I often have to do router configuration via a console port, so I use a Keyspan Serial Adapter to get access. Two problems then present themselves: ZTerm is a horrible Mac OS X app. It hasn't been updated in five years or so, and isn't a Universal Binary. The developer doesn't seem in any hurry to rectify the situation. It is not worth the shareware fee in its current form. Minicom requires installation of Fink or MacPorts and is overly complex. Solution: Use screen, Terminal, and a little AppleScripting. First, launch Script Editor and type/paste in the following code: tell application "Terminal" do script with command "screen /dev/tty.KeySerial1" set number of rows of window 1 to 100 set number of columns of window 1 to 80 set background color of window 1 to "black" set normal text color of window 1 to "green" set custom title of window 1 to "SerialOut" end tell Compile and save as an app from within Script Editor, and you have a double-clickable application to launch a serial Terminal session. You may want to customize this slightly -- you can change the screen colors or number of columns or rows. You may also need to customize the screen command with a different device name if you are using something other than the Keyspan Serial Adapter (do an ls tty* of the /dev/ directory to get the right name). screen uses Control-A to take commands directed to it. So type Control-A followed by Control-\\ to exit your screen session. If you fail to do this and exit a Terminal session, you'll leave the screen session alive and the serial resource unavailable until you kill the screen session manually. man screen will show you further commands to send to a screen session. If anyone can reply with a link to a tutorial on how to wrap an interactive Unix App in Cocoa, that would be the next step -- it would be nice to do this without involving Terminal. If you prefer to use Minicom, you could still use the AppleScript to wrap it into a nice launchable app -- use this older hint to find the right command line commands. You can also use C-Kermit 8.0. Unfortunately a binary is not available, we must compile it by ourselves, but it's really easy, as Mac OS X is supported. Download the source at the following address: ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/archives/cku211.zip Copy it in a folder, then, using terminal: % cd <the folder you copied it in> % unzip -a cku211.zip % make macosx103 % sudo make install it will compile and install Kermit in the folder /usr/local/bin/kermit; the binary is called wermit. It's ready! to launch it: % /usr/local/bin/kermit/wermit and here it is: C-Kermit 8.0.211, 10 Apr 2004, for Mac OS X 10.3 Copyright (C) 1985, 2004, Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. Type ? or HELP for help. (/Users/wallybear/) C-Kermit> Compiling from source give also the chance to tweak compiler settings so to make a PPC, Intel or Universal binary application. [ Reply to This | # ] Wow! Kermit - I haven't used that for at least a decade, but I seem to remember that it was very good... must give it a try... Anyway, that aside, for those who like minicom, Jeffrey Frey has done a Mac port which can be found at the bottome of his page here: http://turin.nss.udel.edu/programming / also the awesome thing about kermit which i've been using recently for a few years is that it lets you send files via xmodem (useful when ur cisco gear pukes on itself), and also kermit is scriptable (useful when you have 50+ apc power strips you have to configure the same way, enter non-interactive script). This is an excellent solution (I've been a regular, frustrated, user of ZTERM). I am, however, unable to configure the serial port settings (I routinely connect to a serial device running 38400/n/8/1) I've tried every combination I can imagine with stty to set the port before starting screen and it is still always stuck at 9600 baud. Here is an addition I made to select the serial port and the baud rate: set baudList to {1200, 2400, 4800, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200, 230400 } set baudRate to (choose from list baudList default items {38400}) tell application "Terminal" set serialDevices to (do shell script "ls /dev/cu*") set theDeviceList to (paragraphs of serialDevices) as list set theDevice to (choose from list theDeviceList) do script "screen " & theDevice & " " & baudRate display dialog "To quit you terminal session type then " end tell thanks for all your help, especially bboy for the cheaper cable, and wcontello for the AppleScript. I am currently taking 2 classes that use HyperTerminal, a Cisco test prep class and a basic Telecommunications classes. I've wanted to use my MacBook Pro to use something HyperTerminal related. I have a beta of Windows 7 in Boot Camp and VMWare, and MS got rid of HyperTerminal in Vista. And of course no Mac (except for Xserves) have a serial port. --- Startup Shortcuts - Shortcuts for debugging your Mac on startup, on your iPhone http://web.me.com/maxeverde/Startup
What programs can act as a terminal and access serial ports. This is not for terminal access on an IP connection, this is so I can access a hardware device plugged.
Download, install or update CoolTerm Mac - Serial port terminal app - from MacUpdate.
Using Terminal to connect to serial port Max Mac Pro 2.66Ghz Mac OS X You could purchase a KeySpan usb to serial adapter which comes with a driver which.
I knew it had to be possible to view serial data in the OSX terminal window. Finally, a little googling told me what I needed to know. Here’s how to read and send serial data from the termina…
I have just started experimenting with Serproxy and Arduino to get some serial data into Flash Builder/Flex. Serproxy seems to work fine and seems to connect to.
I knew it had to be possible to view serial data in the OSX terminal window. Finally, Pingback: Serial Console Communication from Mac OS X Code Ghar.
Use screen, Terminal, Use screen as a serial terminal emulator and that s not to mention the Terminal application packaged with os X.
Use 'screen' as a serial terminal emulator - Mac OS X Hints