My first google searches ended in disappointment – using the built in Terminal program with Screen was unsuccessful (probably because it doesn’t seem like you can set the baudrate). Update: it turns out that you can set the baudrate with screen using an argument like so – “screen /dev/ttyWHATEVER 115200″. Thanks goes to the David in the comments below. After a little searching, it looked like the few serial terminal applications for Mac were old and outdated, but I did manage to find ZTerm. It’s simple and basic – perfect for use with the bus pirate.

Don’t forget that you need to have already installed the FTDI driver so that your computer will see the device over USB. Start Zterm and choose the correct port in the popup window (if it isn’t already chosen automatically). Then you need to change the connection settings to talk to the Bus Pirate properly. Go to Settings->Connection and set it like this:

Data Rate: 115200
Data Bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1

The rest you can leave at the default. [UPDATE] On newer firmware versions you’ll need to deselect Xon/Xoff as per Ian in the comments below.

Hit ok and go back to the terminal window to start talking

Hit enter to start communicating. Entering ? will bring up the list of commands like so:

To test some functionality of the bus pirate, we’re going to measure the voltage on the ADC pin. We’ll do this by putting the Bus Pirate into just about any mode besides HiZ – we’ll choose 1-Wire since it’s simple to set up.

Enter “m” to bring up the mode menu, choose 1-Wire by entering “2″. Hook up some voltage to the ADC pin (see the bottom of the Bus Pirate for it’s pinout). Then enter “d” to read the value on the pin. I connected the pin to the 5V input from the USB line, so it reads 5.1V. You can see that full process in the terminal below.

That’s it for the basics! See the Bus Pirate site for more examples of how to use this nice piece of hardware.

So why did I move to the Mac? Bottom line, they have great hardware. Find me a PC with a 2.26GHz, 2GB DDR3, 9400M graphics, and a 7 Hour battery (no joke) for $1099, not to mention the amazing build quality with the unibody Aluminum casing and glass screen/trackpad, and the awesome support Apple offers.

Of course, every Mac comes with OSX. After a couple weeks of using it, I’m split. As we’ll see, I’ve been able to find most of the software I need on Mac. On the other hand, OSX has some quirks that severely bother me.

As far as program compatibility, it’s half and half. Matlab has a Mac version which works great and there is a version of Spice available (called MacSpice), but it lacks a graphical schematic creator (such as Orcad Capture). Also, the Mac version of Excel lacks Basic and therefore the ability to run linear regressions (or just about any other function) on data. And of course, OSX lacks the ability to play any serious game, even though the hardware on the new MacBook is more than capable for most.

On the downside, I’m starting to get severely frustrated with some quirks in OSX. To start with, why in the world can’t I resize a window from any side – OSX only resizes from the bottom right corner, while Windows will do it on any side. It may not seem like a big deal, but on the other hand, it’s so easy to implement. It should only take a few minutes, and yet it’s been overlooked (copy/paste on the iPhone, anyone?).

Along the same lines, why can’t I fullscreen most programs? Firefox in windows can go fullscreen with the push of a button, but on the Mac I’m wasting an inch or two of screen real estate on the OSX menu bar and the Firefox toolbar. Once again, not a huge deal, but it shouldn’t be hard to do – how can you implement huge pieces of architecture (Time Machine?) and yet leave out these simple details? Apple is all about the details in their hardware; I wish this same level of obsession with usability would reach through to permeate their GUI user experience.

So how did I Un-Mac the Mac?

I boot-camped Windows 7 onto it. Installed an aftermarket 128GB solid-state drive and spun up the Release Candidate for Microsoft’s latest OS. Let’s just say I’m cursing at Windows 7 a lot less than I am at OSX.

Bottom line – excellent hardware, but the OSX user experience could be improved.

And where the hell is my dang middle-click gesture? I need to open links in new tabs with one click!