I've just bought an airband scanner and all the programming software is Windows based. Using Crossover, I've managed to load up SCAN125, but I need to get the MacBook to recognise the scanner which plugs into one of the USB ports - how can I modify the MacBook to change a USB port to a COM port?
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 15.4
You can't. A COM port is PC only concept it does not exist on Macs. Macs can access serial devices through terminal though. If the Scanner is plugged into a USB port, then the Mac should just detect it there directly as a device it can use.
You can check detected USB devices in System Settings ➜ General ➜ About ➜ System Report ➜ USB
Or type the following into a terminal to see all ports and devices:
ls -al /dev
The radio scanner will likely be listed as "tty.something".
01Cleverbee wrote:
It doesn't seem to like that -
Garrys-MacBook-Pro:dev garrydickinson$ ls -al/dev
ls: invalid option -- /
usage: ls [-@ABCFGHILOPRSTUWXabcdefghiklmnopqrstuvwxy1%,] [--color=when] [-D format] [file ...]
You need a space between the "-al " and the " /dev" part of the command like....the command line is very precise & unforgiving.:
ls -al /dev
It doesn't seem to like that -
Garrys-MacBook-Pro:dev garrydickinson$ ls -al/dev
ls: invalid option -- /
usage: ls [-@ABCFGHILOPRSTUWXabcdefghiklmnopqrstuvwxy1%,] [--color=when] [-D format] [file ...]
As mentioned, you are missing a space between -al and /dev
ls -al /dev
How to use a USB port as a COM port for UNIDEN UBC125XLT scanner