ALINCO DR-735E Programming

Alinco DR-735 Programing Problem Solved

I'm only writing this post to help out other DR-735 owners. When I got my DR-735, I programmed in all the local repeaters using my ERW7 USB Lead and Clone Software. Everything was ok. 

But then some months later, I went to make some changes to the stored memories and struggled to get the PC to recognise the Radio. I had got the FTDI Driver installed and the radio showed up as COM-19 in the Device Manager, but every time I tried to read or write to the radio I got an ERROR.

I tried all sorts including installing everything onto a different computer - to no avail. It then dawned on me that I might have the lead plugged into SP2 port instead of SP1. I looked and saw that the lead was plugged into SP1.

So after a bit more head-scratching, I wondered if it mattered that I had an external speaker connected to SP2 - it did!!  As soon as I disconnected the SP2 lead, the programming software began to work again. D'oh!

So, in summary, when programming the Alinco DR-735E, plug the programming lead into SP1 and make sure SP2 socket has nothing plugged in it.