MX2 on Mac OS X 6

[leetrout]

Step 1: Download the virtual com port driver - http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm and run the installer.

Step 2: Patch the file /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext/Contents/Info.plist by opening the file and searching for "Matrix" and adding a new plist entry above the first existing Matrix Orbital entry. First you need to locate your product id by searching for it at http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids I have a MX212 so I searched for "Matrix" and the first hit was Matrix Orbital USB Serial but if you keep reading there are several choices. The choice for me is "fa01 Matrix Orbital MX2 or MX3". The fa01 is the important part and note that it is in hex so we need to convert it to decimal. There are online tools to help you do this if you need it, like http://easycalculation.com/hex-converter.php

My result was 64001. That is my product ID I need to patch into the plist. I also used the text from the entry in the list as the Key. Note that I only made 2 changes from the existing plist entries, the key and the integer following the idProduct key in the dictionary.

My plist addition looks like this:

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<key>Matrix Orbital MX2 or MX3</key>
	<dict>
		<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
		<string>com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver</string>
		<key>IOClass</key>
		<string>FTDIUSBSerialDriver</string>
		<key>IOProviderClass</key>
		<string>IOUSBInterface</string>
		<key>bConfigurationValue</key>
		<integer>1</integer>
		<key>bInterfaceNumber</key>
		<integer>0</integer>
		<key>idProduct</key>
		<integer>64001</integer>
		<key>idVendor</key>
		<integer>1027</integer>
	</dict>

Edit the plist and save the file.

Step 3: Load the module

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$ sudo kextload -v /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext
Requesting load of /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext.
/System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext loaded successfully (or already loaded).

Step 4: Plug in the screen and see if it loaded by check the devices directory.

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$ ls /dev | grep cu.usb

You should see something like cu.usbserial-00001440

If that doesn't work try

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$ ls /dev | grep tty.usb

Step 5: Test the connection

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$ stty -f /dev/tty.usbserial-00001440

Try to send a command!

A simple test is to clear the screen. I use Python and here is what will test the connection: (pySerial required)

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import serial
s = serial.Serial('/dev/tty.usbserial-00001440', 19200, timeout=10)
s.write('\xfe\x58')

[Clark]

Hi Leetrout,

An excellent step by step summary, thanks so much for sharing your work with the community. If users have trouble finding their VID or PID in the required files for some of our other displays please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
~Troy