UART and AP Question

Question

I have a wifi access point that I need to connect to via UART/SERIAL as the console rj45 is broken.

I have a USB UART cable on the way but it’s going to take a while to get here.

Is there any way I can interface the access point with the GPIO pins on the RPi and somehow get a console connection to the AP? I’ve got jumper cables already so hoping there is a way to do it!

Thanks in advance

I am wanting to use the Pi to connect to the AP via the GPIO pins. It’s heavily relevant on the Raspberry Pi? — Nick Carlton, Oct 01 '20 at 12:27
Not sure what you mean? The console port has broken pins so a rollover console cable won’t connect properly... — Nick Carlton, Oct 01 '20 at 13:14
`It’s heavily relevant on the Raspberry Pi?` ... why are you asking that question? ... anyway, no, it is not ... you could just as easily use a PC — jsotola, Oct 01 '20 at 23:10
you are asking about establishing a console port connection to an unknown AP — jsotola, Oct 01 '20 at 23:16

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 01 '20 at 20:35

You can purchase a cheap USB to TTL serial adapter and connect it to the pins 6, 8, and 10. With a serial terminal program you can use the debug console that is exactly the same console as used with ssh. For details you can look at What is the correct way to connect serial console on RPi4 Model B?.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '20 at 11:19

1

There are several UARTs on the Raspberry Pi and at least 2 are connected to GPIO pins.

So yes, you can connect one of the UARTs on the GPIO pins to the wifi access point. Just make sure that the wifi access point uses 3.3V levels and not 5V levels or you also need a level changer.

answered Oct 01 '20 at 11:19

Goswin von Brederlow

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Thanks, are you able to go into more detail about how I would achieve this? – Nick Carlton Oct 01 '20 at 12:05
RTFM which pins are uarts and connect them. – Goswin von Brederlow Oct 01 '20 at 16:52

UART and AP Question

2 Answers2