May 18, 2020 CoolTerm is a simple serial-port terminal application (no terminal emulation) that is geared towards hobbyists and professionals with a need to exchange data with hardware connected to serial ports such as servo controllers, robotic kits, GPS receivers, microcontrollers, etc. Features include display of received data in text or hexadecimal format, support for multiple concurrent connection (if. The field that now shows 'secure shell' can quickly switch to other connection types like telnet or serial cable. Keyboard remapping profiles allow you to completely redefine the keyboard. Each key or key combination can be mapped to send text, connect to a host, start a script, perform a menu function, etc.
Connecting Two Macs With a Serial Connection Contents
Introduction One of the best things about Macs is that they all come with built in networking capabilities. This can take the form of an ethernet card but many older Macs don't have this. However, all Macs have a modem and printer serial port and it is very easy to just take a printer cable, stick it into the printer ports of each Mac, set up file sharing and you're away! This page is designed to help you with that task. Pros Why would you want to connect two Macs in this way? Here are a few ideas:
Cons There are a few reasons why you shouldn't use the printer cable method:
Procedure Now we're past all of the pros and cons, it is time to actually get on with connecting the Macs together. Requirements You need:
However, there are two types of networking software - Open Transport and the traditional networking software. Fortunately, they process is very similar for both but I will describe them separately. If one Mac is using OT and the other isn't, you can still network them. Just follow the instructions for your computer. Setting up the connection Open Transport
Your Mac is now ready for file sharing. Traditional Networking
Your Mac is now ready for file sharing Setting up File Sharing Fortunately this process is identical for both pieces of software. Note that if you simply want a network connection to link two applications (eg. games, FileMaker Pro databases) you already have that connection. File Sharing allows you to share files, it is one use you can make of the connection you have made.
Seeing the Other Mac At this stage, both Macs should have gone through the same process and should be at the same point. It is quite possible to only set up sharing on one Mac and then connect with the other though.
These are just the very basics of file sharing. There is a whole lot more but this was designed primarily as an introduction to networking two Macs rather than a guide to becoming a network manager. If you want to play around some more then use the AppleGuide which is very helpful in this respect. It can be quite fun to play network managers by creating users and groups, changing access privileges etc as it reminds you how easy to use the Mac is, even for something as complicated as networking. Troubleshooting So, you've gone through all of the instructions but it still wont work. Here is a list of things that may have gone wrong:
What Next? What else can you do with this feature?
Disclaimer If in following the advice contained herein, damage is caused to a computer, it is the sole responsibility of the owner of the computer and no other person or institution. ©1996-04 JagWerks Media |
Connecting to the serial console on Mac and Linux uses essentially the same process. Neither operating system needs drivers installed. On MacOSX, Terminal comes installed. On Linux, there are a variety such as gnome-terminal (called Terminal) or Konsole on KDE.
First you'll want to find out which serial port your board is using. When you plug your board in to USB on your computer, it connects to a serial port. The port is like a door through which your board can communicate with your computer using USB.
We're going to use Terminal to determine what port the board is using. The easiest way to determine which port the board is using is to first check without the board plugged in. On Mac, open Terminal and type the following:
ls /dev/tty.*
Each serial connection shows up in the /dev/ directory. It has a name that starts with tty.. The command ls shows you a list of items in a directory. You can use * as a wildcard, to search for files that start with the same letters but end in something different. In this case, we're asking to see all of the listings in /dev/ that start with tty. and end in anything. This will show us the current serial connections.
For Linux, the procedure is the same, however, the name is slightly different. If you're using Linux, you'll type:
ls /dev/ttyACM*
The concept is the same with Linux. We are asking to see the listings in the /dev/ folder, starting with ttyACM and ending with anything. This will show you the current serial connections. In the example below, the error is indicating that are no current serial connections starting with ttyACM.
Now, plug your board. Using Mac, type:
ls /dev/tty.*
This will show you the current serial connections, which will now include your board.
Using Mac, a new listing has appeared called /dev/tty.usbmodem141441. The tty.usbmodem141441 part of this listing is the name the example board is using. Yours will be called something similar.
Using Linux, type:
ls /dev/ttyACM*
This will show you the current serial connections, which will now include your board.
Using Linux, a new listing has appeared called /dev/ttyACM0. The ttyACM0 part of this listing is the name the example board is using. Yours will be called something similar.
Now that you know the name your board is using, you're ready connect to the serial console. We're going to use a command called screen. The screen command is included with MacOS. Linux users may need to install it using their package manager. To connect to the serial console, use Terminal. Type the following command, replacing board_name with the name you found your board is using:
screen /dev/tty.board_name 115200
The first part of this establishes using the screen command. The second part tells screen the name of the board you're trying to use. The third part tells screen what baud rate to use for the serial connection. The baud rate is the speed in bits per second that data is sent over the serial connection. In this case, the speed required by the board is 115200 bits per second.
Press enter to run the command. It will open in the same window. If no code is running, the window will be blank. Otherwise, you'll see the output of your code.
Great job! You've connected to the serial console!
If you try to run screen and it doesn't work, then you may be running into an issue with permissions. Linux keeps track of users and groups and what they are allowed to do and not do, like access the hardware associated with the serial connection for running screen. So if you see something like this:
then you may need to grant yourself access. There are generally two ways you can do this. The first is to just run screen using the sudo command, which temporarily gives you elevated privileges.
Once you enter your password, you should be in:
The second way is to add yourself to the group associated with the hardware. To figure out what that group is, use the command ls -l as shown below. The group name is circled in red.
Then use the command adduser to add yourself to that group. You need elevated privileges to do this, so you'll need to use sudo. In the example below, the group is adm and the user is ackbar.
Serial Connection Software Windows
After you add yourself to the group, you'll need to logout and log back in, or in some cases, reboot your machine. After you log in again, verify that you have been added to the group using the command groups. If you are still not in the group, reboot and check again.
And now you should be able to run screen without using sudo.
And you're in:
The examples above use screen, but you can also use other programs, such as putty or picocom, if you prefer.