I've had an ICOM IC-91AD radio for a couple of years and have loved it, but have been disgusted at the lack of support for using a Mac to program the radio. A while ago, I picked up a copy of CrossOver Mac when they were giving it away for free. I tried installing GSAK on it, but that didn't really work. So I haven't really played with CrossOver since.
Today, I wanted to update a lot of settings in my radio, so I really wanted to get the software working on my Mac. Without being able to do it on my Mac, I have to run it on a borrowed Windows computer, which is just not a good solution. I was pleased when the software installed quickly into its own bottle and seemed to start up without any problems.
So, the question is whether or not it will actually talk to the radio.
Of course, I don't have a serial port on my Mac, so I need to use a USB-Serial adapter. I've successfully used this adapter in the past for an older GPSr, so I know that the adapter would work on the computer. However, the RS-91 software didn't want to see it. I suspected the problem might be that CrossOver was not recognizing the USB-Serial adapter as a COM port.
I did a little web searching and found a page at the CrossOver site explaining how to do Serial over USB. Following the instructions on that page worked like a charm, and I was using my programming software with my radio on my Mac without any further problems. I am thrilled!
Specifically, this is the symbolic linking that I did to make it work:
If you're trying to get this working, you'll need to replace ICOM with the name of the CrossOver Bottle you installed the RS-91 software in and /dev/cu.usbserial-FTCDBTQO with the value for your USB-Serial adapter. I had two choices (the other being /dev/tty.usbserial-FTCDBTQO) and picked one at random. If it hadn't have worked, I'd have tried the other one (or maybe assigned it to COM2).
If anyone else is trying to do the same thing, I hope my experience is helpful.
Today, I wanted to update a lot of settings in my radio, so I really wanted to get the software working on my Mac. Without being able to do it on my Mac, I have to run it on a borrowed Windows computer, which is just not a good solution. I was pleased when the software installed quickly into its own bottle and seemed to start up without any problems.
So, the question is whether or not it will actually talk to the radio.
Of course, I don't have a serial port on my Mac, so I need to use a USB-Serial adapter. I've successfully used this adapter in the past for an older GPSr, so I know that the adapter would work on the computer. However, the RS-91 software didn't want to see it. I suspected the problem might be that CrossOver was not recognizing the USB-Serial adapter as a COM port.
I did a little web searching and found a page at the CrossOver site explaining how to do Serial over USB. Following the instructions on that page worked like a charm, and I was using my programming software with my radio on my Mac without any further problems. I am thrilled!
Specifically, this is the symbolic linking that I did to make it work:
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/CrossOver/Bottles/ICOM/dosdevices
ln -s /dev/cu.usbserial-FTCDBTQO com1If you're trying to get this working, you'll need to replace ICOM with the name of the CrossOver Bottle you installed the RS-91 software in and /dev/cu.usbserial-FTCDBTQO with the value for your USB-Serial adapter. I had two choices (the other being /dev/tty.usbserial-FTCDBTQO) and picked one at random. If it hadn't have worked, I'd have tried the other one (or maybe assigned it to COM2).
If anyone else is trying to do the same thing, I hope my experience is helpful.
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drmellow- Greg Cohoon
- Knitting Daddy
Comments
I hear your pain with the USB Serial adapter on Mac though. It really is a roll of the dice when you try any given one on a Mac. Some work out of the box, some don't work at all with no hope, and some you have to scour the interwebs looking for a applicable mac driver based on the chipset inside the adapter. I've had good luck so far with The Cables Unlimited USB-2920 adapter. Had to get the drivers from ftdichip.com though.
It seems that knowing a little Unix can open up the world to Mac users. However, using Terminal to enter text commands is so unlike the Mac experience! Hopefully CodeWeavers will find a way to automate this process.
Thanks for posting this solution!