I learned yesterday that the trusty-and-cheap UV-B5 has been modified and is no longer compatible with CHIRP. Given how much of a pain they are to program from the keypad, that's pretty much a dealbreaker for the UV-B5, even though it's a great radio for the price ($30). Apparently, you can identify the newer radios by the fact that they have 27 menu options instead of 29.
While researching the problem I was experiencing ("Radio did not ack programming mode"), I found an issue in the bug tracker for CHIRP that recommends using a CP2102-based cable to program the radio as a way of getting around this. It's not ideal, but a CP2102 USB adapter cost me $1.75 on eBay and the radio ships with a headset that we can pull the jack from as an interface. My soldering skills are marginal at best, but this looks about as easy as it gets.
As a bonus, it'll give me a good reason to design and print a case, too!
I will update this post later with my results.
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