10.4: Use an IOGear Serial to USB converter cable

Jan 10, '06 05:26:00AM

Contributed by: DaveOrZach

Tiger only hintThe IOGear GUC232A USB to Serial/PDA converter cable, which can be found at most larger Walmarts, uses Prolific Technology's PL-2303H/X/HX chipset for USB to Serial (RS232) communication. It appears the ATEN UC232A and the IOGear GUC232A are the same product. So these instructions should work for the ATEN UC232A, too, but have not been tested.

The drivers that come with the GUC232A did not work for me. Use the following instructions if you cannot get your GUC232A to work.

Download and Install Drivers

  1. Go to Prolific's download page and download the latest Mac OS X drivers.

  2. Open the Zip File

  3. Mount the Disk Image

  4. Open the Installer Package and install the drivers

  5. Reboot
Change Kernel Extension Property List
  1. Plug the GUC232A into any available USB port on your Mac

  2. Open the System Profiler, in /Application -> Utilites

  3. Click USB in the Contents pane

  4. Select the GUC232A in the Device Tree; usually it will be listed under USB-Serial Controller

  5. Remember the ProductID and VendorID, or keep the System Profiler window open

  6. Open the Terminal, in /Application -> Utilites

  7. Use the following command to open the Property List of the Prolific driver:
    sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/\
    ProlificUsbSerial.kext/Contents/Info.plist
  8. Enter your admin password when asked. This is necessary; the ProlificUsbSerial kernel extension is owned by root.

  9. Scroll down and find the ProductID and VendorID in the plist file

  10. Change the ProductID and VendorID to match your GUC232A's ProductID and VendorID

  11. The plist file needs the numbers as integer values, but System Profiler reports the numbers as hex. Use the Calculator to convert the numbers. For example, System Profiler reports the Product ID as 0x2008 and the Vendor ID as 0x0557. The integer value of ProductID is 8200 and the integer value of VendorID is 1367

  12. Save the changes (Control-W) and quit (Control-X) nano
Reload Kernel Extension
  1. Unplug the GUC232A

  2. Use the following command to load the kernel extension:
    sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/\
    ProlificUsbSerial.kext/Contents/Info.plist
  3. Plug the GUC232A into any available USB port on your Mac
[robg adds: Not having this cable, I haven't tested these instructions.]

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