CHIRP

Nothing is being returned to CHIRP. This would usually indicate some sort of cable/driver issue. For example the 2-pin plug not fully seated in the radio or the FTDI device driver not fully installed.

Is this the only radio? Do you have another radio that you can test the programming cable with?
Do you have someone that you can borrow a known working programming cable from?

Jim KC9HI

Thanks for the update,
I actually purchased another radio to see if I had a problem with the first radio.
Both radios are having the same issue.
The cable was purchased from Btech with the first radio purchase.
All of the purchases have been through Amazon Btech store.
The cable driver is working as well and states it is on com3.
The cable appears to be fully seated in both radios
I also purchased a uv25x4 radio and cable and there were no issues programing this radio on com4.
I don't have anyone that has a radio or is trying to get into this hobby at this point.
I am not sure about next steps at this point.

Thanks again for your help.

The problem is most likely with the programming cable. It is either not fully engaged with the socket of the radio, defective or in some other way not functioning properly.

Have you confirmed, using Device Manager, that COM3 is the correct COM port. For example my computer motherboard has an on-board serial port that I never bothered to disable when I built the computer. It shows up as COM1 in CHIRP. If I accidentally choose it, I get the same "Error reading data from radio: not the amount of data we want." message when choosing the BTEEC / UV-5X3 selections.

Sometimes these radios need to have the user push on the plug to get the pins fully inserted into the socket during the cloning process. It is rare, but perhaps the BTECH PC03 programming cable is defective. Would it be possible for you to temporarily borrow a known working programming cable from someone.

Jim KC9HI

Good evening Jim, I have verified the com3 when plugging in the cable using the devise manager tab. When accessing the information of the cable using properties for the driver it appears to be functioning correctly. I have tried pushing in on the cable as well. I might purchase another cable but don’t think this will help. When I programmed the uv25x4 I used the same location on my computer and it said that programming cable was on com4. This radio programmed right away with no issues. I was thinking about buying a simple uv5r radio to see if it would work with the cable in question. I believe the cable is communicating with the computer because if I select other BTech radios using the drop down I get different error messages. Can you suggest a different driver for the cable in question? I was reading somewhere about using older drivers but I believe this was not the FTDI cable. I might just buy another cable and a uv5r radio but I really don’t want to. Thanks for all of your help with this, I appreciate it.

Having a different COM port number for each FTDI programming cable is expected. Each FTDI chip has a unique ID so the FTDI device driver in Windows assigns a different COM port number to each chip/programming cable.

If for some reason the FTDI driver that is automatically installed by Windows doesn't work right off the bat (rare) the only other driver that I would recommend would be the one at the "FTDI chip vendor's website":https://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm.

I totally believe that the FTDI chip is being recognized by computer. If this issue isn't caused by a problem with the device driver, it could be an issue with the soldering of the wires in the cord to the module inside the USB end of the programming cable. This to is also rare, but I have seen it happen. Something is either keeping the radio from hearing CHIRP or something is keeping the radio's response from getting back to CHIRP.

Jim KC9HI

I have ordered another cable from Amazon tonight. I will keep you posted. Thanks again Jim I appreciate your help.

Good evening Jim, I purchased the silver and black Baofeng cable and used the Prolific driver 3.2.00. Programmed the radio without a problem. I hope that this information can help someone else. Thanks again for your help with this, I appreciate it.