MiconV3 Interface

Description
Newer devices have started using a simpler protocol to interface with a new microcontroller which appears to control fewer functions than previous devices did. Like previous versions the communication happens over a serial connection that takes place within the main board.

Affected Models
This protocol is most likely used by all Terastations starting with the 3010/5010.

Serial Port Configuration
There is less consistency on what port is used on these devices that there was on previous versions which seemed to exclusively use the second serial port port.


 * For Intel-based devices they appear to be connected to the first serial port (/dev/ttyS0)
 * For ARM-based devices a USB-to-UART adapter appears to be used (/dev/ttyUSB0)

Message format
The message format is much simpler than previous versions consisting of just strings with Windows-Style line terminators (\r\n). It does not include a checksum like the previous version instead relying on some simple return messages.

Tools
There's a Python library with examples for sending commands to these devices:

https://github.com/1000001101000/Python_buffalo_libmicon

There's also a fork of an older C tool which is used to send commands within the Linux installers:

https://github.com/1000001101000/micro-evtd