Re: Mac and NetBSD compatible usb to serial rs-232 (was: which serial-to-usb devices do you use?)

[Andy Ruhl <acruhl%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 7:52 AM, Herb Peyerl <hpeyerl%beer.org@localhost> wrote:
> On my mac I use an FTDI based one... I have a few of them and they work out 
> of the box and have since at least 10.4.x ...
>
> FTDIUSBSerialDriver:        0  4036001 start - ok
>
> chimay ~ # uname -a
> Darwin chimay.local 10.5.0 Darwin Kernel Version 10.5.0: Fri Nov  5 23:20:39 
> PDT 2010; root:xnu-1504.9.17~1/RELEASE_I386 i386
>
> chimay ~ # ls -al /dev/tty.usbserial-00004626
> crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel   18,   8 Jan 14 07:48 /dev/tty.usbserial-00004626
>
> USB <-> Serial:
>
>  Product ID:   0x6001
>  Vendor ID:    0x0403  (Future Technology Devices International Limited)
>  Version:       4.00
>  Speed:        Up to 12 Mb/sec
>  Manufacturer: FTDI
>  Location ID:  0x26460000
>  Current Available (mA):       500
>  Current Required (mA):        90

I've got a uftdi based one, but it doesn't work on my Mac. I plug it
in and the system profiler shows that it's an unknown device. I didn't
follow up on it because I thought it just wasn't supported. I'll have
to plug it in again when I get home and compare it to what you have
here. I'm on a 10.6.6 machine, maybe something changed. You said you
didn't have to install a driver for that? I searched around and found
various 3rd party USB to serial drivers for Mac...

> I've also used them under Linux and NetBSD... I've even used the same one on 
> my Macbook running VMWare Fusion with a Windows-XP host to use custom Webasto 
> software to talk to my truck's diesel fired heater at 10,400 baud (OBD-II 
> K-line).

That's much cooler than what I'll be doing. I'm just trying to talk to
a Cobalt Qube2 and possibly an old HP box. I guess one of my bikes has
an old Power Commander with a serial port on it though... Might be
worth playing with to see if I can back it up or something.

Andy