chirp Try LibreOffice which does not do this. Fred VA6FRM
On Sun., Jan. 20, 2019, 13:30 Jim Unroe <rock.unroe@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 1:34 PM Patty Winter via chirp_users chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com wrote:
Success!
I went over to mac-usb-serial.com as Jim suggested, intending to send
them email asking whether the Radioddity/QYT cable was likely supported. They had a button on their home page to download a serial detection app, and when I did that, it saw the cable immediately and gave me a link to the order page for the correct driver. Three minutes and $9.30 later, I was successfully retrieving data from my QB25. I exported it to a CSV file so I can peruse it in Excel.
Thanks for the help, guys. If either of you are involved in CHIRP
development, perhaps you can suggest that mac-usb-serial.com be mentioned on the MacOS Tips page. Their detection app makes it easy to tell whether you can get a compatible driver without all the trial and error of downloading other drivers. I still don't know what happened to the other 2-3 drivers I installed. They said "Installation successful" but I don't see them on my Mac.
73, Patty
This is great news. Have fun with your radio and CHIRP.
Jim KC9HI _______________________________________________ chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Fred McDougall VA6FRM at frmcdo@gmail.com To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com
I have bookmarked mac-usb-serial.com. This reminded me that Mac drivers are actually implemented as " kexts" (kernal extensions). I do not have MacOS Mohave - does anyone know for sure whether that OS broke the Miklor MacOS driver?
On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 2:35 PM Frederick R. McDougall frmcdo@gmail.com wrote:
PAtty Please be carefully with Excel as it truncates trailing commas which upsets Chirp Try LibreOffice which does not do this. Fred VA6FRM
On Sun., Jan. 20, 2019, 13:30 Jim Unroe <rock.unroe@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 1:34 PM Patty Winter via chirp_users chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com wrote:
Success!
I went over to mac-usb-serial.com as Jim suggested, intending to send
them email asking whether the Radioddity/QYT cable was likely supported. They had a button on their home page to download a serial detection app, and when I did that, it saw the cable immediately and gave me a link to the order page for the correct driver. Three minutes and $9.30 later, I was successfully retrieving data from my QB25. I exported it to a CSV file so I can peruse it in Excel.
Thanks for the help, guys. If either of you are involved in CHIRP
development, perhaps you can suggest that mac-usb-serial.com be mentioned on the MacOS Tips page. Their detection app makes it easy to tell whether you can get a compatible driver without all the trial and error of downloading other drivers. I still don't know what happened to the other 2-3 drivers I installed. They said "Installation successful" but I don't see them on my Mac.
73, Patty
This is great news. Have fun with your radio and CHIRP.
Jim KC9HI _______________________________________________ chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Fred McDougall VA6FRM at frmcdo@gmail.com To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com
chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Pat Anderson at anderson5420@gmail.com To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com
I ran CHIRP on a 2011 MacBook Pro on every version of OS X / Mac OS from Lion through High Sierra. The PL2303 driver on miklor.com worked fine with my cheap $9 programming cable with the counterfeit Prolific chip set on all the Mac OSes. You DO have to reboot your Mac after installing the driver. Download the driver, double click on it and follow the prompts. Restart your Mac and start CHIRP. Connect your radio powered off to you computer. and then turn the radio on. Choose download from radio and choose the driver with pl2303 in its name from the drop-down box you will also see the Bluetooth driver, which you should ignore). The driver only exists while the cable is plugged in, so the sequence of steps is important.
Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page on miklor.com http://miklor.com/
Find this text and click on the link to download the driver.
*AC Driver for Prolific Cables PL2303 USB to Serial Driver for Mac OS XProlific Driver PL2303_v0.3.1 http://www.miklor.com/COM/software/osx-pl2303-0.3.1-10.4-universal.dmg *
On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 1:06 AM Patty Winter via chirp_users < chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:
I was recently given a Radioddity QB25, which is also a QYT KT7900D. It came with a programming cable. I got CHIRP up and running on my MacBook Air, and followed the steps to turn off the radio, connect the cable, and turn the radio back on. But there is no USB port in the ports list in CHIRP, and when I try the default Bluetooth port, I get a message that the radio is not in clone mode.
I suspect a driver issue. I tried to search the archives of this mailing list and found some information about macOS drivers for various cables (including some built-in Apple drivers), but didn't see anything specifically about the cable that's supplied by Radioddity. Their website only has Windows driver software. (They say the cable itself works with Windows 7 without a driver but you need a driver for Windows 10.) I tried the generic driver linked from the CHIRP MacOS Tips page, but that didn't work. (Was I supposed to have restarted the MacBook? I only quit and relaunched CHIRP.)
There are other macOS drivers listed on that page, but without knowing what kind of cable/chip Radioddity supplies, I don't know which driver to look for. Does anyone here happen to know what's in the QB25 cable and which driver works with it? I could try contacting Radioddity, but they appear to know nothing about Macs and might not give me sufficient information.
Thanks/73, Patty N6BIS
chirp_users mailing list chirp_users@intrepid.danplanet.com http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_users This message was sent to Pat Anderson at anderson5420@gmail.com To unsubscribe, send an email to chirp_users-unsubscribe@intrepid.danplanet.com
participants (6)
-
Christopher Knowles -
Chuck Hast -
Frederick R. McDougall -
Jim Unroe -
Pat Anderson -
Patty Winter