3.b. Installing Linux Drivers and Software

The Maestro Control Center running in Ubuntu Linux.

You can download the Maestro Control Center and the Maestro command-line utility (UscCmd) for Linux here:

• Maestro Servo Controller Linux Software (126k gz)

Unzip the tar/gzip archive by running “tar -xzvf” followed by the name of the file. After following the instructions in README.txt, you can run the programs by executing MaestroControlCenter and UscCmd.

You can also download the C# source code of UscCmd as part of the Pololu USB Software Development Kit. Read README.txt in the SDK for more information.

The Maestro’s two virtual serial ports can be used in Linux without any special driver installation. The virtual serial ports are managed by the cdc-acm kernel module, whose source code you can find in your kernel’s source code drivers/usb/class/cdc-acm.c. When you connect the Maestro to the PC, the two virtual serial ports should appear as devices with names like /dev/ttyACM0 and /dev/ttyACM1 (the number depends on how many other ACM devices you have plugged in). The port with the lower number should be the Command Port, while the port with the higher number should be the TTL Serial Port. You can use any terminal program (such as kermit) to send and receive bytes on those ports.