Keep your Bus Pirate pins straight with this case sticker[PDF!] designed by ecronin: I made up a sticker for the combo of the seeed case and breakout harness, thought others might find it useful… Unlike in the above picture, I connect the cable with Black to GND, which puts the two EZHook-like hooks on MISO/MOSI. […]
Author Archives: Ian
Pirate Rename – Get a nicely named serial device
Tired of the /dev/tty.usbserial-XXXXXXXX address of the Bus Pirate? Piotr developed a utility to edit the EEROM in the FTDI chip on the Bus Pirate, this gives your Bus Pirate a consistent name on MacOSX. Grab the utility here, and follow this how-to submitted by Piotr. Thanks for the tip! If you have a few […]
Logic analyzer firmware development update
Today we completed an initial PIC firmware for the open source logic analyzer. The PIC has two operating modes: a serial bridge for SUMP to talk to the client on the FPGA, and a ROM programmer that updates the AT45DB041D flash chip with new logic for the FPGA. There’s still some bugs, but the design […]
Demo: AT45DB041D 4Mbit SPI flash memory
This is an old version, see the latest version on the documentation wiki. This demo is what the Bus Pirate is all about. A AT45DB041D 4Mbit flash memory stores the FPGA design on the open source logic analyzer project currently known as SUMP PUMP. We’ve worked with EEPROMs in the past, but this chip is […]
Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate PIC/AVR programming adapter
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. PCBs by Seeed Studio. This is a PIC and AVR high-voltage programming adapter for the Bus […]
Bus Pirate in a DV tape case
Gatsu made a unique DIY Bus Pirate case for a v2go: Here is something I cooked up a while as a case for my BP v2.go. Its a DV tape case. The inside is 46mm x 68mm so it would fit a v3 as well. The board is fixed to the bottom with a double […]
Bus Pirate: Pirate-Loader for Linux, Mac, Windows upgrades
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. This how-to describes the Pirate-Loader console program that uploads new firmware to Bus Pirates with bootloader v4+. Piotr whipped up this easy to use console app with versions for Windows, Linux, and Mac (source). The first release is here, though the latest console app will be included in […]
Bus Pirate OpenOCD support update
robots, a new contributor to the Bus Pirate OpenOCD support effort, has taken charge and produced the first working toolchain. A patch for OpenOCD 0.3.0 that adds Bus Pirate support is here. The latest compatible OpenOCD firmware for the Bus Pirate is here, bootloader v4 required. JTAG programming speed is a paltry 1.4kb/s, about a […]
USB RGB color changer build
0x00f got a USB RGB color changer on free PCB Sunday: I switched the PGC and PGD lines…and had to solder in the 1K base resistors as I only had NPN BJT Power Transistors in my junk box. Also inserted a DC Jack to allow almost any DC Wall Part power supply easily to power […]
Using the Bus Pirate with Ubuntu
Mike Szczys wrote a quick-start guide for connecting the Bus Pirate to Ubuntu Linux. He used the Minicom terminal and recommends some custom UDEV rules to assign a persistent port name. Thanks for the tips!
Bus Pirate bootloader/firmware v4 testing complete
Bus Pirate bootloader v4 upgrades have gone great so far. We’d like to invite most users to upgrade now, though if you’re in the middle of a project it might be best to wait. Resources: v2 to v4 bootloader upgrade instructions Alternative console upload utility for Linux, MacOSX, Windows v4.1 firmware feature overview
Bus Pirate bootloader v4 console for Linux, Mac
It looks like some people are having problems with the ds30 Loader GUI for the Bus Pirate v4 bootloader on Linux or Mac with Mono, and many would prefer not to install Mono at all. pppd cooked up a simple console application (updated version here) for the v4 bootloader in Linux and MacOSX (and Windows). […]
Bus Pirate firmware v4.1
Bus Pirate firmware v4.1 is now available for download. Firmware v4+ requires a bootloader upgrade. Firmware v4+ will not work with the original v2 bootloader. This release includes several new features: Voltage readings to two decimal points of precision Continuous ADC probe reading mode Print bootloader version info Enter bootloader without a jumper First major […]
How-to: Bus Pirate bootloader v4 upgrade
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. Bus Pirate firmware v4+ requires a bootloader upgrade. The upgrade frees space for more features, eliminates verify errors in the last page of memory, and fixes the bootloader speed limitation on some PICs. The new bootloader is available to everyone through an upgrader firmware that is loaded […]
Demo: Sure LED matrix
This is an old version, see the latest version on the documentation wiki. You may have come across this 16×24 LED matrix board on eBay or at Sure Electronics. Each board has three 8×8 LED blocks and a controller to drive them. A simple three-wire serial interface toggles each LED and configures the overall brightness […]
Free PCB Sunday: USB RGB color changer
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few professionally-made PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. This is a USB controlled RGB color changing light. Ian did this project at DIY […]
Web platform: Update from Seeed
Seeed Studio shipped the web platform kits this week, assembled boards will ship on Monday. We apologize for the delay. We’ll work with Seeed to stock the parts for future projects in advance so there’s less time between orders and delivery. Thank you for your support! Via the Seeed Studio blog.
Additional bootloader/firmware v4 testers needed
Early testing of the new v4 bootloader uncovered a bug, but upgrades now appear to be going smoothly for everyone. We still need additional testers before it’s ready to deploy. If you have access to a PIC programmer, please consider testing the bootloader upgrade release candidate. We’ve had about 10 successful upgrades, it would be […]
Corrected Bus Pirate pinout?
We’d like your feedback on a major change to the Bus Pirate firmware. We’d like to restore the pin order to the more logical format found on the va and v1a hardware. The original pin order for va and v1a hardware was MOSI/CLOCK/MISO/CS on single row of pin headers. Pin 1 (MOSI) is the most […]
Bus Pirate v3 preorder 2 broken LED fix
There have been multiple reports of dead MODE LEDs in Bus Pirate v3, preorder 2. The cause seems to be a dirty contact on the LED. Most can be repaired by reheating the joint, and possibly adding a bit more solder. In response to this problem, Seeed Studio has changed LED suppliers. We also implemented […]