Ed Sutter, the fellow who created MicroMonitor (uMon), an open-source embedded-system boot platform, sent me a note about his newest software, uCon, an embedded system console. Although many people think of serial ports as old fashioned, or even dead, those involved with embedded systems consider them much alive and useful.
To help developers take better advantage of serial ports, Ed's uCon acts like a terminal emulator that also works with remote networked computers, or "backends," to let them connect with a development system or prototype as a telnet or ssh client.
According to Sutter, uCon can operate as a telnet server on a host PC and then let remote clients connect to the PC and virtually connect to the same COM port that the local uCon session has connected to. This technique lets a developer or engineer work locally with a development system through uCon and his or her host PC. Then they can leave the telnet session running and access the COM port from a remote location. Several users can access the telnet session simultaneously so they can all interact with the same target in real time. I can see applications for uCon in remote testing situations, and when someone needs to download the latest version of firmware or download new diagnostic routines.
The uCon software provides many other benefits such as file transfers with the XMODEM or trivial file-transport protocol (TFTP), logging, the capability to run BASIC-language-like scripts, a scrolling line buffer, and programmable function keys.
Learn more about the uCon software--it's free and supported by Sutter--at:
www.umonfw.com/ucon/index.html. A link at the bottom of the page downloads the zipped uCon file. Just transfer the .zip file to your PC, unzip it, and execute the uCon_install-1.exe installation program. If you use the default settings, the installer creates a C:/program files/ucon directory on your PC and installs the files there. It also adds an item to your programs list, asks if you want a desktop shortcut, and includes an uninstaller also accessible through the program list. uCon runs with older Microsoft operating systems as well as with VISTA and Windows 7. Give it a try.
Any questions? Visit the uCon FAQ page at:
www.umonfw.com/ucon/ucon_faq.html.
