Fixing a HyperTerminal in Mac OS X
HyperTerminal is a communications program bundled with multiple versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is a tool used when connecting to other computers, bulletin board systems (BBSs), and a host of other Internet-related services.
HyperTerminal is designed to emulate various types of text terminal. It can be configured to make a connection through a modem or directly over a serial port. Various serial parameters are configurable such as:
HyperTerminal supports various terminal protocols such as VT100 (ANSI X3.64), as well as various forms of file transfer protocols such as ASCII, XMODEM and YMODEM.
The screen program
A good replacement for HyperTerminal in Mac OS X is the unix program /usr/bin/screen.
NAME
screen - screen manager with VT100/ANSI terminal emulation
SYNOPSIS
screen [ -options ] [ cmd [ args ] ]
screen -r [[pid.]tty[.host]]
screen -r sessionowner/[[pid.]tty[.host]]
DESCRIPTION
Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical ter-
minal between several processes (typically interactive shells). Each
virtual terminal provides the functions of a DEC VT100 terminal and, in
addition, several control functions from the ISO 6429 (ECMA 48, ANSI
X3.64) and ISO 2022 standards (e.g. insert/delete line and support for
multiple character sets). There is a scrollback history buffer for
each virtual terminal and a copy-and-paste mechanism that allows moving
text regions between windows.
We will use the screen program to communicate with the Xilinx evaluation board ML403. Here is the setup.
Connecting the MacBook to the evaluation board
- Open a terminal
- Start the screen program in the terminal using the command: screen /dev/tty.U......
- If you type screen /dev/tty.U and use the file completion (tab) you will find the right name.
- Connect the USB cable between the computer and the evaluation board where is says UART Host.
- Turn on the power to the evaluation board and press the system reset button.
- This is what the screen window looks like.
We are ready to run the demo programs that come with the evaluation board.
More information
Use screen as serial terminal emulator (MacOSXHints)
