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Reviews For: Icom OPC-478UC

Category: Interfaces, Radio to computer, amp, rotor, coax switch, internet

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Review Summary For : Icom OPC-478UC
Reviews: 1MSRP: 66.00
Description:
USB->CI-V Programming/Control cable
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0014
N7MSD Rating: 2009-10-05
Probably better to just buy/make a serial cable Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a cable with a Prolific PL-2303X USB to RS-232 converter chip inside and wired for Icom's CI-V connectors on various radios. The chip is programmed to emit custom Icom manufacturer and device USB ID's, which is why a separate driver is included in windows. In Linux, this chip is supported but needs a small 4-line patch to insert the specific USB ID's into the driver; I posted this to the Icom D-Star forums but never got around to submitting it properly to the Linux kernel devs. The situation should be equally simple for BSD folk, including you OS-X people (assuming OS-X lets you recompile the kernel or parts of it).

Overall, the price, even with current discounts, is probably too much and I think it would have been a lot cheaper (and more useful in the long run) if I'd just bought or made a RS-232->CI-V cable and bought a generic USB->RS-232 converter; in fact, I have one now that I bought the RS-91 software, which comes with its own special cable that, I've read, is not CI-V.