tio (install) via homebrew

posted: Mon, Jul 3, 2023 | tagged: references tech

Validated in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with CircuitPython

why install Tio?

As you'll find, using the Serial console in Mu can be a little finicky, or downright flaky at times. Even if you've added your user account to the dialout group (sudo usermod -aG dialout <myusername>), the results can be mixed at best. I've found Tio to be a nice mechanism for this, and I tend to have this open in the terminal while writing code in VS Code alongside. It is a comfortable workflow, at least for me.

Also one of the very nice features, if your device disconnects from your machine, Tio will re-establish the connection once the board is detected.

So let's get this started!

install homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager intended for macOS but also works on Linux. Homebrew brings a lot of Linux functionality to macOS, but some developers build specifically for Homebrew. There is an impressive list of packages available for Homebrew.

I have a quick write-up on installing Homebrew in my references repository. Once installed, you can install Tio

brew install tio

If you are running TLDR, you may want to update it's definitions with tldr -u
Connect your microcontroller to your machine via USB
Find your device with Tio

tio -L

Note the output, if your device is discovered it will be listed
To connect to the device execute (don't forget autocomplete with Tab)

tio /path/to/device

To exit out of a Tio connection, press CTRL + t followed by q