Overview
Here's another super handy add-on for your Raspberry Pi computer, perfect for 'head-less' setups! The PiUART adds a USB Type-C to serial connection so you can use any serial port software to connect to the Pi's console. It plugs in and is fast and easy to add whenever you need to connect to your Pi. Two LEDs connect to RX and TX on the serial converter chip so you get blinking whenever data is sent or received.
We had some space left over, so the PiUART also comes with an on-off switch with a 4 Amp transistor. You can power your Pi through the USB-C port and then use the switch whenever you want to cut power, without having to unplug the cable. Low-power usage Pi's like the Pi Zero and A+ can thus be powered and controlled from a single cable connected to your computer.
Heavy-hitter Pi's like the Pi 2 and Pi 3 may draw too much power from a computer USB port, so check if your motherboard has a high-current USB port before trying.
Comes fully assembled and ready to go, plug into your Pi, and on Mac OS X install the driver - within 2 minutes and you'll be ready to go.
Works with any Raspberry Pi computer (Pi 1, 2, 3, Zero, etc)
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Pinouts
We only use the 'right' strip of the dual header but to make it more mechanically stable we have a dual header to plug into.
The 5V power pins can be fed from the MicroUSB connector when the switch is flipped to ON. Otherwise you can leave the switch OFF and power the Pi from the standard power port.
Note this will back-power the computer USB port. We've never had an issue with this as long as the Pi's power supply is 5V, but if you want to avoid it, cut the bottom Switch Enable trace. (Also good to do if you want to make sure the switch isn't activated by accident)
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Enabling Serial Console
You can enable/disable the serial console with either editing /boot/config.txt or raspi-config (which will edit /boot/config.txt for you)
Option 1. Enabling in /boot/config.txt
You can pop your SD card into a computer and edit config.txt with a text editor like SimpleText, WordPad or whatnot. You can also edit on a pi with sudo nano /boot/config.txt
At the bottom, last line, add enable_uart=1 on it's own line.
Pi OS Bookworm and the Pi 5 have minor changes from earlier Pi OS software and hardware. You will edit the file:
sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt
add these two lines to the end of the config.txt.
dtparam=uart0 dtparam=uart0_console
Option 2. Enabling via Raspi-Config
Using a monitor and keyboard, log into the shell and run
sudo raspi-config
go down to Interface Options
Hit enter and then go down to Serial Port
Select Yes
It should now be enabled
Hit return then select Finish
If it asks you to reboot, go to Yes and hit return
OK the serial console is now enabled!
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Setup Software
Windows
Windows will automatically install the CP2104 driver for use so no driver is required. The Windows 10 driver can also be found here if needed.
For terminal software, you can use Putty to start. Download and install Putty from here: http://www.putty.org/
From the list of downloads select the binary called just putty.exe from the section For Windows on Intel x86. This will prompt you to save the file. Save it onto the Desktop for now.
Mac OS X
If you are using Mac OS X you will need to install drivers. For the SiLabs chipset, you can grab the drivers from here:
The download is a standard Mac installer. Accept all defaults when prompted.
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Test & Configure
Mac OS X
If you are using a Mac, then all you need to do is open a Terminal window and issue the command
ls /dev/cu.*
To list all of the available serial ports. You should see something like this:
You'll see a few items listed including a /dev/cu.Bluetooth device. You're looking for something like /dev/cu.usbserial-NNNN or /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART or /dev/cu.usbmodem
Once you've identified the name, you can then run:
screen /dev/cu.PL2303-00001004 115200 screen /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART 115200 screen /dev/cu.usbserial-A4001nCf 115200
The device will have a slightly different name than the above. One way to quickly figure out the name is start typing screen /dev/cu. and then press the TAB key to auto-complete to whatever your device is called, before adding 115200 (which is the baud rate) to the end.
You can also try screen /dev/cu.SLAB* 115200 or screen /dev/cu.PL2303* 115200or screen /dev/cu.usbserial* 115200 To have the shell complete the file name for you
You may need to disable system integrity protection (according to feedback from a tutorial-reader)
Linux
If you are using Linux, its much like the above but often times the device is called /dev/ttyUSB0 - you may want to run sudo dmesg after plugging in and looking for hints on what the device is called.
Then use the command:
sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
To start communication with the Pi, press ENTER and you should see the login prompt from the Pi.
Here it is running on a Mac.
Windows
If you are using a PC, then before you start Putty, you need to know which com port is being used for the cable. You can find this by looking in the Ports section of the Windows Device Manager.
The Device Manager is accessible from the Control Panel under System.
It isn't going to be COM1 so never pick that. Chances are its the one right below COM1. It will often say "SiLabs" or "Prolific" or similar next to it. In this case it is COM7 that is in use.
Now start Putty and you will see a connection window.
Select a connection type of "Serial" from the radio buttons, then set the speed to 115200 and the serial line to COM7
Finally click 'Open' to connect. Remember to press ENTER to start communications.
For a new installation of Raspbian, the default username is pi and the default password is raspberry
Thats it! You are connected and can use the command line to navigate around your Pi.
Once you've connected with the console you can set up your Pi to use SSH as another means of connecting to your Pi over your local network.
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Downloads
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