FTDI and Mac OS

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Level 1

13 points

FTDI and Mac OS

Dear Apple,

Many of us are veterans of the computer industry and we have switched to Mac OS for very good reasons, mainly because we can be far more productive with your extremely stable operating system. We appreciate the work you are doing for the average users, making Mac OS far more secure, but we need more. One example is those of us who work with networking technology needing to be able to move into the future like using USB-C to connect to old style serial ports in order to access configuration command line for networking devices, IoT devices and such.

I have spent the better part of 1.5 days trying to get a FTDI cable to work with Virtual COMM Port (VCP) on my MacBook Pro 2018 running Mac OS 10.15.3 and I also need to connect to Arduino microcontrollers using their IDE, which means I usually need the FTDI drivers to work on Catalina. All my efforts so far have been in vain. Calling Apple Support for help resulted in some suggestions, but no solution since the cables and drivers (although supposedly signed by Apple) will not be recognized when they are connected and, since it is an OEM product, you are not able to provide any support.

We love your computers and your operating system and I am sure I can speak for most of the community when I say that we are more than willing to work with you to find solutions that would enable us to use Mac OS, instead of the "other" operating system to perform the amazing work we do and help keep the networks of the world working perfectly.

Please help us. Thanks in advance,

Jorge

[Personal Information Edited by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 3, 2020 5:02 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Mar 3, 2020 5:07 PM in response to olenco

Unfortunately, your beautifully worded letter will not be read by Apple. These are end user to end user forums. And, i t is not safe to publish your email address in an open online forum, so I just asked the mods to remove it.

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Answer 2

Mar 3, 2020 5:09 PM in response to olenco

We’r other users. Not Apple.

Please log your feedback here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/

As for USB serial adapters, what have you tried, and with which USB devices and models?

As one workaround, network-to-serial adapters—what used to be called terminal servers—are still available.

Potential other workaround: https://www.revk.uk/2019/12/ftdi-usb-serial-macos-catalina-resource.html

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Answer 3

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Mar 3, 2020 5:25 PM in response to olenco

Well, you may have a better shot at getting heard if you join the developer discussions, voicing it here is a bit close to not be the way they want these forums to work. They are supposed to be mostly for tech questions and answers - asking or telling Apple to do something here usually does not work because Apple enforces the rules here.

https://discussions.apple.com/terms

I asked them to remove it because they do not allow personal information.

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Answer 4

Mar 4, 2020 8:36 AM in response to olenco

FWIW, I grabbed one of my FTDI TTL-232R cables and plugged it in.

In "System Information" is shows:

In terminal doing "ls /dev" it shows up as tty.usbserial-FTE3HUXE

When using the "screen" CLI command to connect, I don't receive any errors

(last number is baud rate):

screen /dev/tty.usbserial-FTE3HUXE 115200

However, I don't actually have anything to connect to at the moment to do

much more than that.

FWIW, it was "plug and play" as I haven't installed any drivers in Catalina as I have

mostly used the device in a Windows (VM) environment.

Are you using some other terminal app? If so, are you entering the correct path data?

Also, FWIW, I dug up a USB-COM422-PLUS1 and a USB-COM485-PLUS1 with similar results.

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Answer 5

olenco Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 3, 2020 5:13 PM in response to MrHoffman

I use USB to serial with the Prolific drivers very successfully, but I am tired of carrying large cables. Thank you for your suggestion for posting feedback. If the community reads it, I will be happy. I have already told Apple first-hand.

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Answer 6

olenco Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 3, 2020 5:19 PM in response to babowa

BTW, OK that you asked them to remove my personal information, but the truth is I don't really care. If it is their policy then so be it. The day I switch over to Linux, that will be the end of it and I will finally be free, although I would happily use Apple products until I die.

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Answer 7

olenco Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 3, 2020 5:32 PM in response to MrHoffman

Yes, so have I and even in Catalina, USB to Serial using the Prolific drivers work without any issues, but we need to move into the future and be able to use USB-C directly. I still use USB (A) to serial without any issues with Catalina. Frankly I wish Apple would start paying more attention to those of us who work in the industry and never stop evangelizing their products. Me, I have been working in the computer industry for only 49 years, so far. I know this is not a long time :-), but I got so tired of not being able to be productive that I decided a switch was in order. No regrets of any kind so far.

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Answer 8

olenco Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 3, 2020 5:14 PM in response to babowa

I know but thank you anyway. I have already told Apple first-hand. It's time they start paying attention to us and I just wanted the community to know how I feel.

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Answer 9

Mar 3, 2020 5:24 PM in response to olenco

Been using Plugable adapters for some years, but not yet with Catalina.

Log your feedback with Apple directly, as report counts seem to matter.

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Answer 10

olenco Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 3, 2020 5:36 PM in response to babowa

Thanks for the tip. Squeaky wheel anywhere?

I am not a developer and my take on this is they have better things to do with their time. No arguments necessary there.

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Answer 11

olenco Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 4, 2020 8:36 AM in response to woodmeister50

Thanks! In my case it never shows any USBserial anywhere in /dev. It is possible I have a defective cable, but I have not been able to test it in Windows yet. I will test this afternoon.

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