Alti-Track Meta-Driver for Mac OS X
by Sebastian Andersson, Sebactory

Introduction

L&B's USB <-> Alti-Track device (aka USB-Track) can be used with the Mac via FTDI's driver which can be downloaded from here. Unfortunally it will not recognise the USB-Track without modifications or a second driver ("kext" in Mac-lingo). AltiTrackMetaDriver is such a driver.

Installation

• Download FTDI's driver from here.
• Install the version that best fits your system (I used the Tiger version for my Leopard system).
• Download the AltiTrackMetaDriver.dmg.
• Install it by clicking on the pkg file inside the dmg-volume. It refuses to be installed if it can't find the FTDI's driver.

A file called something like tty.usb-serial.823466 should appear in /dev when you connect the USB-Track. If not, try to restart the computer once.

Communicating with the Alti-Track

Commands are sent as plain text via the serial tty at 115200 8N1, no flow control. Each line is terminated with a single CR. Data will be received from the Alti-Track with CR LF as line ending and "EOF" CR LF as end of a response.

Get a serial communication program.
Send "Help" to the device to get a list of commands. The description covers every command and a few of the command's responses are also described.

(This section is untested and needs to be verified)
One way to communicate with serial ttys is to start "Terminal" and write:
screen /dev/tty.usb-serial* 115200

Credits

The Alti-Track is a product of L&B.
AltiTrackMetaDriver was developed by Sebastian Andersson, Sebactory.
The driver that does all the real work is made by FTDI.