Hello All, I am new to mbed, so in the past have run basic tutorials as presented here with the mbed being connected to one of the USB ports on my computer.

Now I am trying to Interface it using Java. I am using Processing program and use Serial RxTx communication library to achieve that. Yet I had my mbed connected via USB. But nothing happened (no Leds flashing or changing any brightness). Do I need to get an adapter to connect to my RS232 to achieve true Serial Communication? Or is there a way to designate the USB port as 'Com1 Port'?

What do you guys use to achieve Serial comm? I did state the use of 'Com1 @ 9600' in the code. And I use a Windows XP. Thanks in Advance.

Can you get normal serial communication with terminal, teraterm ?

Also, have you installed the Windows serial driver, without this, MBED cannot use serial.

I will test that tonight. I have a PIC18F452 and will use it to do some Serial comm. My pc has a RS232 port so I am assuming that the Windows Serial driver has been installed but I will check again.

Do you know how I can add a usb port to my COM list? thank you very much..

This Handbook page has instructions on installing the USB serial driver for Windows.

This Handbook page has more information on how serial communication works between the PC and mbed. It includes a section on how to determine which COM port gets assigned to your mbed device by looking at the Ports section in Device Manager.

Hope that helps.

After you have installed the above mention driver, and plugged in your MBED, you will (after a first time short install-set-up) have a NEW Virtual COM port.

in device manager, you can expand Com & LPT ports, and select MBED, go to advanced, there you will be able to to select a more appropriate port number.

Caution: do not re-number to an existing port, especially if you have a real physical RS232 port, this should be changed in BIOS.

Enjoy Ceri

Thank you Thank you so much! Both Adam Green and Ceri Clatworthy.

I will try to do this tonight it self. It seems to be exactly what I have been looking for! Honestly I didn't know about all this stuff, this is the first real embedded system that I have ever worked on and its so powerful and advance too.

Thank you, I will try it tonight and hope to relay good news soon then!

Hi guys, yes it worked! I did install the drivers and got the com port working, I even setup putty according to the tutorial to view the output on the terminal.. and that was brilliant. Now only if I can get my ID12 RFID reader to get working my life would be heaver.. :D

thank you both..