Tag Archives: serial

Ancient Palmtops as serial terminals, Part 2: the Psion 5mx and the homelab

Last year, I performed some jiggery-pokery on my headless Raspberry Pi-based HomeLab to allow my veteran Psion 3a palmtop to be used as a serial terminal for those times when SSH-ing in was not an option. The age of the 3a meant it was a sub-optimal experience, but it was usable. I recently acquired a Psion 5mx, released half a decade after the 3, and put it to the same task.

A Psion 5mx running Hermes to show a Raspberry Pi serial terminal. Image © Tony Smith (@smittytone)

The experience is much better, but I needed to tweak the PI-side settings to get results.

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How to access and control a Raspberry Pi with a Psion Series 3a

Recap I have acquired a UK-made Psion Series 3a palmtop. I’ve connected it to my Mac. My next goal is to connect the 3a to the Internet for email. But first… yes, I got distracted: having connected the 3a to a Mac, what about a Raspberry Pi? Could I do more with it than transfer files?

Darn right, I can. I can use it to control my headless server.

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How to manage multiple serial devices on a Mac

I connect to my Mac many USB devices that communicate over a serial (UART) bus to send debug information to the host or to receive data and code. You know, Raspberry Pi Picos, Adafruit Feathers, FTDI cables — that kind of thing. Often I have more than one connected. Is there an easy way to see what’s connected without listing /dev every time and to remember connected devices’ paths?

A USB serial device attached to my Mac
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Connect a Raspberry Pi to a Mac using a USB-Serial adapter

I’m enjoying tinkering with the Raspberry Pi. Alas most of the tutorials and guides available online, of which there are many, focus on hooking the tiny board computer to Windows or Linux machines. Mac-centric guidance is sparse, and I could have used some this week.

A Pi's UART pins, connected
A Pi’s UART pins, connected
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