Category Archives: Workshop Update

We designed Bus Pirate Edu kit label mock-up and tested the latest placement export ULP for the pick and place. Arachnid Lab’s group buy of the Stencil8 solder paste stencil system has arrived. The Bus Pirate Edu kit 3d models are done, and 3 exercises are ready for rendering.

Today we recorded and wrote up the earlier video post about the TM220A pick and place machine. We also worked on the 3D models for the Bus Pirate educational kit. The previous breadboard model was inaccurate, and too rough for our liking, so we designed one from the ground up (SketchUp screenshot above).

Workshoped a few part kit ideas. Mounted and reflowed the passives onto a Bus Pirate v4 with the TM220A. Will have a workshop video about it tomorrow. We also designed a Sick of Beige test rig holder. It features holes for all sizes of Sick of Beige standard PCBs. Both square and golder rectangle shapes […]

Cleared final hurdles to Bus Blaster v3 and v4 availability. Look for them in a few weeks. Finalized a special Bus Blaster batch made for MIPS. Setup a group buy of 7 TM220A pick and places. T-shirts will be back soon. Maybe even a whole Dangerous Fashion line!

Cleaned and sorted the workshop over the weekend so there’s room for the new tools. Assembled first complete Bus Pirate chip explorer kit with the Mouser order that came in today (pictured above). Thanks for your feedback on that! Also prototyped a new type of Bus Pirate cable. Started work on an Eagle export script […]

Drug pick and place up stairs. Watched instructional videos in Chinese. Couldn’t figure out how to change the language to English, but then it magically happened. Ordered parts we don’t have for Bus Pirate educational kit. We made a kit component page on our wiki.  

Today we spent most of the day preparing and editing the reflow oven video. We continue to work on our 3D models for the Bus Pirate Education Kit. Today we standardized the parts. Meaning we standardized the use of textures, which will speed up the rendering process. We also added names to specific part models. […]

Finalizing chips to include in Bus Pirate education kit. Anyone know of a cheap serial ADC or DAC in through hole? We continued work on the illustrations for the above mentioned kit. 3D modeling and rendering, as well as breadboard illustrations will be available.

Printer went permanent paper jam. Replaced. Did you know most countries will give you a second passport if you need lots of visas or travel to certain countries? Waited in line at the Consulate. We’re working on assembling documentation on the Bus Pirate for our Bus Pirate educational kit project. We’re writing it up to […]

Today we workshopped a few ideas and concepts for a PIC32 development board using some free parts Microchip offered. In this regard we checked up on the current state of available USB bootloaders for this microcontroller, as well as open source USB stacks.

Today we recorded and edited the solder paste dispenser video. Work continues on the Bus Pirate v4 UART debugging mode. We fixed yesterdays bug and after some code cleanup it will be committed into our SVN tomorrow. There will be two modes available. One is activated at compile and completely disconnects USB communication. While the […]

Prepared for Thursday’s workshop video. We’ll cover one of the new tools each week in detail. This week is the solder paste dispenser, followed by pick and place (hopefully), then reflow oven, hot plate, board preheater, and on down the production line. Boards and stencils from Hackvana arrived just a few days after leaving the […]

Today we worked on implementing the Bus Pirate v4 debugging mode, as a custom command you may enter even when connected over USB. This mode allows you to communicate with the Bus Pirate over UART in parallel to USB.

Got solder paste dispenser working with .1 second interval and about 50 psi. Solder paste makes a big difference. Sparkle paste we tried first was almost impossible to dispense and harder to control. A cheapie tub of “Mechanic” paste from eBay (thanks Sjaak!) works great though. We did have to up the reflow oven temperature […]

Unboxed yet more tools. One TM220A pick and place is ordered and on the way. We’re trying to negotiate a deal for an additional 6 for people in the forum. Found a good heat profile for the reflow oven that doesn’t scorch PCBs and leave the silk screen clean. Added new Tools of the Trade […]

We updated the backup script to use Amazon S3. We also typed up Shenzhen travel log for tax records and scanned all receipts. Looked at air compressors for the solder dispensor that should arrive Friday. Reflow oven and a few other packages were just released from customs and should be here for a Workshop video […]

Today we worked on implementing a debugging UART mode for the Bus Pirate v4. To talk to your computer the Bus Pirate v4 uses a software USB stack coded in the firmware. While this gives us some advantages, it has a disadvantage of hanging if in-circuit debugging is needed. The USB simply fails and no […]

Bus Pirate BASIC scripting mode is back in the latest firmware revision (6.3). Since v6.1 we had to remove it due to memory issues, but over the past year we’ve optimized the code some, and space has been found to add it back. BASIC scripting mode lets you write scripts to automate repetitive and tedious […]

Today we worked on adding output pin level inversion to the raw wire modes of the Bus Pirate. Unfortunately the raw3wire and raw2wire modes are implemented differently, requiring lots of code changes to implement fully. So far we made a patch that should enable level inversion for the CLK and DIO pins in the raw […]