picocom

Picocom

Picocom is a minimal dumb-terminal emulation program for Linux systems. It is useful for communicating with serial devices such as microcontrollers.
picocom image
serial microcontroller minimal dumbterminal

Picocom: Minimal Dumb-Terminal Emulation Program for Linux

A lightweight solution for serial device communication, Picocom allows users to emulate dumb terminals and interact with microcontrollers on Linux systems.

What is Picocom?

Picocom is a lightweight terminal emulation program designed to allow a user to communicate with serial devices, such as microcontrollers or modems, from a Linux computer. It has a simple interface and very few dependencies, making it a popular choice for basic serial communication tasks.

Some key features of picocom include:

  • Minimal interface for sending/receiving data over a serial port
  • Support for common serial port settings like baudrate, parity, etc.
  • Text-based user interface accessible via terminal
  • Small memory footprint - useful for embedded Linux systems
  • Open source and available for most Linux distributions

Picocom is often used by developers and hobbyists working with microcontroller projects that require a serial interface to a Linux system. It can connect to serial devices like Arduino boards to send/receive data and monitor the activity. The simple, no-frills interface focuses on the serial communication functionality rather than terminal emulation features.

While more full-featured terminal programs like minicom and screen offer abilities like scripting and session management, picocom keeps things straightforward for basic serial-to-console I/O tasks. Its small size makes it well-suited for use in embedded Linux and custom distributions.

Picocom Features

Features

  1. Minimal dumb-terminal emulation
  2. Serial port terminal program
  3. Supports baud rates from 50 to 460800
  4. Simple flow control with RTS/CTS
  5. Hex dump traffic
  6. Basic built-in help
  7. No dependencies other than base C library

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Lightweight and fast

Easy to use

Works on most Linux systems

Supports many common serial protocols

Open source with active development

Cons

Limited feature set compared to full terminal emulators

No GUI interface

Linux only

Limited documentation


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