Programming Cable Information

Unless othewise indicated, all information on this page applies equally to the PRO-92, 93, 95, 96, 97, and 99 handheld scanners, as well as their "base/mobile" counterparts (PRO-2067, 2053, and 2096)

Last updated 20 Apr 2005

Questions or comments- Email me

Note: I lifted some of this info from the PRO-92.COM site. It's reproduced here because some of that site's links have been messed-up (as of this writing).

Cables
Buying	USB - Serial adapters
Building	PC/IF voltage differences (PRO-95 problems)
From other scanners

In general, there are two types of cables that can be purchased or built for these scanners: one-way and two-way. The one-way cables will allow you to upload data to the scanner only - you cannot download data from the scanner. The two-way cables let you upload and download. This is useful if you already have data in the scanner, and want to retrieve it, modify it, and send it back to the scanner. If you only care about creating data on the PC and sending to the scanner, then a one-way cable is sufficient. Note: Win92's Verify feature requires a two-way cable, as the verification is done by reading back from the scanner and comparing to what was sent.

Pre-built cables, available for purchase

All of the ready-made cables are two-way, as defined above. There are two known cables:

• GRE's Cable : This cable was originally included with the GRE Scanner Data Manager for the PRO-92. That software package is no longer available, but you can still get the cable from GRE. As of 24 Nov 2002, they list a "Limited stock Available" at this page. While GRE only lists the PRO-92/2067, the cable should work with the other scanners, as well.
• Radio Shack's Catalog #20-289 : They're finally selling a cable again! This is the same GRE cable as above, and works with all of the target scanners (see list above).
• The "Purple" Cable (In this user's opinion, this is the recommended cable) : This cable seems to work well, subject to the caveat below relating to the PRO-95 (which has been fixed in newer cables). Be sure to get item #PCL35M, as it is terminated with a 1/8" (mini) mono plug, instead of the standard sub-mini stereo plug that is used with the Casio devices for which the cable was originally designed. This cable can be identified by the patent number (5,504,864) printed on it. When referring to this cable, please call it the "Purple" cable, and not "the cable I got from somebody.com". Two sources for the Purple cable are:
  • ScannerCables.com An authorized distributor who offers support and a "100% satisfaction guarantee".
  • Purple Computing Larry Berg is the inventor and manufacturer of the Purple cable.

There are several different designs for cables, both one-way and two-way. I list a few below:

• Bill Petrowsky's Advanced Two-Way PC Interface Cable : (This image was lifted from the PRO-92.COM site). Here is the schematic and description.
• Bill Petrowsky's Simplified Two-Way Cable : (This image was lifted from the PRO-92.COM site). Here is the schematic.
• Bill Petrowsky's Simplified Op Amp Programming Cable : (This is a link to Bill's site - I didn't copy the file to my site). This cable fixed a problem I had on my PRO-95 (see below). It is independent of the voltage present on the scanner's PC/IF jack. Bill's main page, which contains a link to this cable, is here. NOTE: The links to Bill's page are apparently dead, as of 25 Jan 2006.)

Some people use the cables that were designed for other scanners, such as the Yaesu and ICOM radios. Some of these cables might require adapters (e.g. stereo to mono, sub-mini to mini). If you already have such a cable, you may wish to give it a try. If it doesn't work, then try one of the options above. If you try such a cable, please let me know (including any adapters you used) so that I can include it here.

From Scanner	Adapters, etc.
Icom IC-2800	Stereo - Mono
Yaesu VR-500	cable from ADMS-3 package

I had been using the cable that came with my Casio QV-3000EX digital camera (sweet machine BTW, especially with the 1GB MicroDrive). That cable, along with the sub-mini stereo to mini stereo plus mini stereo to mini mono adapters, worked flawlessly on my PRO-92 and PRO-93. When I first started writing Win95, however, the cable would not receive data from the PRO-95. It would send data to that scanner just fine. I checked the voltages present on the three scanners' PC/IF jacks, and found the following:

	Scanner	Voltage (V)
	PRO-92	4.68
	PRO-93	3.23
	PRO-95	3.19

In a conversation with Bill Petrowsky, he informed me that the Casio cable I was using was really designed for 5 V logic and that it barely worked with the PRO-93's 3.3 V logic. He said that he read 3.215 V on his PRO-93 and if the PRO-95 is much lower, it could make the cable unusable. I presume that the 3.19 V on my PRO-95, possibly combined with tolerances within the Casio cable, did, in fact, make my cable unusable. I have received a few reports (not many) from users that have had problems using the Casio cable to receive data from the PRO-95, while it sends data to that scanner just fine, and works in both directions on their PRO-92 and/or PRO-93.

Incidentally, the Casio cable mentioned above is the same design as the "Purple" cable. IIRC, the guy (Larry Berg) that designed the Purple cable originally did it for Casio for use with their electronic organizers, calculators, etc.

Bill sent me one of his "Simplified Op Amp Programming Cables", and it works perfectly on all three scanners. That cable is independent of the voltage on the scanner's PC/IF jack.

Summary: If you are using a Purple/Casio cable and it won't download from your PRO-95, you may wish to build Bill's "Simplified Op Amp Programming Cable", referenced in the link above.

• iogear USB PDA/Serial GUC232A (www.iogear.com). I downloaded the most recent driver from the web site - it was dated April 26, 2001
• Keyspan USA-19Qi (www.keyspan.com). There was a driver available on the web site, but the transfer kept timing out.
• Belkin ExpressBus Plus Hub F5U012. The driver on the CD was much more recent than the web site.

• all three devices included a driver CD
• all tests were on Windows 2000 Pro

Some of these things are sold, not as a "USB to Serial Adapter", but as a device that lets you hook up your handheld computer (e.g. a Palm) to your PC via USB. I merely looked at the cable and decided it was really a serial adapter.

The iogear device downloaded perfectly. When uploading, it seemed to go through the paces, but then the scanner initialized at the end of the transfer. I noticed that the transfer didn't seem to take long enough, and hypothesized that the USB driver was taking all of the data and saying "sent" before the scanner had actually received the data. I started adding delays between blocks of data, and was able to make it work. In order to support this adapter, and any others that act like it, I added an "Extra Write Wait Time" option to the Configuration menu. If you're using a USB adapter and your uploads fail as described above, you might want to try this option. Note: This device is my personal favorite. Its cable is only about 15" long, and is perfect for carrying around with my laptop.

The Keyspan device worked just fine, both uploads and downloads. It was not necessary to select the "Extra Write Wait Time" option (though it still worked if I did - the transfer just takes much longer).

The Belkin device uploads to the scanner, but fails miserably on download. I could never get more than 500 bytes from the scanner. Since Win93 doesn't make any timing decisions in downloads, there's not much I can do with this one (unless Belkin comes out with a new driver). Interestingly, this one, when I connect it to my scanner with my Casio cable and 2 adapters, is the only one that causes the scanner to go into Clone Mode (the others cause no change to the scanner until I do something in Win93). I may look at the modem control lines on the adapter's serial pins with a meter, to verify that they're being set to the correct levels. UPDATE: The Belkin device now works with Win93 and Win95. I haven't tried it with Win92 (that I recall). If anybody does try this device with Win92, please let me know so that I can either update this page or fix Win92, as appropriate.