For the first time in probably 15 years, I find myself needing to use a modem. This time on a Raspberry PI.
I have a few old modems in the junk bin, but they need an RS232 serial interface which would be a pain to replicate on an RPI. So without much research I purchased a Hiro USB modem.
What I received was a USB âwinModemâ. Itâs been so long since I have used modems I completely forgot about WinModems. To make these modems as cheap as possible, much of the signal processing was pushed off onto the host PC. These winModems require fairly sophisticated drivers.
Realizing this after I purchased a winModem, I tried unsuccessfully to find any kind of driver that might work. The Hiro modem uses the Agere/Lucent chipset and there appears to be no Linux drivers for it anywhere.
Still wanting a USB modem, I did a little more exhaustive research. Iâve found two USB modems that are advertised to work under Linux: the TrendNet TFM-561U and the US Robotics model 5637 modem.
The tendnet modem is $20 verses $41 for the USR, so I went with the Trendnet. Plus I saw one very short blurb that someone had the trendnet working on a RPI.
Note, the Trendnet modem ends up not having a speaker in it. I cannot verify if the USR has one or not. Fortunately, I donât care for my project.
Before trying the modem on a Raspberry Pi, I tried it on a laptop running linux Mint just to make sure everything worked properly before moving on to the RPI.
For more detail: USB Dial Up Modem for Raspberry Pi Codes