What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.

[mdavej]

@systech_larry, that one you ordered should be fine. I think I have a couple myself. I'm not so lucky with Prolific. Drivers are usually a nightmare for me, especially on Win 10 and 11. @urc6131 's is not something I would have chosen.

[urc6131]

I just feel like trying something new. After trying the CH340 product, I think "DSD TECH" is actually a reputable company with quality products.

They also make a FTDI serial cable that is perfect for JP1.x:

https://www.amazon.com/DSD-TECH-SH-U09G ... B083HVM7VZ

[SysTech_Larry]

@mdavej, how do you spot the difference between FTDI & Prolific?

[The Robman]

@mdavej, how do you spot the difference between FTDI & Prolific?

It's usually mentioned in the title of the listing itself.

[SysTech_Larry]

I did not see "Prolific" anywhere on my recent lemon two-pack, just FTDI.

[The Robman]

I did not see "Prolific" anywhere on my recent lemon two-pack, just FTDI.

That's because they're FTDI cables, if they were Prolific they would say that instead. If you search for "FTDI FT232RL" cables, you will find FTDI cables, and if you search for "Prolific PL2303HXD" cables you'll find Prolific cables, like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/201713071416

[mathdon]

Can you tell the difference between a genuine FTDI chip and a clone by looking at it? I have a SparkFun FT232R Breakout Board, the chip clearly says FTDI FT232RL but I have doubts that it is genuine. In my current work with a URC7981, I have tried all the FTDI USB to Serial cables I have. These include two genuine FTDI cables, Chinese clones and the SparkFun breakout board. I am using these with RealTerm and a Salaea (clone) Logic Analyzer. They all give me the expected signals on Pin 4 of the 6-pin remote connector of the remote but only the genuine FTDI cables give me consistent 115200-baud signals on Pin 5. I would really like the SparkFun chip to be genuine as it breaks out all FTDI signals, including DTR that I find I need. I have an expensive genuine FTDI cable that has wires for 10 signals including DTR which I am using now, but had high hopes that the SparkFun board would serve as well.

[HamburgerHelper1]

Can you tell the difference between a genuine FTDI chip and a clone by looking at it?

This is a bit old and I would use with Caution But perhaps a tool like this might be able to tell Fake From Real

https://github.com/evermind-zz/ftdi_clone_tool

[SysTech_Larry]

The most recent cable ordered is also giving me a "Remote Not Found" error, too. I am going to repair my first cable to see if it is the cable or the remotes.

[mdavej]

That one should work. Are you sure is not a driver or setting issue? Maybe try picking the com port in RMIR first?

[SysTech_Larry]

I am using RMIR v3.0.15 (on Windows 11) and never had to actively configure my previous, working cable. It was plug-&-play.

[The Robman]

I am using RMIR v3.0.15 (on Windows 11) and never had to actively configure my previous, working cable. It was plug-&-play.

That version of RMIR is several versions old, it's normally good practice when you're experiencing issues like this to first make sure you have the latest version of the relevant software. The current version of RMIR is 3.2.15

[urc6131]

Can you tell the difference between a genuine FTDI chip and a clone by looking at it? I have a SparkFun FT232R Breakout Board, the chip clearly says FTDI FT232RL but I have doubts that it is genuine. In my current work with a URC7981, I have tried all the FTDI USB to Serial cables I have. These include two genuine FTDI cables, Chinese clones and the SparkFun breakout board. I am using these with RealTerm and a Salaea (clone) Logic Analyzer. They all give me the expected signals on Pin 4 of the 6-pin remote connector of the remote but only the genuine FTDI cables give me consistent 115200-baud signals on Pin 5. I would really like the SparkFun chip to be genuine as it breaks out all FTDI signals, including DTR that I find I need. I have an expensive genuine FTDI cable that has wires for 10 signals including DTR which I am using now, but had high hopes that the SparkFun board would serve as well.

SparkFun is a reputable retail / hobby site. Unless its suppl chain was compromised, which is also unlikely, I don't think it would use fake chips. If you bought it from SparkFun that is.

That said, newer fake FTDI chip should still work at 115kbps, AFAIK.

The way I tell mine is fake is because 2 of them have the same serial numbers:

FTDIBUS\VID_0403+PID_6001+A5069RR4A\0000

You can try retrieving its SN and google it. Mine matched a post: https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Gettin ... -p/4439155

It is supposed to be unique, yet I have two of them.

[TiceRex]

The serial number of FTDI chips can be overwritten by the FT_PROG utility.
As far as I know genuine IDs start with "FT" followed by 6 alphanumeric characters. See this KB article.

[SysTech_Larry]

The first one that I bought (that recently died) came from Worldchips.

I found another one from them, HERE.

I will give that a try.

The cable in this post has 3.3V TTL levels. Is that the same for the cable recommended in the wiki, here?
Could that be why my recent cables have not worked, because 5V TTL levels were required...?