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.
Here’s some highlights from the past week, in case you missed them:
This week should have some fun stuff too:
Openschemes bought an inexpensive Top2005 multiple chip programmer, but they couldn’t get it to work well. In a two-part series they trace the circuit and create alternative FPGA bitstreams that turn it into a full-featured desktop test bench. Great writeup of a reverse engineering adventure.
Via the forum, thanks for the tip IPenguin!
SPI sniffing with the Bus Pirate just got easier. SPIsniffer is a helper application (power tool?) that accesses the SPI sniffer using the fast binary mode. This is 3 to 4 times faster than displaying snooped output in the terminal mode.
In terminal mode the Bus Pirate decodes raw data to user-friendly HEX formatted numbers, then moves 5 bytes to the serial port for every byte sniffed. Raw values are sent directly to the serial port in binary mode, saving bandwidth and processing time. Sniffing from binary mode is the best tested sniffer mode, and by far the fastest way to sniff the SPI bus with the Bus Pirate. If you need to go faster, consider a logic analyzer like the Logic Sniffer.
Download the application here. A wiki page with SPI sniffer use and decoding examples has been added.
Bus Pirate firmware v5.7 is ready to download. This is a bugfix release:
What’s on your wishlist for firmware v5.8?
We also uploaded two new source code packages. Source for firmware v4.3 and v5.7 is ready for your hacking pleasure.
Read about the firmware update process for the ds30 Loader GUI (Windows/Linux) and pirate-loader console app (Windows/Linux/Mac). This firmware requires the v4+ bootloader, be sure you upgrade to the v4 bootloader first if you still have bootloader v2.
Get a Bus Pirate for $30, including worldwide shipping at Seeed Studio. Adafruit also has the Bus Pirate and probe cables in stock and ready to ship.
There’s a new IR Toy/WinLIRC tutorial that shows how to decode remote controls on your computer. WinLIRC doesn’t control things alone, but it works as a plugin with automation programs like EventGhost to control your computer using a remote control with almost any protocol.
For instant satisfaction, try the WinLIRC irGraph tool. It shows a continuously updated graph of the infrared signal from a remote control.
The USB IR Toy is $20, including worldwide shipping.
The Gadget Factory released Logic Sniffer upgrade v2.12. There’s a video demonstration of the new features.
This update includes dynamic memory depths. This means no more swapping bitstreams to get more samples when you only use 8 or 16 channels.
Jochem Govers added this feature in response to the Gadget Factory’s bounty contest. There’s a new bounty on a real time capture mode too.
Upgrade package and upgrade instructions, please report any problems in the forum.
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. Every order supports Logic Sniffer development.
Last week we wrote some software for a GSM (cellular) modem module. The GSM modem is controlled by AT commands, like an old landline modem. Debugging is usually done by typing AT commands into Hyperterminal or the Bus Pirate.
We got tired of tapping out tons of AT commands by hand, so we created an AT Command Script Processor in C# (Visual C# 2010 Express Edition). We’re releasing it so people can share AT command scripts that demonstrate how various devices are configured.
Download it here, the current version as of this writing is 00.08.01 Alpha Release. We also added a page to the documentation wiki.
Use examples after the break.
Continue reading “AT command script processor for GSM modem debugging”
An update of the inexpensive, medium-speed AVR/PIC/CPLD/Arduino programmer is posted in the forum. This programmer is designed for people who don’t own a programmer, and just want to rescue a bricked PIC or AVR.
This version takes into account the pin connection diagram MichaelZ outlined during our last design review. The update has a single 2×10 header that breaks out all the FT232 signals. It should work ‘out of the box’ with apps that program AVRs, Arduinos, MSP430, JTAG, CPLDs, and more. We’ll also add PIC programming support with piratePICprog.
Large schematic and PCB images, and Eagle files, are in the forum. There’s also a development wiki with more links for this project.
jjshortcut made his own laser cut case for the Logic Sniffer at Fablab Utrecht. Great work!
Here’s some other user-submitted cases, some with files you can use to build your own.
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. Every order supports Logic Sniffer development.
Via the forum.
The new Bus Pirate PIC programmer has a wiki page with instructions and examples. The application is nearly complete, there’s just some tweaking required to get the memory settings right for each PIC family. If you’re interested in contributing, there’s a development section on the wiki with links to the source code and compiler.
A newly updated Bus Blaster design is posted in the forum. The Bus Blaster is a high-speed JTAG debugger and flash ROM programmer based on the FT2232H USB chip.
Development started in the spring, but stalled because we couldn’t find the right buffer chip. We wanted to support targets from 2.0volts to 5.0volts, but we settled for 2.0volts to 3.3volts. V1 won’t have all our desired features, but we’ll add some more stuff in a future update.
As always, your comments are welcome and have a real impact the final design. Thanks for your support!
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. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service.
This odd-ball Bus Pirate is a ‘special edition’. It is the basic Bus Pirate v3a circuit with a larger SOIC PIC chip, and a shrouded header. It should run the stock v3 firmware, but the board has never been tested. We designed this to use some PIC24FJ64GA002 revision B5 chips that Seeed has in stock, but the chips will go in a different project instead. We’re giving away two PCBs this week, just ask for one in the comments.
Get a regular 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.
Here’s some highlights from the past week, in case you missed them:
This week should have some fun stuff too:
A common criticism of Microchip’s compilers and IDE is that they’re only available on Windows. However, the compilers are all based on GCC so they’re open source. Tayken has been working on a Linux port, and linked to this detailed guide with resources for compiling C30 under Linux. Binaries are not yet available, but the future of PIC on Linux looks bright.
I finished most of it, just have to check if libraries are correctly arranged and do some final tests then I’ll post it on my blog.
This will make it possible to develop for PIC24/30/33 under Linux, that includes the Bus Pirate and the web platform. Great work Tayken!
PIC24/30/33 chips handle embedded networking, sensor polling, and protocol conversion in deployments ranging from industrial telemetry to offshore sportsbooks transaction terminals and agricultural monitoring stations. A native Linux toolchain removes the last barrier for developers who build and deploy on Linux-only infrastructure.
Today is a sad day.. a very sad day..
With the release of firmware v5.6 we lost a beloved addition to the Bus Pirate: the new Easter egg. Starting in v5.0, including the first alpha release of the new terminal design, we included a new Easter egg. It was fun for us to write, and a pain to debug. Unfortunately it had to go to make space for new features…
Despite of the many hints, nobody has claimed the bounty for finding the Easter egg. Some came very close, but got lost in the internal dungeons of the Bus Pirate. The path to go north is closed for ever…
The good news is that the new firmware addresses some bugs, and hopefully we fixed them for good. We made improvements to the HiZ ‘safety’ mode, which is now really HiZ. In some corner cases the frequency generator or servo could be still active in after switching to HiZ mode. The help screen and the Bus Pirate wiki have also been updated with the new servo command.
What’s on your wishlist for release 5.7?
Get a Bus Pirate for $30, including worldwide shipping at Seeed Studio. Adafruit also has the Bus Pirate and probe cables in stock and ready to ship.
Bus Pirate firmware v5.6 is ready to download. This is a bugfix release:
Read about the firmware update process for the ds30 Loader GUI (Windows/Linux) and pirate-loader console app (Windows/Linux/Mac). This firmware requires the v4+ bootloader, be sure you upgrade to the v4 bootloader first if you still have bootloader v2.
Get a Bus Pirate for $30, including worldwide shipping at Seeed Studio. Adafruit also has the Bus Pirate and probe cables in stock and ready to ship.
The documentation wiki for the USB Infrared Toy has been updated. There’s new upgrade instructions, mode overview pages, and easy access to the schematic and partlist.
We could still use some help documenting the connection procedure for Linux and Mac. A picture of the IR Toy connecting to Windows for the first time would also be helpful, all our ports have had an IR Toy previously installed.
The USB IR Toy is $20, including worldwide shipping. Every purchase supports further development of this project.
Dangerous Prototypes is now a sponsor of the Open Hardware Summit. This wasn’t one of the original options in our Advertising roundup, but after pt’s call for sponsors we gave them half of our proposed advertising budget. We won’t pretend it’s altruistic, we get exposure and legitimacy by sponsoring. It is very much part of our advertising efforts.
Two free tickets to the OHS in New York on September 23rd are part of the deal. It’s uncertain if we’ll be representing at OHS yet. You might be able to get one or both of the tickets in a giveaway.
You can also be a sponsor. Adafruit will try to send you something if you donate more than $100.
A big box of PCBs arrived from Seeed’s Fusion board service today. Here are a few of the boards that have been mentioned on the blog or in the forum:
Most of these boards won’t be available for months, but the 3EEPROM will go on sale with the Bus Pirate LCD adapter v2 soon.
