Bus Pirate 5 is the latest version of the multi-tool hackers trust since 2018. RP2040-based, color LCD, 1-5volt power supply and IO buffers, and more! Firmware, hardware and a fresh new forum are hosted at BusPirate.com, which I rescued from spammers a few years ago. The software on this server (Dangerous Prototypes) is seriously outdated […]
Category Archives: #liveupdates
App note: Driving vibration motors with pulse width modulation
App note from Precision Microdrives teaching you ways to drive vibration motors. Link here Using a PWM signal to drive vibration motors can enable high-performance vibration control with relative ease. PWM signals are a common feature in many microcontrollers, and simple programs can adjust their frequency and Duty Cycle. These programs can be used to […]
App note: Simple guide to improving ripple rejection ratio of LDO regulators
App note from Toshiba on improving LDO regulators PSRR. Link here (PDF) This document explains the principles of suppressing ripple of the output voltage, which is caused by the ripple of the input , i.e. the ripple compressibility (PSRR). It also explains the frequency characteristics of PSRR and the effects of the output capacitor.
App note: Using the Si72xx hall-effect magnetic position sensors
App note from Silicon Labs on their hall-effect Si72xx magnetic sensor to sense position, count revolution and security system seal tamper sensing. Link here (PDF) These devices all measure magnetic field in the axis perpendicular to the package. All of these parts share the attributes of low power, high sensitivity, and low noise. The simplest […]
App note: Power MOSFET continuous drain current rating and bonding wire limitation
App note from Alpha & Omega Semiconductor about current limitations on MOSFETs with exposed pads. Link here (PDF) Power MOSFET datasheets will usually show maximum values for continuous drain current Id, on the first page of datasheets. For bottom exposed part such as DPAK, TO220, D2PAK, there is always a note besides Id rating saying […]
Cloning the ET-3404 6809 adapter for the Heathkit ET-3400
Dr. Scott Baker made the ET-3404 6809 adapter clone: I’ve become somewhat of a Heathkit ET-3400 enthusiast lately, after building my ETA-3400 memory/io clone. I decided to also clone the ET-3404, which is a 6809 adapter board for the ET-3400. Why? Simply for completeness sake. The official “experiments” for the ET-3404 aren’t all that exciting, […]
Building a chaotic oscillator from common components
Tim blogged about his chaotic oscillator build: A chaotic oscillator is an electronic circuit that can exhibit “chaotic“, nonperiodic behavior. A commonly cited example is Chua’s circuit, but there are many others. I always regarded these as carefully designed, rather academic, examples. So I was a bit surprised to observe apparently chaotic behavior in a […]
Experimental Zener diode tester
Dilshan has published a new build: Automatic Zener diode tester is capable of identifying Zener diodes up to 27.5V. Apart from that, it can be used to recognize leads of the diodes/Zeners and detect damaged diodes. This tester is designed using well-known ICs such as MC34063 and PIC16F88. This unit provides approximately 5% to 15% […]
Touch display with RGB silicone buttons for Bus Pirate Ultra
This is the prototype display board for the next, and possibly final, revision of Bus Pirate “Ultra” v1. We went a bit wild, but we’re thrilled at the possibilities: 2.8″ IPS LCD with capacitive touch display. The capacitive touch sensor is I2C based, so we added an I2C bus and interrupt pin to the flex […]
App note: Battery Fuel Gauging LSI [Smart LiB Gauge] for 1-Cell Lithium-ion/Polymer with LC709204F
App note from ON Semiconductor on their Smart Fuel gauge LC709204F. Link here (PDF) LC709204F is a Fuel Gauge for 1−Cell Lithium−ion/ Polymer batteries. It is a part of our Smart LiB Gauge family of Fuel Gauges which measure the battery RSOC (Relative State Of Charge) using its unique algorithm called HG−CVR2. The HG−CVR2 algorithm […]
Bus Pirate “Ultra” HDL moves from simulation to real hardware
The HDL is complete enough to start testing on real hardware. This update puts almost every feature under control of the state machine in the FPGA so commands can be pipelined with repeatable precision. Commands (write/read SPI, set/clear pin, measure voltage, update PWM, enable pull-up resistors, etc) are pushed into a FIFO buffer using a […]
Bus Pirate “Ultra”: using ADS7042 12bit Analog to Digital Converter from the FPGA
Beginning with Bus Pirate “Ultra” prototype v1d, all analog measurements are handled by the FPGA using an external serial Analog to Digital Converter chip. This lets us pipeline ADC measurements into the command queue so that bus interactions can be done with very precise timing. We’ll be using Texas Instruments’ series of tiny ADCs with […]
Bus Pirate Ultra 2.8 inch display and the danger of Taobao suppliers
We’ve been prototyping the Bus Pirate Ultra with a 240 x 320 pixel 2 inch LCD, but it’s just a bit small and hard to read from a distance. A 2.8 inch version is available that fits the full width of the Bus Pirate PCB, with the trade off of bigger pixels/lower pixel density. We […]
Bus Pirate Ultra prototype v1d: the last alpha
Bus Pirate “Ultra” v1d is stuffed and about half tested. This should be the last alpha “figuring out if we can pull this off” version. New in this revision: Analog voltage measurement is now done from the FPGA using a 12bit 1 million samples per second ADS7042 Analog to Digital Converter. This will let us […]
Bus Pirate cables arrive from DirtyPCBs.com custom cable service
We received 100 Bus Pirate cables using our pinout color scheme from DirtyPCBs.com custom cable service. The cables were just over $1 each for 100 pieces. The primary reason we ordered these now is to get a feel for how the pinout color scheme works in practice before we commit to it permanently. The leads […]
Bus Pirate Ultra v1d 2.8 inch display board
In addition to the 2 inch IPS LCD we’re been using with the Bus Pirate prototype “Ultra”, we’re also sending off a PCB for a larger 2.8 inch display. Both panels are 240*320 pixels, so the larger version probably won’t look quite as stunning as the smaller display with high pixel density. If it does […]
APP NOTE: make an analog to digital converter using FPGA pins
A differential pin pair can be used as a comparator to create a basic ADC. This app note shows how to design a low speed (1 KHz) and “high” speed (50 Khz) ADC technique using only FPGA pins, a resistor and a capacitor. Regardless of whether we ever use this technique, it is illuminating to […]
APP NOTE: Give your voltage regulator the margin it deserves
Texas instruments has an app note and video explaining how to make a programmable output power supply using a typical LDO voltage regulator and a DAC. This is the technique we used for the Bus Pirate Ultra power supply to get 0.8 to 5volts output, and it works a treat! Consider the currents going in […]
Bus Pirate Ultra display board v1d
The LCD carrier board for Bus Pirate prototype “Ultra” v1d went out today. This update matches the form factor of Ultra v1d (in progress) and has several minor changes: Uses 10 pin 0.5mm flexible PCB connector, wired to the main board with a 1:N connection. This connector is much smaller and thinner than the 1.25mm […]
BUS PIRATE: ADS7042 Analog to Digital Converter chip
In Bus Pirate prototype “Ultra” v1b we added analog voltage measurement to all the IO pins using a 74HCT4051 8:1 analog multiplexer and an op-amp. In the next revision we’re moving control of as many peripherals as possible into the FPGA. The FPGA doesn’t have an Analog to Digital Converter feature, so we need to […]