Field programmable gate arrays often separate the professionals from the hobbyists. Development tools are expensive, and the chips are usually in high pin-count BGA surface mount packages. Totti turned us on to a $49 Spartan-3A FPGA development kit from AVNET. It’s got a large Xilinx Spartan FPGA, two types of flash memory, and four capacitive […]
Author Archives: Ian
Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate 2a & 2go
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we 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 week we’re giving away one Bus Pirate v2a PCB (left) and one Bus Pirate […]
Sure Electronics PICkit2 clone teardown
Today we have teardown photos of a Sure Electronics PICkit2 clone PIC programmer, the type commonly sold on eBay. Scopria, who took these pictures, reports that his programmer stopped working after a few months. He recommends a real Microchip PICkit2 because it’s only a couple dollars more. Teardown photos and a look at the circuit […]
Microchip PICkit2 teardown
PICkit2 is a programmer for Microchip PIC microcontrollers. It has limited debugging features and a low-speed serial protocol analyzer. It’s really useful for low-volume production programming because it can store firmware and program circuits while not attached to a PC. Buy it at Mouser for about $40, Digi-Key has the new PICkit3 for about $70. […]
Bus Pirate firmware v2.1-RC2
We just uploaded Bus Pirate firmware v2.1 release candidate 2 for all hardware versions, including the first release for Bus Pirate v3. Since v2.1-RC1, we’ve combined the hardware and software I2C libraries. This applies the RC1 ACK/NACK management system to the hardware library without duplicating a bunch of code. Some have reported success using the […]
Bus Pirate v3 PCBs pass testing
Sign up to be notified of v3 preorders here. We plan to sell the Bus Pirate v3 for $30, shipped worldwide. Preorder discussion. This picture from our workbench shows the new Bus Pirate v3 (left) and the Bus Pirate v2go (right). The Bus Pirate V3 PCB arrived yesterday. We stuffed it last night, and it […]
Bus Pirate: Wii Nunchuck quick guide
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. Scorpia shared his experience interfacing a Wii Nunchuck with the Bus Pirate I2C library. He used Seeed Studio’s breakout board that brings all the Nunchuck signals to an easy-to-tap header. Here’s some alternatives to the breakout board. Bus Pirate Wii Nunchuck breakout MOSI/SDA D (SDA) CLOCK/SCL C […]
Bus Pirate: Firmware v2.1-RC1
Bus Pirate firmware v2.1 release candidate 1 can be downloaded from the Bus Pirate project page. Learn how to update your firmware from Windows or Linux/OSX. Updates Experimental hardware I2C library for PICs that support it. PIC chip revision detection. New public domain I2C library, fixes bugs with read ACK/NACKs. I2C no longer GPL. More […]
The point of I2C NACKs
The logic analyzer output above (top continues on the bottom) shows the Bus Pirate I2C address scan function. The Bus Pirate sends a DS1307 I2C read address. After the DS1307 ACKnowledges the address (bit 9), it immediately starts sending data to the Bus Pirate and ignores the I2C STOP sequence sent by the address scanner. […]
Free PCB Sunday: Web server v2 prototype
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we 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 version 2 of the web server on a business card Ian posted at […]
Hack a Day t-shirt
Hack a Day sent us one of their new t-shirts,designed by contest-winner John Keppel. As far as we know, these were only sold at Defcon. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they plan to sell them online.
Bus Pirate: Chip demonstrations
Here’s a comprehensive list of Bus Pirate chip demonstrations. It includes Ian’s old demonstrations from Hack a Day, and the most recent demos from Dangerous Prototypes. Tutorials are arranged by Bus Pirate hardware version. Bus Pirate v2&v3 Firmware v0g new feature demonstration PCF8563 real time clock calendar (I2C) ShiftBrite with A6281 3 channel LED driver […]
Bus Pirate: HD44780 character LCD adapter
Cheap character LCDs based on the HD44780 chipset come in a variety of sizes: 2×16, 4×20, etc. These displays have two standard interface modes, 4bit and 8bit parallel. 8bit requires a total of 11 data lines, 4bit requires 7 (6 for write-only). Some LCDs support an additional serial data mode, like the VFD Ian covered […]
Bus Pirate: Connecting with MAC, OSX
Brettinman got a Bus Pirate from Hack a Day’s preorder, but he couldn’t get it working with the default MAC serial terminal. He used ZTerm and documented how to use the Bus Pirate with a MAC. Don’t forget that you can also do firmware updates from a MAC or Linux. Read our guide to the […]
Confessions of a prototyper: Server v2
The original web server on a business card Ian posted at Hack a Day was a homemade single-sided PCB with a few jumper wires. A version 2 was designed on a professional PCB, which opened up a lot of possibilities for new features. We added a 128×128 color Nokia knock-off LCD to make a network-connected […]
Bus Pirate: Hardware I2C added
Early Bus Pirate prototypes used PIC24FJ64GA002 revision A3 chips. A3 has a bug in the I2C hardware, so we’ve always used a software library to provide I2C on the Bus Pirate. Many, but not all, of the Bus Pirates manufactured by Seeed Studio have a newer, revision B4 chip with working I2C hardware. We showed […]
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 […]
Bus Pirate roundup
Here’s a roundup of our current Bus Pirate related posts. Install and setup your Bus Pirate with our introductory Bus Pirate 101 guide. We’ve also updated the Bus Pirate menu, protocol, and syntax manual to match the latest hardware and firmware. The most common issue for beginners is usually the Bus Pirate’s on-board pull-up resistors, […]
Bus Pirate: Menu, protocol, and syntax guide
This guide explains the Bus Pirate I/O pins, describes each menu available from the Bus Pirate terminal, and documents the syntax functions for each protocol library. The Bus Pirate I/O pins try to be consistent across all libraries, the same pins are used for similar functions. Unused pins are usually in a safe high-impedance state. […]
Find your Bus Pirate's PIC revision
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. The latest Bus Pirate v2go nightly firmware build reports the device ID, revision, and configuration bits in the terminal. HiZ>i Hack a Day Bus Pirate v2go http://www.buspirate.com Firmware v2.1-nightly DEVID:0x0447 <<< PIC 24F64GA002 REVID:0x3042 (B4) <<<0x3042 = Revision 4 CFG1:0xF9DF <<< config word one CFG2:0x3F7F <<<config word […]