Bus Pirate v3.5 is back in stock at Seeed Studio. Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
Author Archives: Ian
Editorial: Our friend Microchip and open source
Microchip jumped into open source last spring with the chipKIT Arduino-compatible development boards and open compiler/IDE. They wanted to tap the existing tutorials, enthusiasm, and customer base of Arduino community, and they were going to play nice with open source. A review of the chipKIT situation today is disappointing. The compiler still replies on closed […]
ITead offers ultra-low cost no-frills PCBs
ITead may be locked in competition with Seeed Studio to sell the cheapest prototype PCBs. After a round of price cuts at Seeed earlier this year, ITead has responded with a new ultra-low cost “no frills” service starting at $5. Fewer PCBs with no e-test, lower tolerance, and longer lead times: It seems like they […]
New Hackerspace challenge: Best build from lost parts
Charlie writes: Our hackerspaces vacuum cleaner probably has about $500 in parts inside it. We were thinking of a competition that involved making the coolest things out of whatever you could find on the floor. Via the comments.
USB Infrared Toy firmware v20 final released
Infrared Toy firmware v20 final is now available for download. This is an update for all IR Toy hardware versions. Thank you to all the testers and developers who made this happen. Download release package Download source archive Last week we released v20-RC1, but it took two more release candidates to get everything in order. […]
Bus Pirate v4 first complete package release v6-a1
The first complete release package for Bus Pirate v4 is now available in the forum. This includes a working bootloader and firmware based on the new open source USB stack, utilities, and complete source code. If you have the v4 hardware, any testing is greatly appreciated. There are still a ton of bugs to fix, […]
Raspberry Pi alpha board
Raspberry Pi An ARM Linux: This won’t ship for another three months, but they already have the alpha version running Debian It’s a credit-card size board running Linux with GPIO, I2C, I2S, serial, and SPI. They are targeting $35, or $25 with no ethernet, only one USB, and less memory. It looks like they would […]
Run unsigned code on the XBOX360
There’s a new exploit to run unsigned code on the XBOX360. Presumably Linux. Looks like the haxxors have fund a method for hacking the XBOX360 via glitching. They slow down the CPU and send a slower than required reset pulse. Then, about 25% of the times it glitches and loads a modified bootloader which gives […]
Comparing Adafruit and Gravitech microSD boards
jbeale compared the Adafruit and Gravitech’s microSD boards: The shape is a bit different, but both boards work as intended. Both have LEDs, but the Gravitech LED is on whenever a card is inserted (I think using the socket’s mechanical card detect switch) and the Adafruit LED blinks while data is transferred to/from the card, […]
Announcing an open source USB stack for PIC 18F and 24F
Good news everyone! A new free and open source USB stack is now available for PIC microcontrollers. Today we finished testing and prepared a simple echo test that works with PIC 18F and 24F. We hope a demo release will get more developers involved. A release package and overview are in the forum. As always, […]
Bus Pirate demo board v3.0 free PCB build
Menno built a free Bus Pirate demo board v3.5 . If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever – we’ll send you a coupon code for the free PCB drawer. Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available […]
Workshop cleanup day
At one point a DIP-8 ATtiny13A fell out of Ian’s hair.
Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB. Now with randomness!
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. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week two random commenters will […]
Vane clock with mechanical segment displays
NashblackCat is working on a clock with some interesting mechanical flip-digits: I have a set of flip digit modules and I am tinkering with what would be the best way to use them in a HH:MM:SS clock setup. I am tinkering with a few ideas on how to move them. You see it has three […]
App note: Signal chain guide 3rd edition
Selector guide: Signal chain 3rd edition Whether you need to meet tight accuracy requirements, reduce form factor size, or lower power consumption, this selector guide will help you choose the right signal chain components to optimize your design. Included are analog multiplexers and switches, ADCs, DACs, operational amplifiers, digital potentiometers, filters, voltage references, resistor-dividers, and […]
UPOV keychain update
exapod posted an update on the UPOV keychain. Via the forum.
Free PCB Sunday: Mail volume graph
This graph shows the mail spike that happens from post notifications on a free PCB Sunday. The spike on Monday was a straggler or two.
Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters last try 4 today
Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week: Free PCB Sunday. The classic. Every week, […]
Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters
Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week: Free PCB Sunday. The classic. Every week, […]
Week in (p)review: August 26, 2011
Facebook free PCB Friday is on the way. Don’t forget to share your current project in the comments or the forum. Here’s a summary of major developments over the last week: Forked Bus Blaster FT2232H + CPLD JTAG programmer USB Infrared Toy firmware v20 release candidate 123 Thermal Tweeter laser-cut acrylic stand We highlighted clock […]