PuTTY is a serial console, a computer program that can listen for and display characters sent over a serial link.

This is used in the UART labs so the NEXYS4 and the lab computer can communicate with each other over USB serial communication.

First you must find out which serial port the USB Serial port is using on your lab computer. Complete the following to do this:

1. Open your computer's Device Manager.
   1. Open the Start menu, type in Device Manager to find it.
   2. When it says “You are logged on as a standard user…” click OK.
2. Find and open the “Ports (COM & LPT)” section.
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3. Read the COM number for the “USB Serial Port.” In this case it's COM5. Remember this number for later.
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From a command terminal, run: “sudo dmesg | grep tty”. This will print out a list of system messages related to active TTY (serial line) ports. The only response seen so far will be about ttyUSB0 and ttyUSB1. Port ttyUSB1 usually seems to be the one that the board is connected to - if it fails to connect then try ttyUSB0.

1. Open PuTTY
   • If you are on windows, there should be a shortcut for it on your desktop. If you are on Linux, execute “sudo putty” from a command line.
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2. Open the “Serial” window under “Connection”
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   1. Set “Serial line to connect to” to the serial port from earlier in this tutorial. In this example it is COM5 but it may be other ports on Windows. For Linux it will be of the form: /dev/ttyUSB1 (the /dev part is important).
   2. Set “Speed (baud)” to “19200”
   3. Set “Data bits” to 8
   4. Set “Stop bits” to 1
   5. Set “Parity” to “Odd”
   6. Set Flow Control to “None”
3. Go to the “Session” window.
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   1. Select “Serial” under “Connection type”
   2. Your earlier saved values should now be visible.
4. Click Open