We posted the Instructables version of the RGB remote control pumpkin.
Bus Pirate v3 preorder 1 shipped
Bus Pirate v3 preorder 1 shipped today.
There’s still time to get a Bus Pirate v3, $30 including worldwide shipping.
Via the Seeed Studio blog.
Binary mode, AUX pin updates
There’s a new Bus Pirate v2.9 nightly that adds several small features and improvements. The primary binary mode now has commands to access the voltage probe and setup pulse-width modulation on the AUX pin. Binmode documentation is updated with these new commands. We also improved the code behind the frequency generator and frequency measurement features in user mode.
Download Bus Pirate Win/OSX GUI preview
You can grab a MAC OSX or Windows preview of audiohacked’s Bus Pirate GUI. The GUI has a lot of frequently requested features, like programming 1-Wire, I2C and SPI EEPROMs from a file. It’s also an easy way to activate the power supplies and manufacturing self-test modes. Browse the latest source in the SVN.
Remote control color changing pumpkin
Halloween is only a few days away. We’re getting into the spirit by building a remote control color changing pumpkin. Channel buttons 0-8 on the remote toggle the colors of the rainbow. Button 9 activates an ‘angry pumpkin’ mode that flashes a scary red strobe for a few seconds.
It uses a minimal PIC 18F2550 circuit that decodes the remote control signals and drives a ShiftBrite color changing LED module. The F2550 is a USB PIC with a USB bootloader, so it’s technically a USB upgradable pumpkin too.
OSX firmware update screencast
equinoxefr made a screencast that demonstrates how to upgrade the Bus Pirate fimware on OSX.
Thanks for the tip!
#twatch, Bus Pirate accessories
Seeed found a #twatch compatible frame ($2.50) that should work with many 4*20 LCDs. They also put together a Bus Pirate probe cable kit ($4.90). We’re not involved in this, but it’s nice to see accessories for our projects.
#twatch shipped, Bus Pirate shipping
Seeed Studio just sent word that the #twatch shipped over the past few days. Bus Pirate v3 preorder 1 is shipping now.
The #twatch shipped about 2 weeks later than the earliest possible delivery date. There was a major holiday in China that slowed everything down. Bus Pirate v3 preorder 1, by comparison, started after the holiday and is shipping only a few days later.
We’re still figuring out how to announce the ship-date on preorders, your feedback would be helpful. We’ve given the best-case delivery date based on Seeed’s quotes. If the quote says 10 days, we list a date two weeks after the preorder concludes. It might be better to add a week, giving most orders a delivery date 3-4 weeks after the preorder ends. If it ships early, everyone is pleasantly surprised.
After we get a bit more experience we might have kits or assembled hardware for immediate delivery. For now, Seeed is going to make a few extra of each project. You can now buy a #twatch for immediate delivery. There’s also a few Bus Pirates left in preorder 2, which should ship in about 4 weeks.
What's your favorite HEX editor?
A HEX editor lets you view and edit raw values in any computer file. We like HxD for Windows, it’s free but not open source. It has extensive search features for locating a specific string or value sequence in a huge binary blob. It also opens raw drives, including boot sectors and directory tables, which is helpful for developing microcontroller FAT file systems.
If you’ve never needed to use a HEX editor, why not try it out and feel like a real geek? Download HxD, it runs from a no-install mode so there’s nothing to setup. Drag a file onto HxD, the HEX editor will open and show you the contents. Try a few different files to get a feel for how your operating system stores values in files. A simple notepad .txt file just contains ASCII text values, a Word document looks a lot different. Try a .PNG image file, look at the first few bytes of the file: 0x50 0x4E 0x47, or ‘PNG’.
What’s your favorite HEX editor for your platform?
Binary raw-wire mode
See the latest version in the documentation wiki.
Raw-wire binary mode provides access to the Bus Pirate’s raw 2- and 3-wire libraries. This new mode will make it easier to script operations on arbitrary serial protocols used by devices like smart cards, shift registers, etc. A completed raw-wire binary mode will be in the next firmware release, for now you can grab the latest v2.9 nightly compile.
Here’s all the binmode documentation so far. Binary raw-wire mode specification follows after the break.
Probe cable giveaway
For the past week we’ve been collecting your demo scripts for the Bus Pirate’s new binary interface mode. All the entries were excellent. Thank you for participating!
Everyone who submitted a script will get a probe cable kit, courtesy of Seeed Studio.
If you didn’t finish a script in time for the giveaway, we’d still like to host your script in the Bus Pirate project SVN.
HVR-1600 Performance and Reverse Engineering
Check out this epic battle between man and I2C EEPROM. Devin wanted to fix a bug in the Linux driver for his HVR-1600 TV tuner card. He suspected that the Linux driver didn’t configure the board correctly, so he sniffed the I2C-based configuration traffic under Windows with a Saleae Logic. There’s a great overview of his process, including identifying test points, using them, and filtering the traffic with a Perl script.
This showed up in our referrers list because of a link in a comment, so all thanks go to andrea venturi for this tip!
Updated, forgot the link.
Bus Pirate ROM programmer GUI
audiohacked wrote a cross-platform ROM programmer GUI for the Bus Pirate after seeing James’ Windows EEPROM programmer in C. Check out the development here, here, and here.
Free PCBs: Bus Pirate v3 rev 0
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we 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 week we’re giving away two Bus Pirate v3 revision 0 PCBs, boards by Seeed Studio. Revision 0 is the first draft of the BPv3 design. It’s completely compatible with the v3 firmware, but some of the component placements and connections are slightly different. You can see pictures of this draft in the initial Bus Pirate v3 announcements. If you’re up for the challenge of building your own BPv3, just ask for one of these PCBs.
If you already have a Bus Pirate, please consider leaving a comment in the Bus Pirate hardware survey.
Get assembled red Bus Pirate v3 hardware for $30 at Seeed Studio, including worldwide shipping.
Last day for binmode script giveaway
We want your scripts! We’ll send Bus Pirate probe cable kits to two authors of binmode scripts posted by the end of the weekend. Any language is fine, but something widely available and cross-platform is best.
The Bus Pirate has five new binary access modes that can be scripted from a PC: 1-Wire, UART, I2C, SPI, and bitbang. We’ve already gotten some excellent demo scripts, and there’s more basic Perl demos in the example scrips folder. If you script something for any of the new modes, in any language, we’d like to host it with the other examples.
QR codes in the wild
Bus Pirate firmware updates on OSX
See the latest version in the documentation wiki.
Ninja Bong wrote a detailed Bus Pirate firmware update guide for OSX users. The guide covers Fundamental Logic’s v1a kit and v2go, but it should also apply to any other Bus Pirate hardware. You may also find the Python update tutorial handy.
Get Bus Pirate version from a script
This Perl script demonstrates a way to get the Bus Pirate hardware and firmware version from binary mode. The approach is pretty simple: enter binary mode, reset from binary mode, parse the version information shown on reset (same as ‘i’ in the user terminal).
Note that the latest firmware, v2.8, changes the order of version info in the display. The current formatting will be retained for the foreseeable future. If this inconsistency with earlier versions is a problem for your script, you could search the output for key words that precede the version strings (“Firmware v” and “Bus Pirate v”) for a more robust identification routine.
Submit your scripts by the end of this weekend for a Bus Pirate probe cable kit.
Bus Pirate hardware survey
We’re trying to get a handle on which hardware and localizations are actually used. What Bus Pirate hardware do you use?
There are at least seven version of the Bus Pirate hardware, the open source project currently supports 6 of them. The most common by far is the v2go, with nearly 1000 units in circulation. Fundamental Logic’s through-hole kit based on v1a is probably the next most prevalent. There’s also a lot of v2a circuit boards floating around, if you’ve built a v2a please tell us in the comments.
We’ve also been compiling Spanish and Italian versions for the platforms used by the translators (v1a, v2go). If you use a localized firmware we’d like to hear from you.
We may drop regular firmware updates for v0a and v2a if nobody uses them.
Bus Pirate firmware v2.8
Bus Pirate firmware v2.8 is now available for download. This release has some new features and lots of bug fixes. Update instructions here (Python updates).
This is the first release that includes all five binary modes. They’re completely implemented and mostly tested. We also spent a lot of time reviewing and testing the UART library, this release should have the best-working UART mode yet.
Please report your experience in the comments. Any bug fixes will be released as v2.9, otherwise the next version will probably be v3.0. Partial change log after the break.