USB cellular modems (such as the ubiquitous Huawei E303, E173, and E3372) enable Raspberry Pi 4 projects to send SMS notifications, handle emergency alerts, and provide cellular backup connectivity. However, modern USB modems initially boot into a virtual CD-ROM storage mode (ZeroCD) to deliver Windows drivers, requiring usb-modeswitch to toggle them into serial modem mode.
Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4 • Huawei E303 USB Dongle •
usb-modeswitch • Gammu SMS Gateway
1. Installing usb-modeswitch and Gammu
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch usb-modeswitch-data gammu minicom -y2. Switching from Mass Storage to Modem Mode
Check lsusb to identify your device vendor and product ID:
# Example: ID 12d1:1f01 (Mass Storage Mode)
lsusb | grep Huawei
# Mode-switch into serial modem mode (12d1:1001 or 12d1:14db):
sudo usb_modeswitch -v 12d1 -p 1f01 -M '55534243123456780000000000000011062000000100000000000000000000'Confirm the modem serial nodes are created under /dev/ttyUSB0, /dev/ttyUSB1, and /dev/ttyUSB2.
3. Sending a Test SMS via Gammu
Configure ~/.gammurc:
[gammu]
port = /dev/ttyUSB0
connection = at115200Send an automated test message:
echo "Alert: Raspberry Pi online!" | gammu sendsms TEXT +1234567890
Thanks, Nice tuto, for the tplink usb hub , could you inform what hub version you have that has VIA VL812 chipset? As I understood there are some versions come with different chipset like V2 comes with RTS5411.
ReplyDeleteI have tested v1 and v3 and dongles worked fine on both. However, the problem with v1 is that it does not turn on automatically when the power cable was disconnected and connected again, you always need to press the power button to turn it on each time it is connected to power
Delete