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 […]
Category Archives: Bus Pirate
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Bus Pirate: Firmware upgrades on Linux, OSX
STOP!!! You probably need the v2 to v4 upgrade guide instead!!! See the latest version in the documentation wiki. Bus Pirate firmware updates can be done from Linux or OSX using the Python PIC24F programmer developed by broeggle and JoseJX. The programmer works on all operating systems that support Python and pySerial: Linux, OSX, and […]
Bus Pirate: v3 update
***We’ll start a preorder ($30 assembled, shipped worldwide) if there are a few firm commitments, sign up for notification in the forum.*** This rendering shows the nearly-complete Bus Pirate v3 PCB. Our initial preview of the new hardware generated some really good comments. We decided to swap the PGC and PGD pins of the ICSP […]
Bus Pirate: Linux/Pyton programmer for PIC 24FJ
There’s been a lot of progress on a Linux/Python programmer for the Bus Pirate’s PIC 24FJ bootloader. The programmer is based on AN851, AN1157, some existing code, and COM dumps. You can track the development in the forum and in the project SVN.
Bus Pirate: v3 power-on self-test
Seeed Studio tested the bootloader and terminal of each Bus Pirate prior to shipping. This is a good test, but Seeed requested that we design a more thorough test program for future orders. We implemented a self-test menu option in firmware version 2 that tests most of the hardware and functions on the Bus Pirate […]
Bus Pirate forum
Get help with your Bus Pirate in our unofficial Bus Pirate forum. There’s ongoing development of a Python quick programmer for Linux. We’re also tracking Bus Pirate defects, and working on future hardware. Join the discussion.
Confessions of a prototyper: Bus Pirate v1.5
The Bus Pirate V2a and V2go weren’t the only design candidates for the Bus Pirate v2 series. Here’s a rendering of the Bus Pirate ‘v1.5’, a design that never saw the light of day. This Bus Pirate was meant to be completely portable. It has an LCD to display the terminal, and a keyboard jack […]
Prototype: Bus Pirate 3EEPROM explorer board
This is an old version, see the latest version on the documentation wiki. Now you’ve got one of Hack a Day’s Bus Pirates, what do you do with it? Learn about 1-wire, I2C, and SPI EEPROMs with the 3EEPROM explorer board (we pronounce it THREE-PROM, emphasis on the EE). EEPROM is a type of memory […]
Bus Pirate v3: Beating the shortage
UPDATE II: PCB stuffed and tested. UPDATE I:***We’ll start a preorder ($30 assembled, shipped worldwide) if there are a few firm commitments, sign to be notified and check the forum.*** The next version of the Bus Pirate universal serial interface is about a week away from prototyping. Why a new version so soon, when Hack […]
Bus Pirate: Self-test guide
See the latest version on the documentation wiki. In the past few days Hack a Day’s Bus Pirate preorders have started to arrive all over the world. Broken units have been extremely rare, there’s only been one manufacturing defect and one broken FTDI chip reported so far. Seeed Studio tested the bootloader and terminal of […]
Bus Pirate: Practical guide to pull-up resistors
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. There’s often some confusion about how the Bus Pirate’s on-board pull-up resistors work. It doesn’t help that the implementation changes drastically from one hardware revision to the next, a lot of the original device tutorials are difficult to follow if you have a Bus Pirate v2go. The […]
Bus Pirate: Firmware v2.0 released
Firmware v2.0 for all Bus Pirate hardware versions is available from the project’s Google Code page. Version 2 is a major upgrade recommended for all users. Follow our illustrated firmware upgrade guide. The default update speed is a paltry 9600bps, but you might be able to increase it. Version 2.0 follows the v0g release. V0g […]
Bus Pirate: High-speed firmware updates
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. Quality control tests on the Bus Pirate preorder 1 flagged about 50 out of 400 units as defective. The terminal interface worked fine, but the bootloader wouldn’t connect. The solution was to decrease the speed of the quick programmer utility to the Microchip recommended default, 9600bps. Unfortunately, […]
Bus Pirate: Firmware upgrades
See the latest version in the documentation wiki. The Bus Pirate has a bootloader that accepts software updates over the USB connection and writes them to the memory of the PIC 24FJ64GA002 microcontroller. Without a bootloader, we’d have update the firmware through the ICSP header using a ‘real’ programmer like an ICD2 or PICKIT2. This […]