Review on 💻 Baofeng Programming Cable for UV-5R/5RA/5R Plus/5RE, UV3R Plus, BF-888S & GA-2S: Perfect for Easy Programming! by Nick Winnett

I haven't had any major problems with this cable. If I had followed the advice of throwing away the CD that came with it and downloading everything from miklor dot com (or the CHIRP site) I would have had fewer problems. It's good to know that the cable is just a USB to serial adapter. The driver installation is related to the cable, NOT the radio. You don't need to use the radio while installing and working with the cable. The CHIRP software manages communication with the radio once the cable is operational. When you install the cable driver and the cable is connected, look in Device Manager. If you DO NOT have a yellow triangle (or any other warning) on the Prolific USB to Serial Port in Device Manager, you MUST go. Prolific driver from Miklor dot com, install the driver and connect the cable. Make a note of which COM port is associated with the cable. Download the latest CHIRP Daily Build. Enjoy! Here are the details of what I did. This may help some of you who first tried the included CD like I did (just in case you don't know, you can open Device Manager by right clicking on Computer and then open Device Manager)1. I tried installing the Vista driver from the CD that came with it which involved connecting the cable to the laptop and the radio. Failed (yellow triangle in Device Manager).2. I installed the latest CHIRP Daily Build (it didn't fix my cable issue, but it didn't hurt either). If I were to do this over and over again I would probably wait for the cable to work before installing CHIRP. I really don't think it matters much if you install CHIRP.3. I uninstalled the driver in Device Manager and checked the Remove Driver box. (I would recommend skipping steps 1 and 3) 4. I unplugged the cable from the radio and laptop.5. I downloaded the Prolific 3.2.0.0 driver from Miklor.6. I installed the Prolific 3.2.0.0.7 driver. I connected the cable to the laptop, Windows recognized it and installed the device (cable) successfully. (By the way he assigned the cable to COM5, you'll have to find that out later) 8. I opened CHIRP.9. With the radio off, I connected the cable to the radio.10. I turned on the radio.11. Downloaded data from radio (Radio --> Download from radio). I get a dialog box asking for settings. I set the COM port according to the cable (COM5). I set Vendor to Baofeng and Model to UV5R and clicked OK.12. I got a "Clone Progress" window with a progress bar. When that was done, I got the CHIRP table view. I was able to edit the configuration and save it as a file. (I saved the default configuration before making any changes). 13. I uploaded the data back to the radio (Radio --> Upload to radio). 14. I get the cloning progress window again. When that was done, I turned off the radio. That's all! BTW: I tried importing from the Repeater book and I was impressed how well it worked. I recommend trying this.