Mike, Using my notetaker, and my serial to Ethernet cable, do you think this looks feasible? This was a response from another list I am on where I was looking for information about the "terminal" mode in my Artic Braille Pad notetaker. ... Historically, terminal mode meant establishing a connection through an old fashioned RS-232 serial port between one device and another. Normally the other device would be a modem, but a direct terminal to computer connection is possible through a null modem cable. Nowadays, in order to make most serial port terminals work effectively you would need a terminal to telnet/ssh device. that is, connect the terminal to one end of the device, and the device to the ethernet or wifi channel. This would actually be quite feasible by using a Raspberry PI as the device, assuming it has an RS-232 serial port. If so, a simple change to the /etc/inittab file is probably all you need to make it work. Glenn ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael A. Ray" <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <raspberry-vi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2013 11:48 AM Subject: [raspberry-vi] Re: telnet Glenn, I would not advise you to use the I2C pins of the GPIO bus to do what you want to do. These pins (I think) are TTL level pins and as such won't drive RS232 to the right levels. I might be wrong about this so don't quote me. A much safer way to do what you want to do is to get hold of a USB to serial dongle. I bought a 'prolific' chip-set device from Amazon for a few quid. I searched for 'PL2303'. Some people say the prolific ones are flaky but mine works fine with a digital multimeter I have with a serial interface. When I plug it in and boot Raspbian it gets the device name /dev/ttyUSB0. It might be /dev/ttyUSB1 or more for you if you have other things installed like a USB Braille display that uses the USB to serial UART converter driver. In the file /etc/inittab you will find a line which reads: # Example how to put a getty on a serial line (for a terminal) After that line there are two examples of how to do this. To get a login process listening to the result of plugging in a USB to serial converter change one of the lines, probably the first one to this: T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyUSB0 9600 vt100 Note the value /dev/ttyUSB0, as mentioned above you might have /dev/ttyUSB1 or even 2. The value 23 is the port number of telnet. You will also have to change 9600 to whatever speed the device you want to connect with uses. I have not tested the addition of this line to /etc/inittab but the converter dongle I already use. I will test this and add it to the wiki because it will be the only way for us to run a Model A headless. The Model A has no ethernet port. We could use a wifi dongle of course. But that raises a nasty chicken and egg scenario. Mike On 30/03/2013 14:42, Glenn wrote: > Hi, > Unfortunately, I forgot how I got into my RPI from the laptop, without > first > going through my old router. > But when I do get in again, via SSH, I will need to set the RPI to > automatically go into a Telnet session I believe. > I have tried hooking my old notetaker, an Artic Braille Pad, from the > 9-pin > serial out, to the Ethernet line on the RPI. > I have tried both standby and terminal modes on the Braille Pad with no > luck. > Maybe the serial settings are wrong, but I set the baud rate to 15,500, > and > 8, 1, which is the default, except for the baud rate, which is as fast as > the notetaker can go. > Does anyone know how I may get these two to talk with each other? > Glenn > > =========================================================== > The raspberry-vi mailing list > Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/raspberry-vi > Administrative contact: <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > ----------------------------------------------------------- > Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi logo are trademarks of the Raspberry Pi > Foundation. > > This list is not affiliated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the views > and attitudes expressed by the subscribers to this list do not reflect > those of the Foundation. > > Mike Ray, list creator, January 2013 > > -- Michael A. Ray Analyst/Programmer Witley, Surrey, South-east UK github username: cromarty raspberrypi.org username: cromarty Ham Radio Call-sign: G4XBF, licensed since 1982 'Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem' - Ockham's razor Raspberry VI: http://www.raspberryvi.org/ NVDA, the best free screen-reader in the world: http://www.nvda-project.org/ =========================================================== The raspberry-vi mailing list Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/raspberry-vi Administrative contact: <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ----------------------------------------------------------- Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi logo are trademarks of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. This list is not affiliated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the views and attitudes expressed by the subscribers to this list do not reflect those of the Foundation. Mike Ray, list creator, January 2013 =========================================================== The raspberry-vi mailing list Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/raspberry-vi Administrative contact: <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ----------------------------------------------------------- Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi logo are trademarks of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. This list is not affiliated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the views and attitudes expressed by the subscribers to this list do not reflect those of the Foundation. Mike Ray, list creator, January 2013