Category Archives: Development

USB IR Toy: rawIO capture, analyze, and replay

The USB IR Toy will soon have a cross-platform GUI that can capture, display, and replay infrared signals. The application is written in Python with the open source wxPython IDE. If you’d like to join the effort, our latest work is always in the SVN. We hope to have a demonstration version soon. What should […]

Logic Sniffer test release 2.11

The Logic Sniffer is an open source logic analyzer. It’s designed to support the SUMP logic analyzer software at the lowest possible cost. This project is a collaboration between the Gadget Factory and Dangerous Prototypes. Jack posted Logic Sniffer bitstream test release 2.11 with bigger samples and RLE improvements: Extends memory depths from 8k and […]

Universal PIC programming adapter

Development of the Bus Pirate PIC programmer involves testing a bunch of different chips. This $10 universal programming adapter from Sure Electronics will be really handy. This board doesn’t actually program any chips. It’s an adapter that accepts a lot of different 18-40pin PIC chips and connects the programming pins to a header. The ZIF […]

Public SVN activity mailing list

SVN commit logs for Dangerous Prototypes SVN and the Bus Pirate project SVN are available on a developers mailing list. Sign up to get email notifications or daily digests of SVN activity, there’s currently 10-20 commits per day. This is mostly useful for developers, but you can also follow progress on your favorite project, or […]

Confessions of a prototyper: USB Infrared Toy

Confessions is a series where we share prototypes that didn’t quite work out. Read previous posts for the Bus Pirate, #twatch, and web platform here. The USB Infrared Toy took a few tries to get right. We’d like to fill you in on some things that happened behind the scenes before we released the v1 […]

Rough draft: 48 channel networked LED controller

Here’s a new project we’d like to develop openly, like the recent logic analyzer board . This rough sketch shows a 48 channel LED controller with an ethernet interface. Our primary goals are: 48 channels of 10bit PWM LED control Ethernet interface Up to 120mA of LEDs per channel The networked LED controller would use […]

Bus Pirate high voltage supply with only 6 parts

We used the Bus Pirate and 6 common components to multiply 5volts to over 120volts with a boost converter, a type of switched-mode power supply. Similar circuits are commonly used to power 180volt nixie tubes from low voltage power supplies. This circuit is a simple way to build your first SMPS, but be careful because […]

Bus Pirate PIC programmer?

Last week we made the Bus Pirate into an AVR STK500v2 compatible programmer by porting some existing open source code. Now we’re looking for a similar code-base that programs PIC microcontrollers. The PIC programmer landscape is a bit sketchy. As we understand, it’s not feasible to impersonate an existing programmer interface like the PICKIT2 or […]

Open source logic analyzer development

We’re really excited to be joined by Jack Gassett, developer of the Butterfly FPGA platform, to prototype an open source, high-speed, low-cost logic analyzer. This effort grew out of a bunch of great comments on a post about open source logic analyzer clients. Share your ideas for the logic analyzer in the new ‘SUMP PUMP’ […]

Bounty: Add Bus Pirate support to OpenOCD JTAG programmer

We’re offering a bounty on the most-requested Bus Pirate features. The developer of each feature can have their choice of a Bus Pirate probe cable kit or our next monthly project. Today we’re highlighting JTAG. It would be ideal to have Bus Pirate support in the popular open source JTAG programmer OpenOCD, but other solutions […]

Bus Pirate logic analyzer firmware

We wanted to check the remote control output while we debugged the color changing pumpkin. Usually we’d use a Saleae Logic, but instead we made an experimental logic analyzer firmware for the Bus Pirate. ***BIG WARNING*** The Bus Pirate will never be a substitute for a ‘proper’ logic analyzer, the hardware isn’t designed for it. […]

Confessions of a prototyper: #twatch v1/v1b

Last week we released the #twatch v2, an ethernet backpack for 20×4 character LCDs. This wasn’t the only version of the #twatch that we designed. V2 is based on the slick, inexpensive, single-chip ethernet microcontroller, the PIC 18F67J60. The biggest downside to the 18f67J60 is that it can only be programmed an average of 100 […]

#twatch: Twitter changes JSON feed slightly

In an amazing coincidence, Twitter changed the JSON datafeeds the #twatch uses to grab the latest trending topics and tweets on the same night that we launched. They didn’t actually make significant changes, but they tweaked the order of variables in a way that confused the #twatch. {“text”:” The original search parser looked for the […]

Compile the Bus Pirate firmware

This is an old version, see the latest version on the documentation wiki. You don’t need a Microchip programmer to develop firmware for the Bus Pirate. You can use Microchip’s free development tools and upload code through the USB bootloader. It’s a mini PIC 24F development board! First, download and install Microchip’s IDE called MPLAB, […]

Bus Pirate Spanish, Italian translations

Project contributor pastus submitted Bus Pirate translations in Spanish and Italian. You can download the localized builds for most hardware versions from the project SVN nightly compiles folder. If you don’t see a build for your language and hardware combination, please request it in the comments. Most of the Bus Pirate interface text is defined […]

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 […]