This is a preview of an inexpensive, medium-speed AVR/PIC/CPLD/Arduino programmer. It’s designed for people who don’t own a programmer and just want to rescue a bricked PIC or AVR. The programmer uses the bitbang mode of a FT232R FTDI USB->serial converter chip. The same one used on the Bus Pirate and Arduino. There’s existing apps […]
Author Archives: Ian
RIGOL 100MHz hack verified for firmware 2.04
There’s been a lot of interest in hacking the 50MHz Rigol DS1052E oscilloscope to work at 100MHz. The hack takes two parts. First remove a low pass filter, and then (see comments, thanks for the correction) Just modify the firmware to get it working at higher speeds. Forum member IPenguin just confirmed that this hack […]
USB IR Toy: WinLIRC plugin complete
WinLIRC v0.8.6b+ now supports the USB IR Toy, thanks to a new driver written by Dukey. Dukey finished the driver before we did, so he’ll get an IR Toy v1.1 prototype as soon as the boards are in. You’ll need to update your USB IR Toy to firmware v1.05, it has the new IR sampling […]
Week in (p)review: August 1, 2010
Here’s some highlights from the past two weeks, in case you missed them: Bus Pirate firmware v5.4 IR Toy firmware v1.05 with a new sampling mode was released. We also identified the cause of the stuck IR Toy bootloader Dukey added IR Toy support to WinLIRC LCD adapter v2 for the Bus Pirate was tested, […]
Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate v4 prototype
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. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week we’re giving away […]
Logic Sniffer laser cut case
parag0n made a laser cut case for the Logic Sniffer. If you have a laser cutter, grab the design files and build your own. See other cases for the Logic Sniffer too. You can order the Logic Sniffer at Seeed Studio for $45, including worldwide shipping. Don’t forget that Seeed now has probe cables for […]
USB Infrared Toy firmware v1.05
USB Infrared Toy firmware v1.05 is available for download. We’re on a roll today, first a new Bus Pirate firmware, now a new IR Toy firmware. Firmware v1.05 corrects several bugs in the IR sample mode in v1.04. This update should fix the buffer overflows in v1.04 that cause the IR Toy to freeze and […]
Preview: Bus Pirate LCD adapter v2
This is a new LCD adapter for the Bus Pirate. The board has been tested, Seeed is building a manufacturing prototype now. The Bus Pirate LCD library in firmware v5.4+ will require this LCD adapter instead of the old v1 adapter. The v1 LCD adapter was based on a PCF8574 I2C IO expander IC. It […]
Bus Pirate v3b extended in stock
The Bus Pirate v3b with an extended temperature range PIC is now in stock at Seeed. The extended temperature PIC doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a quirk of our tiny production runs. Get a Bus Pirate for $30, including worldwide shipping at Seeed Studio. Adafruit also has the Bus Pirate and probe cables in stock […]
Bus Pirate and FlashRom saved my mainboard
MrHijets’ BIOS update [machine translation] went sour, but he revived it with the Bus Pirate and FlashRom: In my case, Flashrom and the Bus Pirate saved my motherboard… FlashRom support is an example of how open source and community driven development can extend a project beyond it’s original design. Thank you to everyone who has […]
USB IR Toy v1.04 fimware bug?
It looks like there’s a major bug in IR Toy firmware v1.04. After a few days it stops working. We have not seen this bug in the lab, if you have an example please let us know how it happened (died suddenly, on startup, etc) and the operating conditions (mode, etc). v1.04 has been deprecated […]
Remote control protocol reverse engineering
Ytsirk analyzed the remote control protocol from a LED license plate frame using the USB IR Toy. Also check out part I and part II that introduce the hardware. We can’t wait for the next installment that covers reprogramming the marquee with a battery powered IR Toy, it sounds like there’s a lot of potential […]
Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate v4 prototype
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. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week we’re giving away […]
Logic analyzer client roundup
The most recent documentation is now on the wiki There are now several open source logic analyzer clients that speak the SUMP protocol, the most popular open logic analyzer protocol currently in use. They should all be compatible with the Logic Sniffer, the Bus Pirate, and the USB Infrared toy. Our ideal logic analyzer client […]
Infrared Toy OSX client application
rsdio developed a Mac application for the USB IR Toy. It captures and displays the raw waveform from the IR Toy’s raw infrared mode, and has a limited protocol analyzer.
DesignSpark freeware PCB design
We’ve been meaning to check out DesignSpark. Free from practical constraints on board size, pin counts, layers and output types… Multi-page schematic designs are supported…. supports the importing of Eagle design files and libraries… It’s not open source, but it could potentially be a favorable closed-ware alternative to Eagle. Eagles’s board size limits don’t usually […]
Extended temperature Bus Pirate
The next batch of Bus Pirate v3b is almost ready. It will ship with bootloader v4.4 and firmware v5.3. It will also be the only known batch of Bus Pirates to use an extended temperature range PIC 24FJ64GA002-E/SS. There weren’t any standard industrial temperature range chips available, so Seeed sourced the extended range version. These […]
USB IR Toy: Sampling mode
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. The USB IR Toy test firmware v1.04 has a new infrared sampling mode that will be used by the upcoming WinLIRC plugin. This mode times the duration of infrared pulses and sends the measurements to the computer. It’s currently receive-only, but we’ll add a compatible transmit feature […]
USB IR Toy test firmware 1.04
It looks like there’s a bug in v1.04 that makes it stop working after a few days. It can be fixed by connecting the PGC and PGD vias to enter the bootloader and uploading the v1.02 firmware again. USB IR Toy firmware v1.04 is ready for download. This release has a new mode for better […]
Free PCB Sunday: Bus Pirate v4 prototype
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. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week we’re giving away […]