According to [Farnell's Quick Start Guide][1], the default baud rate is Speed: 115200. A fairly detailed discussion of the UART settings and capabilities can be found in this blog post [More on Raspberry Pi serial ports][2]. More specific details/challenges of working with the serial port can be found in the blog post [Getting my Raspberry Pi set up for high-speed serial UART communication][3] [1]: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1524403.pdf [2]: http://lavalink.com/2012/04/more-on-raspberry-pi-serial-ports/ [3]: http://fw.hardijzer.nl/?p=138