![]() This tutorial assumes that you have a FAST Nano controller and that you have a way to get 12V and 5V power to it. Step 1: Connect the wiresįor this first step, all we're going to do it connect to your FAST Pinball controller. In this guide, we're going to use a FAST Nano controller. There are only two connections you need to make right now.Ĭonnect power to your FAST Nano. The Nano gets its power from its 7-pin 0.156" header, and it requires 12V, 5V, and grounds for both. So you'll either need to make a cable to connect the Nano to your power supply or hook it up to your bench supply.Ĭonnect the FAST Nano to your computer via USB. When you connect the Nano to power, you should see the PWR LED come on, as well as another LED near the LED CH4 connector which is flashing.įAST Pinball controllers do not require any drivers. When you power the controller up and plug it into your computer, on Mac or Linux you won't even get notified of anything. When you connect the FAST Pinball controller and power it on, you should see a popup like the one on the left below, and then shortly like the one on the right: On Windows you'll see a popup letting you know that a new device was found.Ĭlick the "Mac" or "Windows" tab below to see screenshots for your specific platform. (Note that your port numbers might be different) Then you should see four new COM ports in your device manager. Since all communication to a FAST Pinball controller is via these virtual serial ports, you can actually get a terminal emulator app and interactively type and send commands to the controller! If you have a favorite terminal emulator, go ahead and use it. If not, we like CoolTerm because it's free and there are versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux. So download and install CoolTerm to follow along here. If you're using a different terminal emulator, just configure it for the same settings we discuss here. When you open CoolTerm, you should see an empty window. Click the "Options" icon from the toolbar which will option a configuration screen. ![]() On the "Serial Port" page, you'll see a "Port:" section with a drop-down list of serial ports. COOLTERM MAC PREVIOUS VERSIONS SERIALĬlick that and you should see the four serial ports from the FAST Nano controller.įor this step, we want to select the second port from the four Nano ports. The application can connect to various ports, enables you to send text commands, and then displays the data received from the hardware device in HEX or ASCII mode.In the example above, the response from the Nano is ID:NET FP-CPU-002-2 01.00. Versatile serial port terminal application featuring a well organized user interfaceĬoolTerm is a great tool to have around if you need to control hardware devices, such as robotic kits, micro controllers, servo controllers, and so on. In addition, in the bottom right area of the main window you can see the status of different serial port signals via small LED buttons. ![]() Effortlessly personalize the way in which you visualize the dataĬoolTerm allows you to see the transmissions between your Mac and the hardware device in HEX or in ASCII mode: the first is recommended to see messages that cannot be expressed using plain text.įor your convenience, CoolTerm comes with an Autoscroll function that, when enabled, will automatically scroll to the bottom of the window in order to display the latest received data. Note that you have the option to log all the communication details. The same area will display the received data by using the hexadecimal format. If the connection process is successful, the next step is to type the commands you want to send to the hardware device in the app’s main window. ![]() This way you get to specify the serial port you ant to employ for the communication. To start using the CoolTerm app you must first navigate to the Connection Options window and make the necessary adjustments for the Serial Port, Terminal, Transmission and Receive options. ![]() User friendly serial port terminal that allows you to connect to various hardware devices CoolTerm is a simple but powerful Mac app that has been developed in REALBasic and provides a well organized user interface for transferring data to and from various hardware devices connected to serial ports. ![]()
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