Serial Device identification problem
 

Hi,

I'm trying to write some java code to send stuff to my GPS device, plugged in to a serial port. I need to know the name of the port tho.

I've written stuff that loops thru the serial ports and gives me the names of the active ones, and it gives me /dev/ttyS0 and /dev/ttyS1.

Running: setserial -bg /dev/ttyS[0-9]*

gives me this:

/dev/ttyS0 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
/dev/ttyS4: No such device or address
/dev/ttyS5: No such device or address
/dev/ttyS6: No such device or address
/dev/ttyS7: No such device or address


I'm presuming that the one I want is ttyS0, but can anyone tell me what "is a 16550A" actually means?

When I try to acces it in the java code it says "lockf(): Resource temporarily unavailable" so I'm wondering whether I've got the right port!

Thanks,
Sparrott

Have you googled lately?

16550A is the part number of the Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) integrated circuit installed in this PC.

cat < /dev/ttyS0 should display the raw data from your GPS receiver if it is indeed connected to the first com port.

Thank you! It is the GPS.