Previous issue with MacOS Catalina 10.15.3/10.15.4 and Moonlite FTDI Driver signing not being recognised by MacOS and not loading
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I've today received an updated driver from FTDI version 2.4.4 which is signed and recognised by Apple so it now loads whereas version 2.4.2 didn't.
I can't give it a full test yet but bench testing a basic config it does now seem to work ok and the focuser moves in and out when requested. It is too early to say it is fixed until I can test in its proper configuration, but the signs look encouraging. I'd be interested if it works for others who have this specific issue. The driver doesn't seem to be on their website yet, but there support people are very proactive and helpful if you log a support call via email.
Macos Catalina 10.15.5 on MacBook Pro and FTDI driver 2.4.4 - Procedural workaround for Apple FTDI driver (seemingly) interfering with FTDI's driver causing intermittent operation with Moonlite focuser
The procedure for dealing with the Apple USB driver interference bug is:
1. Reboot so you have a 'clean' system. USB device is connected for reboot.
2. On boot we have duplicate devices: Steves-MBP:~ sjf$ ls -l /dev/*usbserial*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 9 30 May 13:39 /dev/cu.usbserial-4
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 1 30 May 13:39 /dev/cu.usbserial-AH0741BL
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 8 30 May 13:39 /dev/tty.usbserial-4
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 0 30 May 13:39 /dev/tty.usbserial-AH0741BL
3. Unload the Apple driver (even though utilities seem to show it is not loaded!) with: Steves-MBP:~ sjf$ sudo kextunload -b com.apple.DriverKit-AppleUSBFTDI ; echo $?
Password:
0 <---- Return code seems to suggest no error which means it must have been loaded (or is that just the return from sudo?)...anyway...
Steves-MBP:~ sjf$
4. Physically disconnect the USB device: Steves-MBP:~ sjf$ ls -l /dev/*usbserial*
ls: /dev/*usbserial*: No such file or directory <--- Yes, it is gone
Steves-MBP:~ sjf$
5. Reconnect the device, and now we have what I would have expected in the first place with no duplicate devices: Steves-MBP:~ sjf$ ls -l /dev/*usbserial*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 1 30 May 13:45 /dev/cu.usbserial-AH0741BL
crw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 18, 0 30 May 13:45 /dev/tty.usbserial-AH0741BL
Steves-MBP:~ sjf$
6. ...and now the device is working happily, which to me says the Apple driver is interfering somehow even though it says it is not loaded.
Unfortunately the FTDI driver with Catalina later versions never did work. My "solution" was to connect the Moonlite focuser to a Raspberry Pi running Ekos and then use the indi server remote option on the ekos running on the mac to connect to it with MoonLite@[IP Address of RaspPi]
We are currently working on a .dext version of the driver to be compatible with the newer versions of macOS (big sur).
Apple also include a VCP driver in macOS (AppleUSBFTDI.dext), if you are using a default FTDI device this driver should associate to the device and create a COM port in the ‘/dev’ folder.
It would appear as the following, where the ‘xxxx’ is the devices serial number: