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Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2026 6:33 am
by 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.
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2026 11:49 am
by 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
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2026 5:24 am
by SysTech_Larry
@mdavej, how do you spot the difference between FTDI & Prolific?
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2026 6:45 am
by The Robman
SysTech_Larry wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2026 5:24 am
@mdavej, how do you spot the difference between FTDI & Prolific?
It's usually mentioned in the title of the listing itself.
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2026 2:41 pm
by SysTech_Larry
I did not see "Prolific" anywhere on
my recent lemon two-pack, just FTDI.
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2026 8:07 pm
by The Robman
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
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2026 8:33 am
by 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.
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2026 9:01 am
by HamburgerHelper1
mathdon wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2026 8:33 am
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
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 12:59 am
by 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.
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 9:29 am
by mdavej
That one should work. Are you sure is not a driver or setting issue? Maybe try picking the com port in RMIR first?
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 11:06 am
by 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.
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 12:22 pm
by The Robman
SysTech_Larry wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2026 11:06 am
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
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 1:18 pm
by urc6131
mathdon wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2026 8:33 am
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.
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2026 2:26 am
by 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.
Re: What Kind of Cable to Buy and Where to Buy It.
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2026 5:09 am
by 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...?