Other terminal programs
If you do not use the MicroPython Terminal in XCTU, you can use other terminal programs to communicate with the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT. If you use Microsoft Windows, follow the instructions for Tera Term; if you use Linux, follow the instructions for picocom. To download these programs:
- Tera Term for Windows. See https://ttssh2.osdn.jp/index.html.en.
- Picocom for Linux. See https://developer.ridgerun.com/wiki/index.php/Setting_up_Picocom_-_Ubuntu and for the source code and in-depth information https://github.com/npat-efault/picocom.
Tera Term for Windows
With the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT in MicroPython mode (AP = 4), you can access the MicroPython prompt using a terminal.
- Open Tera Term. The Tera Term: New connection window appears.
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Click the Serial radio button to select a serial connection.
- From the Port: drop-down menu, select the COM port that the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT is connected to.
- Click OK. The COMxx - Tera Term VT terminal window appears and Tera Term attempts to connect to the device at a baud rate of 9600 b/s.
- Click Setup and Serial Port. The Tera Term: Serial port setup window appears.
- In the Tera Term: Serial port setup window, set the parameters to the following values:
- Port: Shows the port that the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT is connected on.
- Baud rate: 9600
- Data: 8 bit
- Parity: none
- Stop: 1 bit
- Flow control: hardware
- Transmit delay: N/A
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Click OK to apply the changes to the serial port settings. The settings should go into effect right away.
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To verify that local echo is not enabled and that extra line-feeds are not enabled:
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In Tera Term, click Setup and select Terminal.
- In the New-line area of the Tera Term: Serial port setup window, click the Receive drop-down menu and select CR if it does not already show that value.
- Make sure the Local echo box is not checked.
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- Click OK.
- Press Ctrl+B to get the MicroPython version banner and prompt.
Now you can type MicroPython commands at the >>> prompt.
Use picocom in Linux
With the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT in MicroPython mode (AP = 4), you can access the MicroPython prompt using a terminal.
Note The user must have read and write permission for the serial port the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT is connected to in order to communicate with the device.
- Open a terminal in Linux and type picocom -b 9600 /dev/ttyUSB0. This assumes you have no other USB-to-serial devices attached to the system.
- Press Ctrl+B to get the MicroPython version banner and prompt. You can also press Enter to bring up the prompt.
If you do have other USB-to-serial devices attached:
- Before attaching the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT, check the directory /dev/ for any devices named ttyUSBx, where x is a number. An easy way to list these is to type: ls /dev/ttyUSB*. This produces a list of any device with a name that starts with ttyUSB.
- Take note of the devices present with that name, and then connect the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT.
- Check the directory again and you should see one additional device, which is the XBee 3 Cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT.
- In this case, replace /dev/ttyUSB0 at the top with /dev/ttyUSB<number>, where <number> is the new number that appeared.
- It should connect and show Terminal ready.
Now you can type MicroPython commands at the >>> prompt.