Alan, Yes, the FTDI chipset adapters are the recommended variety.
To further confuse the issue with both Prolific and FTDI serial adapters, there are counterfeit adapters on the market. Those worked with few problems under Windows XP with the provided drivers, but both companies included code in the new drivers to detect those counterfeits and render them inoperative. The new drivers are downloaded as updates in Windows 7 and above.
I do think that the number of counterfeit chipsets in the marketplace may be diminishing because of the manufacturers steps to protect their intellectual property, but it is a headache if you happen to have one. I did have one here that was a special cable for a handheld. I finally solved the problem by ordering an equivalent cable that connects to a real serial port or a working USB to serial adapter.
It may be that you have one (or two) of those counterfeit chipsets - not saying for certain, but do be aware of that possibility.
There is really nothing to setup in the K3 or K3Utility, but it is best that you set the baud rate for both at 38400 - K3 menu CONFIG:RS232. K3 Utility will scan for different baud rates if necessary.
73, Don W3FPR On 10/24/2014 10:11 PM, G4GNX wrote:
I just got round to trying to interface my K3 to a PC. I starred off with 2 different Prolific USB/RS232 cables, but although they both showed up as correctly installed drivers. I tried running the K3 Utility but although it did seem to communicate once when I tried “Check communication”, but refuses to exchange data and gives “Not read EEPROM” errors. That said, the same cables will not communicate with my Power Chute UPS, so I’m assuming that there is a levels problem with the Prolific cables? Can anyone confirm this. I have now ordered a genuine FTDI cable, as that’s the recommendation by Elecraft. I presume that there’s nothing to setup in the K3 and K3/Utility communication is automatic.
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