To set up a serial connection with the Plug, you need to know the Vendor Id [VID] and Product Id [PID] of the FTDI chip on your Plug.

It can be tempting to just use the numbers that are found in the many scripts. But the scripts often vary. Furthermore, there seem to have been several hardware versions of the plugs, and the VidPid has been different. The numbers started as 0x9e88 0x9e8f, then there was an Ionics version using 0x1c0c 0x0102, and at least one other version using 0x0403 0x6010. As of December, 2010, some plugs delivered in U.S. are back to using the original numbers.

What is a poor Plug Developer to do? Well, find out for yourself, of course.

On a Linux Host

(Need help with this section.)

On a Windows Host

1. Connect you Plug to your host machine with the USB cable.
2. Power up the host and the Plug.
3. If you have not previously installed drivers, wait for Windows to finish looking for drivers.
   

   

   Image showing no drivers found
4. Open the Control Panel, the open the Device Manager. Look under "Other Devices" to find the Plug ports:
   

   

   Image showing unrecognized ports
5. Left-click on one of the device entries, select the Properties menu item, then click on the Details tab; in the pull-down, select the "Device Instance Path" ("Device Instance ID" on Windows XP)

The VID and PID will be shown, something like VID_0x9e88;PID_0x9e8f .

It might also be useful to note the next value, either M_0 or M_1. This is the "instance" number. Zero [M_0] is the serial port, one [M_1] is the JTAG port.

Second Method

Windows users can also use USBDeview ( http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html ), a program for displaying all USB devices. It will also show devices which were once attached, but not currently attached.