You'll need to get a usb-serial adapter and then connect with a console cable. Adapters aren't very expensive. Connecting to the Console Port with Mac OS X To connect a Mac OS X system USB port to the console using the built-in OS X Terminal utility, follow these steps: Step 1 Use the Finder to go to Applications Utilities Terminal. Knowing the serial port, you can just type screen portname datarate to show the serial data on the screen. In my case, it was: screen /dev/tty.PL23D 9600. To quit the screen app, type control-A, then control. I don’t think that this is very complete, but it worked for me and might help you to get your USB serial working.
I bought a USB Serial port that had MAC drivers. Check before you buy it that it has drivers. Not all USB Serial have MAC support. I assume that you have installed the correct drivers from here.
![Serial Serial](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126478538/865343995.png)
First, open Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal). Next, type
ls /dev/tty.*
to get a list of your serial lines. Pick the one that you want to open. For example, my list looks like this:
gf:dev gf$ ls -al tty.*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 4 Jan 25 07:32 tty.Bluetooth-Modem
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 8 Jan 25 07:32 tty.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 10 Jan 25 09:20 tty.PL2303-0000103D
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 0 Jan 25 07:32 tty.SerialPort-1
gf:dev gf$
And I know /dev/tty.PL2303-0000103D is the USB-to-serial adaptor becuase it’s connected, if you unplug it the tty.PL2303-0000103D stops being listed.
Serial For Mac
Knowing the serial port, you can just type screen portname datarate to show the serial data on the screen. In my case, it was:
screen /dev/tty.PL2303-0000103D 9600
To quit the screen app, type control-A, then control-.
Macos Serial Port App
Postscript
I don’t think that this is very complete, but it worked for me and might help you to get your USB serial working. Please let me know if there anything I can add to complete this piece.
Serial Port Monitor For Mac
Update 2008/12/28: A reader has pointed out this article is based on a similar article at†http://www.tigoe.net/pcomp/resources/archives/avr/000749.shtml. I must have copied some of the text and then mistakenly believed it was my own. Apologies for this mistake.