4.3 Serial Adapter Definitions

The format of a serial adapter definition is as follows:

serialadapter
    parent <id>                               # optional serialadapter or programmer parent
    id       = <id1> [, <id2> ... ];          # <idN> are quoted strings
    desc     = <description>;                 # quoted string
    baudrate = <num>;                         # optional default baudrate, eg, in .avrduderc
    usbvid   = <hexnum>;                      # USB vendor ID
    usbpid   = <hexnum> [, <hexnum> ...];     # list of USB product IDs
    usbsn    = <serialno>;                    # USB Serial Number in per-user .avrduderc
;

Technically, a serialadapter is implemented as programmer that has only USB parameters defined. It can be used for a -P <serialadapter>[:<serial number>] port specification instead of the created serial port. Per-user serialadapter definitions in ~/.avrduderc or avrdude.rc files can add a serial number to assign a particular board a specific id and default communication baud rate:

serialadapter parent "ft232r"
    id                     = "bike-shed-door";
    usbsn                  = "0123456789";
    baudrate               = 250000;
;

This is particularly useful for programming through a bootloader as it allows specifying the port as -P bike-shed-door rather than having to figure out which serial port name the operating system has assigned to the plugged in bike-shed-door board at runtime. Note that each programmer that defines usbpid and sets is_serialadapter = yes can also be utilised as a serialadapter.

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