To use Airconsole LE directly with MacOS requires the installation of the a serial driver package, and after installation the running of the AirconsoleOSX application. The application handles the discovery and connection of your Airconsole LE device, and creates a virtual serial port in your OSX /dev/ directory.
Airconsole LE is designed to work over Bluetooth Low Energy (4.0+) only. It does not have a Bluetooth EDR (2.1) radio. Some older Macs pre 2014 do not have a Bluetooth Low Energy radio so cannot work with Airconsole LE
In addition, MacOS High Sierra (10.13) has introduced extra security settings around kernel mode drivers (kext) which may cause the AirconsoleOSX installer package to fail. Follow the steps below to install the AIrconsole OSX drivers for Airconsole LE support.
Install:
1. obtain the latest driver package from http://support.get-console.com/support/solutions/articles/5000501221-airconsole-osx-drivers - currently 1.6.0
2. Open the installer package and follow the steps. Note you will need to have administrative privileges during the install process (you will be prompted if required)
3. You may receive a popup from the operating system during the install procedure saying that "System Extension Blocked" - this is normal on macOS 10.13 and you will need to grant explicit permission to install the Airconsole kext driver. The operating system gives you 30 minutes to do this.
4. Press the "Open Security Settings" button on the popup box, or alternatively open Settings App -> Security & Privacy. At the bottom of the page you will see a note that "Some system software was blocked from loading" - press the "Allow..." button. Make sure the checkbox next to "Amix Capital Limited" is checked and press "OK"
5. Then close the Airconsole drivers installer package if not closed already
6. Now re-run the Airconsole-Drivers.pkg - note that the 2nd time through the package may still say "The installation failed". Close the installer
7. Open a terminal and enter the following sommand
sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/Airconsole.kext
8. Check for the presence of the file /dev/cu.Airconsole-1 to verify that the driver has loaded correctly
9. You should now be able to run the AirconsoleOSX app from the /Applications folder
Uninstall:
You may need to uninstall any previous versions of AirconsoleOSX prior to installing the latest version. To do this follow these instructions below:
The installer has created two packages that need to be deleted
- a kernel level driver at /Library/Extensions/Airconsole.kext
- a user mode application at /Applications/AirconsoleOSX.app
1. Ensure that the driver has been unloaded - this can be done by opening a terminal prompt and entering the following
sudo kextunload /Library/Extensions/Airconsole.kext
2. Delete the driver file using the command
sudo rm -rf /Library/Extensions/Airconsole.kext
3. Delete the AirconsoleOSX file by dragging it to the Trash icon from Finder
Run the AirconsoleOSX application:
The Airconsole OSX application allows for the discovery and connection of Airconsole LE devices, and creates a virtual serial port pair (cu.NullModem-1 and tty.Airconsole-1) for talking to serial devices plugged into Airconsole LE's serial port. Once this virtual serial port is connected, run your external terminal application or other software and connect to the virtual serial port /dev/tty.Airconsole-1 for example with the screen command
screen /dev/tty.Airconsole-1 9600
This will connect to the Airconsole LE with the screen terminal emulator built into OSX at 9600 baud rate. The AirconsoleOSX application must stay running in background to use the serial port.