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Using Picocom for Serial Communication

This document summarizes how to connect to a GNUBLIN board using either the picocom or gtkterm terminal programs in Linux. Picocom is a terminal application that requires setting the baud rate and device, typically /dev/ttyUSB0. It can be used with root privileges for easy access or by adding the user to the dialout group for safer access without root. GTKterm is a GUI terminal program that can be configured to access /dev/ttyUSB0 at 115200 baud once installed. Both allow connecting to the board and interacting with it once started.

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178 views3 pages

Using Picocom for Serial Communication

This document summarizes how to connect to a GNUBLIN board using either the picocom or gtkterm terminal programs in Linux. Picocom is a terminal application that requires setting the baud rate and device, typically /dev/ttyUSB0. It can be used with root privileges for easy access or by adding the user to the dialout group for safer access without root. GTKterm is a GUI terminal program that can be configured to access /dev/ttyUSB0 at 115200 baud once installed. Both allow connecting to the board and interacting with it once started.

Uploaded by

petrusz1
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction

There are many different terminal programs avialable for Linux, in this article we will explain the
following two of them:

picocom (terminal application)


gtkterm (GUI application)

picocom (terminal application)


You can get picocom either with your package management software or by typing the following
command into your terminal:

sudo apt-get install picocom

Now if you want to connect to your GNUBLIN, you must set two parameters for picocom:

Baud rate
Device which you want to use

In most cases the device will be /dev/ttyUSB0 but it's also possible that the number 0 differs. For
example ttyUSB1

If you want to know which device is the right one, just type the following command into your
terminal after you have plugged in the Gnublin board:

dmesg

Now have a look for the following line:

...
[ 4073.033436] usb 3-1.4: cp210x converter now attached to ttyUSB0
...

There are two different ways to connect to your GNUBLIN. The first one is with root-privileges
(quick and easy) and the second one is with normal user rights (more difficult but safer):

Picocom with root-privileges


The device file can not be opened as normal user, so the easiest way is to just open picocom with
root-privileges:

sudo picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0

The parameter -b 115200 configures a baud rate of 115200 bit/s.


If the terminal is started, usually come a couple of boot messages. If you see anything, just press
ENTER once, then the login should appear:

gnublin login:

To exit the terminal you can use the keyboard shortcuts:

ctrl + a + x
ctrl + a + q

Picocom as normal user


Another way to start picocom is to add the normal user to the group of the device. Then you will not
need root-privileges to use picocom.

Add the user to the group

You only have to do step 1 until 4 once. After this you can use picocom always as a normal user.

1. Check in which group the device is:

ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 Feb 8 15:38 /dev/ttyUSB0

You can see that the device ttyUSB0 is in the group dialout

2. Add the normal user to the group dialout:

sudo adduser <USER> dialout

You have to enter your user name instead of <USER>.

3. You have to log out and on again that the changes to the group will have an effect.

4. Check the groups of your user:

id -n -G
... adm dialout cdrom sudo ...

Now you will see that you are also a member of the group dialout

start picocom

now you can start picocom with the following command (notice that you don't need sudo anymore):

picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0

The parameters meaning is described above.


If the terminal is started, usually come a couple of boot messages. If you see anything, just press
ENTER once, then the login should appear:

gnublin login:

To exit the terminal you can use the keyboard shortcuts:

ctrl + a + x
ctrl + a + q

gtkterm (GUI application)


You can get gtkterm either with your package management software or by typing the following
command into your terminal:

sudo apt-get install gtkterm

Now you can start gtkterm and configure your port to /dev/ttyUSB0 under configuration -> port
and your baud rate to 115200.

Now you can go on to your first example application here.

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