H - Stash

The procedure for using the USB adapter from the BOM wasn’t in the wiki - nor was it immediately obvious, so, here goes.

If you are using the usb -> RS232 adapter, the serial drivers may need to be installed for the device to work properly. After plugging in the device, first check the hardware messages to see the device was detected:

dmesg

Torward the end of the messages, you should see this:

usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_and address 2
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

Now, we need to figure out the device vendor number and product number to tell the usbserial driver. For this we can use lsusb. The easiest way to find the information is to first unplug the device, then run lsusb:

lsusb

You will see a summary list of your USB devices on the system, I only have one:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Now, plug the device back in, and run lsusb again:

lsusb

Which returns the summary list again, but now showing the new USB device:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 4348:5523
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Now, we can load up the driver for this device:

sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0×4348 product=0×5523

Finally, check dmesg again to ensure it loaded properly.

dmesg

Near the end, you should see something like:

usbserial_generic 1-1:1.0: generic converter detected
usb 1-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic

Congratulations, your link is up - in this example, the device can be used on /dev/ttyUSB0. As much fun as you had doing this, there is some chance you want to do this automatically in the future. Just add this line:

usbserial vendor=0×4348 product=0×5523

to /etc/modules with the vendor and product numbers you found. Now, you should have no problem using this device for RepRap like a normal serial port. Huzzah! grinning smiley