Open Source PIC USB demoed

Honken dropped an open source USB firmware for PIC microcontrollers in the forum. This is a preliminary echo test that proves the concept, a layered stack will follow.

We ported the firmware to the IR Toy, you can load it up and test it yourself using the bootloader. That refreshing feeling is USB flowing from freely distributable source code.

This major milestone means open source PIC projects can soon do USB with completely open source code. Projects will be easier to compile because they won’t require a separate driver download from Microchip. This will be integrated into the USB IR Toy, Logic Sniffer, and Bus Pirate v4 prototype as soon as possible.

Thank you Honken for making this valuable contribution to open source!

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SparkFun stocks the Logic Sniffer

SparkFun has a limited number of Logic Sniffers available. If you’ve been waiting for a North American distributor, now is your chance to pick one up at SparkFun. This is the same hardware designed by the Gadget Factory and Dangerous Prototypes, and manufactured by Seeed Studio.

A special thanks to SparkFun for helping us raise awareness of this open source project!

USB Infrared Toy firmware v07

USB Infrared Toy firmware v07 is ready to download. V06 was a little buggy, this release should be a lot more solid. This download contains the latest firmware only.

  • Transmit fixed (hopefully)
  • LED on/off/mute commands
  • Sample timer setup
  • Transmit frequency modulation setup
  • Byte endianness adjustment
  • Fixed hardware version detect (now solid)
  • Cleaned most code (could be new errors)

Upgrade instructions are on the wiki. The new IR sample mode commands are also documented on the wiki.

The next version will have some minor feature updates.

You can get the updated IR Toy hardware early by writing a plugin for EventGhost. Python hackers wanted!

The USB IR Toy is $20, including worldwide shipping. Every sale supports this open source project.

Free PCB Sunday: USB RGB color changer

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.

This is a USB controlled RGB color changing light. Someone made some minor modifications to the design and had a bunch of boards produced, we ended up with a pile of the extras. We’re giving away two PCBs this week, just ask for one in the comments.

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Week in (p)review: August 29, 2010

Here’s some highlights from the past week, in case you missed them:

This week should have some fun stuff too:

DIY budget Bus Pirate case

Inbilla made a budget case to protect the Bus Pirate.

Features:
– Fully enclosed fitted Bus Pirate case – your bus pirate is safe in your kit now!
– Plastic coated for high quality and general wear and tear
– LED status viewing window protecting the LED’s but still allowing you to see them
– Customisable outside surfaces for application of decals of usage information

Check out even more user created Bus Pirate cases.

Get a Bus Pirate v3b for $30, including worldwide shipping at Seeed Studio. Adafruit also has the Bus Pirate and probe cables in stock and ready to ship. Each Bus Pirate sold supports further development.

Alternative Logic Sniffer client v0.8.3

Jawi just released version 0.8.3 of the forked SUMP logic analyzer client that works with the Logic Sniffer. We also started a wiki page for the SUMP fork with some links. Please add any useful tips you have.

Change log:

  • Made the port-chooser editable, allowing people to enter their own device in case it is not listed
  • Should resolve the port issues on several operating systems
  • all dialog settings are now persisted across sessions (read: restart)
  • fixed the progress indicator in the SPI tool as reported by Michael
  • fixed some issues with the file-save dialog also reported by Michael
  • fixed several minor UI-related issues causing potential resource leaks
  • various other cleanups

Don’t know what client to use? Read the logic analyzer client roundup.

You can order the Logic Sniffer at Seeed Studio for $45, including worldwide shipping. Don’t forget that Seeed now has probe cables for $6 each.

Bus Pirate power tools

Are there any ‘power tools’ that would make the Bus Pirate more useful? We want to develop a collection of cross-platform command line utilities for common stuff.

There’s already two apps. The first accesses the SPI sniffer from binary mode for maximum speed. The second is a self-test utility that will be used in production.

Next we’ll release an I2C sniffer and EEPROM reader utilities. Please add your suggestions below.

There’s a simple C framework you can use to build your own programs that access the Bus Pirate. It compiles with open source tools, we’re using Codeblocks+MinGW. Get the latest version in SVN.

USB IR Toy firmware v06, bounty

USB Infrared toy firmware v06 is ready to download. The IR sample mode now includes a transmit command, see the updated documentation. This download contains the latest firmware, source, and hardware.

  • Changed versioning from v1.xx to Vxx (this release is v06 instead of v1.06)
  • Transmit added to IR sample mode
  • Transmit frequency adjustable in IR sample mode
  • Additions for the manufacturing update: version auto-detect, self-test, frequency measurement

Upgrade instructions are on the documentation wiki.

The next version will have some pretty major updates, what’s on your feature wishlist?

You can get the updated IR Toy hardware early by writing a plugin for EventGhost. Python hackers wanted!

The USB IR Toy is $20, including worldwide shipping. Every sale supports this open source project.

Test script processor for the Bus Pirate

Here’s another use for the AT Command Script Processor we posted last week. We’ve been using to run test scripts on new Bus Pirate firmwares.

Get a Bus Pirate v3b for $30, including worldwide shipping at Seeed Studio. Adafruit also has the Bus Pirate and probe cables in stock and ready to ship. Each Bus Pirate sold supports further development.

Fragile connectors on the SparkFun Nokia knock-off

Fragile connectors on the SparkFun Nokia knock-off LCD are a headache. They’re not rated for multiple insertions, but we can usually move them very carefully on a final prototype.

A mating connector we soldered must have warped from the heat. It ate two LCDs right away.

On the right is the ‘good’ from a few years ago that used to go for $20, with the green PCB. The gold one on the left is among the more recent models that goes for $15, it had some caveats.

Alternative Logic Sniffer client v0.8.2

Jawi released version 0.8.2 of a forked SUMP logic analyzer client for the Logic Sniffer. Change log:

  • Added support for the dynamic sample depth as supported in the 2.12 firmware. A warning is issued when trying to capture with a sample depth that is not supported;
  • Initial approach for “annotating” the captured data with the results of tool analysis. Currently only implemented for I2C;
  • Updated the “measure” tool with a possibility to measure the clock frequency of a channel;
  • Fixed the run scripts for both Windows and Linux to be location independent. Cudos to Wayoda for providing the solution;
  • Fixed an exception in the UART tool + fixed the baudrate calculation. Cudos to jone for reporting;
  • Adjusted the RLE decoding routines with the suggestions provided by rotdrop.

Don’t know what client to use? Read the logic analyzer client roundup.