[lordeagle]

Originally Posted by SenorClean

The one I bought (which didn't work) wasn't the same - it was this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32572439616.html

They do seem to be a bit fickle, might be worth trying another if you can find one.

Thanks for your reply. I remember having searched many hours just to find this board. Since many vendors do not ship to my country (Switzerland). So if someone has a concrete link with a board that is still for sale and works - that would be highly appreciated information.

Originally Posted by vchjs

I had the same problem, ..
By running minicom on one of the text-only TTY sessions, I was finally able to see the effect of key-presses over the serial connection(i.e. stop autoboot, run commands etc ). Hope this helps someone stuck similarly.

I'am also using 'minicom' on a UI session (Linux Mint 19.3). But I don't fully get what you meant by a text-only TTY session. I used the CTRL+ALT+F3 combo to switch to a headless mint terminal and it didn't work better from there. But maybe you could share a little in detail how you started a text-only session.

Originally Posted by SenorClean

One time was just a bad ground connection - especially tricky on the 'tropicalised' gooped pw4. I found I can see the serial output with gnd disconnected but it won't talk in the other direction..

maybe I just have this issue with the ground. Or in general a connection problem caused by 'primitive' soldiering. Having lost the serial pin on a PW2 by trying to soldier them to a wire, I chose a simpler approach this time on the PW3. Actually, I just used sticky tapes. I thought that this should be enough for the short interaction with the serial port.
But the ground is at least somehow working: if I remove it completely I can't read anything with minicom. Having it sticked as shown in the picture, finally let me at least 'read' the console.