USB cable recognition

Hello all,
I have a macbook pro (OSx, 10.5.4, Intel), and the AXE027 USB programming cable. I can not get macAXEpad to recognize the cable. I installed the driver from rev.ed.uk, and the cable shows up in my system prefs-->network list, but it shows up as a modem.
I do not know how to use the terminal to get my secret serial number for my cable. I followed the PDF USB help doc... In Terminal, cd /dev works but ls-1 does not.

I think it is close, but I need the secret code.

Why in the hell we need a secret code is another rant... I paid $25 for a cable, it should be easy to use. (thats the goal for picaxe, right??) anyway....


thanks for any pointers, I'd like to use my mac for this.

~Steve

revtor said:

In Terminal, cd /dev works but ls-1 does not.

Click to expand...

That should be "ls -l", lowercase-L, not 1

thanks Hippy.. someone should correct the USB help doc - it needs a bit of help.

Okay, so in Terminal I now have a list of things, but nowhere is there anything about my USB cable serial#... whats the next terminal code to get me my USB serial code?

~Steve

The "ls -l" command should have listed all your devices including the USB Serial devices. You can also use "ls /dev/tty.usbserial-*", alternatively click on "USB Setup" within MacAXEpad which should achieve the same.

okay, got the list...

here's the important line:

crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 9, 6 May 27 10:45 tty.usbserial-0000101D


let me try that #..
ill report back.

~Steve

yay it works!!!


I think its real sensitive to the order in which you plug it in, run the program, turn on the board, etc... am I right?


And now the last question. If I ordered 25 of these cables for my classroom would I need to use the same cable for a certain machine every time? Or could any cable be used on any machine as long as it was set up and working..?


thanks!
~Steve

Glad you got there, and hopefully you can now enjoy your PICAXE experience. We try to make it as simple as possible but operating systems are a law unto themselves, though once configured they usually remain fairly static and stable.

The impression I get is that it's quite common for "0000101D" to be the allocated serial number so highly likely that every Mac would have that number no matter which cable is used and will always give it the same number when used. So mix-and-match shouldn't be a problem except in a minority of cases, and, fingers crossed, not at all.

I don't know how Mac's handle the cable being plugged into a different USB port each time, whether it uses the same serial number or allocates a different one.

The cable must be inserted, in the SAME USB port (hole), before the software is started.

It would be recommended to use the same cable in the same port on each computer, for instance we always use the left hand keyboard USB port. However it is not essential as once you have installed the driver the Mac OS system allocated serial number (which can vary depending on the operating system version, but is often 0000101D) can be read by clicking the 'USB setup' button on the options page.

Thanks for the info guys! Ill try a few things before outfitting my classroom..

~Steve