Using the USB Serial communications with a Mac or Linux machine requires a Terminal application, just as it does with windows.

The process is outlined below:

1. Find the device name of the USB serial port¶

To find the device name under Mac OS X, use the command "ls /dev/tty.usbmodem*"

To find the device name under Linux, use the command "ls /dev/ttyACM*"

2. Setup a Terminal program to talk to the serial port¶

If you do not already have it, download GNU Screen

Connect using screen by typing the command screen /dev/<devicename> in your console window, where <devicename> is found in Step 1.

3. Play!¶

The USB Serial port should be set to the default 9600 baud standard serial connection 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no parity (aka 9600-8-N-1)

Note: You can check it is working by typing keys in the terminal application; nothing useful will happen, but the Status light on the mbed Microcontroller should flicker as the characters are received