mac escape key

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capnjoe
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Joined: Mon May 20, 2013 1:16 pm

mac escape key

Post by capnjoe »

Hi- I'm using coolterm on a macbook air to connect to a temperature measuring device. This works fine on a very old Dell PC via the serial port and I want to get it to work with a more reliable computer. The problem is that the escape key on the mac doesn't seem to send anything to the device and most of the device settings can only be modified with key combinations that involve the escape key. I've seen online that this is a known issue and have tried the various alternatives including control-right bracket. Two examples- to make the device run I type control-r and it runs just fine, outputting data to coolterm that I can capture. But to set the measurement unit I would type: "escape MU=4" and that, like all similar commands on the device involving escape, doesn't send to the machine.
I hope this is any easy one for the community!

Thanks, Joe
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roger
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Re: mac escape key

Post by roger »

Hi,

pressing the ESC key should send ASCII code 27 (0x1B). You can verify this by enabling "Local Echo" in the connection settings and switching to hex mode. You should see these keypresses being recorded as "1B"
capnjoe
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Joined: Mon May 20, 2013 1:16 pm

Re: mac escape key

Post by capnjoe »

Roger, thanks so much for getting back to me. It would be great if I could get this to work. The key presses are indeed echoed as 1B, but it doesn't get to the device. The two ways to communicate with the device are via control combinations and escape combinations. The former work, the latter don't. The device output appears on coolterm with no problem. I see the bootup announcement, I see the temperature measurement output. I just can't do anything with the "escape" commands. Again, I saw on line that other people had had a problem with the escape key on macs. I'll keep working it. Yours aye, Joe
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roger
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Re: mac escape key

Post by roger »

Is it possible the comman characters have to be sent immediately after the escape character? You could try sending your strings using the "send string" window in hex mode.
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roger
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Re: mac escape key

Post by roger »

capnjoe wrote:The key presses are indeed echoed as 1B, but it doesn't get to the device.
If you're not sure if the 1B does in fact get to the device, you could install a loop back connection (short between TX and RX) in place of your device, and then press ESC. If you get the 1B back, you'll know that it gets to the device.
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