CoolTerm again

[Jim]

Just wanted to say thanks for CoolTerm.

I just bought an external USB fax modem from Zoom. Little sucker works fine for what I wanted it for (monitoring phone line and retrieving caller ID). But one of my habits when I get a new device is to immediately check the manufacturer's website for driver updates and other stuff. Sure enough, Zoom's got a firmware update that's a two-part upload.

Well, I tried Terminal in OSX. Fat chance of that working out. Then I discovered the "screen" app. That's hardly better, and it's a hairy so-and-so to learn. I could upload the loader portion of the update, but screen wouldn't accept the firmware update portion. So I downloaded an old buddy from ancient days: ZTerm ($20 shareware). Durn thing crashes on load under Lion. Searched some more, and found ckermit, which doesn't look any easier than "screen" did. More searching, and I finally found CoolTerm after trying a couple of others. It does just what I needed: Upload a text file to a modem.

I put the Zoom into command mode (AT**), then chose "Send text file..." from the menu and selected my loader file. Slurped it right up. Chose "Send text file..." again, and chose the firmware patch file. After many, many, many dots on the terminal screen, it responded "Upload successfully completed."

I've been looking for a replacement for Zterm ever since OSX v. 10.1 came out. Think I've found it. Good job, Roger.

...just in case...If any of you try to run "screen" just to see what it does, the terminal command is "screen cu.usbmodem24680241 115,200". Do a "ls /dev/cu.*" to get the USB modem's driver file name. It'll be "cu.usbmodemXXXXXXXX" in form. The second number's the baud rate. To kill the screen, type control-a control-\; don't just close the window, cuz it'll close, but will leave the process running. (N.B.: Those commands are ^a^\, not command-a, etc.)

[roger]

Jim,

thanks for your post. I'm glad to hear CoolTerm works for you!

Cheers,

Roger