Update: Thanks to our testers we caught an early bug, a new update is now available for testing. Last week we identified a shortcoming in the Bus Pirate bootloader. We’ve been working on an upgrade that will free space for more features, eliminate verify errors in the last page of memory, and fix the bootloader […]
Author Archives: Ian
Ingenious shrink tube Bus Pirate case
pppd wanted an quick case for the Bus Pirate, and decided to entomb it in heat shrink tube using a hair dryer. Fantastic idea, thanks for the tip! More photos on Flickr.
Interview with Seeed Studio on postal delays
Airmail packages from Seeed Studio have been extremely slow lately. We’re currently waiting on circuit boards and other goodies to arrive from Seeed Studio. Our order left Seeed promptly, but delivery is taking weeks. Lots of other people have experienced long shipping times too. We sent Seeed a list of questions to get a handle […]
Web Platform: Kits shipped, assembled boards next week
Seeed Studio just sent an update on the web platform. The kit version has been shipped, you should receive your tracking information shortly if you haven’t already. The assembled version will ship next week. Albert, Seeed’s lead engineer, is currently programming and testing the assembled boards. The good news is that airmail shipping times should […]
Bus Pirate firmware v3.6 released
Bus Pirate firmware v3.6 is available for download, this is a minor bug fix release. Update using the normal firmware upgrade procedure. This release does not reach into the upper memory page, so there shouldn’t be any upgrade issues. Changes include: Fixed version string. v3.5 displayed ‘Firmware 3.5’ instead of ‘Firmware v3.5’. This caused issues […]
Laser cut Bus Pirate v3 cases now available
Lots of us have been waiting for an update on Ril3y’s laser cut Bus Pirate case. Synthetos Laboratories (Ril3y’s store) now lists them in clear ($12.99), translucent red, and translucent black (both $14.99). Up to three cases can be shipped within the US for $5.95, international shipping is $13.95. Good luck with this project Ril3y, […]
Free PCB Sunday: Infrared receiver/transmitter
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 prototype PCB for an upcoming USB infrared receiver/transmitter project, it isn’t the […]
LPKF EasyContac rivets for vias
Charlie made his own Bus Pirate PCB and used LPKF EasyContac rivets (warning, page denies non-US IPs) to connect the front and back sides. He had to enlarge the vias to 31mils to fit the rivets, and suggests going even bigger if possible. There’s more discussion on Charlie’s blog and at CNC Zone. The LPKF […]
rvbcrs' web platform build
rvbcrs, a regular poster in the forum, received a preview web platform PCB. This is his build running the @tweet_tree firmware with a ShiftBrite LED. Here’s a list of all the web platform demos so far. The web platform is available as a kit for $35, including worldwide shipping. Seeed Studio will assemble yours for […]
Bus Pirate support in Windows Flashrom port
Flashrom is an open source utility for working with flash storage chips. It supports a bunch of flash chips commonly used on motherboards to hold the system BIOS. biosflasher (Carl-Daniel Hailfinger) recently added Bus Pirate support to Flashrom. Now pgeorgi has released a Windows port of Flashrom with Bus Pirate support, and biosflasher committed the […]
Open source digital sampling oscilloscope
Please join us in the forum to discuss a digital sampling oscilloscope add-on for the open source logic analyzer (currently referred to as project SUMP PUMP). Our general goal is to design an inexpensive expansion board that samples analog voltages at 50MHz+. The combination of a logic analyzer and sampling oscilloscope is a powerful debugging […]
Bus Pirate case from DS/Maxim sample box
Maff^ posted some pictures of a Bus Pirate case made from a Dallas/Maxim sample box in the forum. Lots of people have a few of these little boxes, this is a great way to recycle one. I decided to create my own housing. I had a small transparent box laying around where the BPv3 fitted […]
Bus Pirate firmware v3.5 released
Bus Pirate firmware v3.5 is available for download. Update using the normal firmware upgrade procedure. This release does not reach into the upper memory page, so there shouldn’t be any upgrade issues. Changes include: All bitbang libraries updated to include 100kHz and 400kHz speeds (I2C, raw2wire, raw3wire). Updated self-test, includes over voltage check. Transparent UART […]
DIY Bus Pirate PCBs
s3c posted this home-etched Bus Pirate v3 PCB in the forum. Nice work! Do you etch your own PCBs? We send double-sided PCBs to the board house, but still etch simple single-sided designs. Bus Pirate v0, va, and v1 were all etched on the stove in Ian’s kitchen. If you don’t want to etch your […]
Bus Pirate bootloader v3 testers, help needed
ds30 Loader is the new bootloader we’ve chosen to replace the broken AN1157 bootloader currently in the Bus Pirate. It has a bunch of benefits: Takes less than 10 seconds to update the firmware Fixes the ‘slow’ bootloader problem effecting some PICs Opens 6KB of program space for more features Applications for Windows, Linux, and […]
Bus Pirate bootloader bug
There is nothing wrong with the Bus Pirate, this will only effect future firmware upgrades. There’s an erase issue with the AN1157 bootloader used in all Bus Pirate versions. So far it’s not been a problem because it only effects an unused section of memory, but the next firmware release might require that space. The […]
Having Bus Pirate Tera Term issues?
The most recent shipments of Bus Pirate v3 are starting to arrive worldwide. Some users are having a problem with the Tera Term terminal program. First, please test your Bus Pirate with a terminal prior to upgrading. It’s harder to troubleshoot if we can’t immediately eliminate factory defect as the cause. Second, make sure you […]
Bus Pirate: OpenOCD (JTAG) firmware port v00
A Bus Pirate v2go/v3 port of the OpenOCD JTAG debugger source code from USBPROG is complete. You can download the source and latest compile from the OpenOCD folder in the project SVN. Firmware is only half of the equation though, OpenOCD doesn’t yet support the USBPROG protocol over a (virtual) serial port like the Bus […]
Utilities: Picture Resizer 4.0
Picture Resizer is a batch image processor we couldn’t live without. Drag and drop images onto the executable to resize and adjust quality. The really cool part is how you configure the image settings: just change the file name. PhotoResizeW450Q95O.exe resizes images to 450 pixels wide (W450) and saves a JPEG with 95% quality (Q95). […]
Free PCB Sunday: Infrared receiver/transmitter
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 prototype PCB for an upcoming USB infrared receiver/transmitter project, it isn’t the […]