FTDI Drivers for Macbook OSX

MikeS

Just got the Propeller Activity board and want to use the SimpleIDE on my Macbook w/ OSX 10.75. I have never installed USB drivers before on a MAC. I downloaded and installed the FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_4_10_5_10_6.pkg , I assume it will work on 10.75. I also downloaded the D2xx driver but I am not having any luck installing it. Terminal commands are giving problems. Any advice or help with installation of the drivers would be appreciated. The SimpleIDE installed without problems.
Thanks
Mikes

SRLM

Did you follow the installation guide?

http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/AppNotes/AN_134_FTDI_Drivers_Installation_Guide_for_MAC_OSX.pdf

MikeS

Yes. I even tried the lastest directions (2011 readme file) http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm
Whenever I try to make a directory in Terminal such as: mkdir /usr/local/lib I get "no such file or directory"
Not a UNIX person and new to the Mac.
MikeS

dgately

MikeS wrote: »

Just got the Propeller Activity board and want to use the SimpleIDE on my Macbook w/ OSX 10.75. I have never installed USB drivers before on a MAC. I downloaded and installed the FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_4_10_5_10_6.pkg , I assume it will work on 10.75. I also downloaded the D2xx driver but I am not having any luck installing it. Terminal commands are giving problems. Any advice or help with installation of the drivers would be appreciated. The SimpleIDE installed without problems.
Thanks
Mikes

I'm running Mac OS X 10.8.4 (It uses the same driver as for 10.7 versions of the OS)...

Are you downloading the "FTDIUSBSerialDriver_v2_2_18" (note the version: 2.2.18) from the following URL?

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

That one is definitely meant for 10.3 - 10.7. It contains "FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_4_10_5_10_6_10_7.mpkg", which is the proper package to install. You mention using Terminal commands, but I'm not sure why. You should NOT need to do anything more than the following, unless you need to remove a non-functioning older driver:

Note: If you had already installed an earlier version of the driver, it may cause problems. You'll find it located at the following path on your hard drive: "/System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext". Move it to the Trash. You can do this simply with a "Control-click" on its file/icon in the Finder, which provides a menu that includes "Move to Trash". This will require authorization of a known admin user ID and password, of course...

Once you have removed the older driver the following should allow installation of the new driver:

1. Download the 2.2.18 VCP driver from: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
2. In your Downloads folder, you should see a file named something like: "FTDIUSBSerialDriver_v2_2_18.dmg" <== Note: multiple downloads may add "-1, -2..." to the file name
3. Double-click on the file (it's a device/disk image file and will open as a new device) and you should see 2 available .mpkg (meta-package) files in a new window
4. Double-click on the file named "FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_4_10_5_10_6_10_7.mpkg" and the Installer app will launch and allow installation of the driver
5. After installation is complete, restart your Mac, just in case it needs it
6. Once you've restarted, Launch SimpleIDE, plug the USB cable between the Mac and the Activity board, switch the Activity board on and the pop-up menu at top-right of SimpleIDE's window should make the serial port available like this (your Activity board's device name will have a different numeric ID):

You may need to click on the pop-up menu to set your driver...


dgately

MikeS

degately,
Thank you for you detailed explanation of how to load the FTDI drivers. I got it to work this time after deleting and reinstalling per your instructions.
Appreciate the help,
Mike

dgately

I'm glad it worked!

Welcome to Propeller development in C on Mac OS X...

dgately