# GPIO Serial connection questions

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/gpio-serial-connection-questions/111535>\
**Category:** balenaFin\
**Created:** [May 12, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/gpio-serial-connection-questions/111535 "2020-05-12T19:18:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SurferLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SurferLee](https://forums.balena.io/u/SurferLee)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/gpio-serial-connection-questions/111535/1 "2020-05-12T19:18:11Z")

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Hello All!

I have a program that runs on a Raspberry Pi 3 and uses some of the GPIO pins to make a serial connection.

In Raspbian I connect to this serial port on the /dev/ttyAMA0 device. To do this I am adding dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt to /boot/config.txt and removing console=serial0,115200 from the /boot/cmdline.txt file.

Do I need to make any changes such as this on the balenaFin to also use GPIO pins in this way?

What is the orientation of the GPIO pins on the balenaFin as compared to the Pi - is it the same? (fairly certain it is)

Will the serial port device in Raspbian also be /dev/ttyAMA0 or something else like /dev/ttyS0?

I am also using hardware flow control on the serial connection. I am first using the rpirtscts program to do this on the Raspberry Pi and then the normal stty command. Do I also need to do something on the balenaFin like rpirtscts does?

Thank you so much in advance!

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**Author:** ![rahul-thakoor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9de053/32.png) [@rahul-thakoor](https://forums.balena.io/u/rahul-thakoor)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 10:02am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/gpio-serial-connection-questions/111535/3 "2020-05-13T10:02:45Z")

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Hello @SurferLee,

- Yes the GPIO header on the fin is the same as on a Pi  
To answer your other ques, Can you confirm which OS you are using with the balenaFin? are you using Raspbian or BalenaOS?
  - For the docs regarding serial interface using balenaOS, you can see [here](https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/OS/advanced/#enable-serial-interface)  
Thanks

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**Author:** ![SurferLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SurferLee](https://forums.balena.io/u/SurferLee)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/gpio-serial-connection-questions/111535/5 "2020-05-13T14:52:50Z")

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Thanks for the reply.

We are using the raspbian fin full image ([https://github.com/balena-os/pi-gen/releases/download/v0.1.0/image\_Raspbian-Fin-full.zip](https://github.com/balena-os/pi-gen/releases/download/v0.1.0/image_Raspbian-Fin-full.zip))

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**Author:** ![jtonello](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/jtonello/32/3246_2.png) [@jtonello](https://forums.balena.io/u/jtonello)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/gpio-serial-connection-questions/111535/6 "2020-05-13T15:30:33Z")

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Hi @SurferLee,

Did the doc regarding using the serial interface answer your questions?

John

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**Author:** ![mrrobot](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/mrrobot/32/5768_2.png) [@mrrobot](https://forums.balena.io/u/mrrobot)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 6:28am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/gpio-serial-connection-questions/111535/8 "2020-09-03T06:28:04Z")

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@jtonello @SurferLee  
Do you have anymore information on the subject, I’m currently stuck at the same problem.