Bus Pirate probe cable, $7.75

iancable1

Seeed Studio is now listing a Bus Pirate compatible probe cable kit for $4.90. That’s about $7.75 including worldwide shipping. This cable has been a pretty popular item, we’re really glad Seeed is making them available for everyone.

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The cable is a kit that you solder yourself. It includes a 2×5 connector that mates with the Bus Pirate, rainbow ribbon cable, and 10 hook type probes.

You can still preorder an assembled Bus Pirate v3 with a red PCB for $30 at Seeed Studio, including worldwide shipping.

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Bus Pirate binmode Perl test script

binmode

Here’s a Perl script that demonstrates the new Bus Pirate binary bitbang mode. You’ll need Perl with Win32::SerialPort or Device::SerialPort, and a Bus Pirate with firmware v2.4 or later. Edit the script to use the correct serial port number and device.

We chose Perl because we had never used it before, and we weren’t in the mood for a strongly typed language like Python. Perl’s serial port situation isn’t as clean or universal as Python’s pySerial. Since the Bus Pirate already uses a Python firmware updater, using Python for binmode scripts seems preferable. Hopefully we’ll have some Python examples soon, but if you come up with something first, please share it in the forum.

Bus Pirate preorder update

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The Bus Pirate v3 preorder has been a great success. Seeed moved to a second preorder because we, once again, exhausted the supply of critical chips available for the Bus Pirate. So much for advanced planning!

If you got in on preorder 1, your Bus Pirate is being manufactured at this very moment. It should ship soon with the latest v2.4 firmware and bootloader installed. If you’re participating in preorder 2, we’re trying to reduce the wait time as much as possible; we’ll gauge interest early next week and order chips ASAP.

You can still preorder an assembled Bus Pirate v3 with a red PCB for $30 at Seeed Studio, including worldwide shipping.

Look for new Bus Pirate demos and tutorials all next week. We’ll also give away some Bus Pirate goodies we have around the lab. Thank you for your support!

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Bus Pirate firmware v2.4

HiZ>i
Bus Pirate v2go
http://dangerousprototypes.com
Firmware v2.4
DEVID:0x0447 REVID:0x3042 (B4)
HiZ>

Download Bus Pirate firmware v2.4. This should fix the ‘dead terminal syndrome’ experienced by some users with the v2.3 firmware. It includes all fixes from v2.3.

It looks like some garbage 0x00 bytes were triggering the new binary IO modes accidentally. The binary modes have been updated to require a longer trigger sequence (20 times 0x00).

Bus Pirate probe cable

cable1

Seeed Studio may put together a Bus Pirate probe cable kit. We’re not involved in this sale, but we encouraged Seeed to offer it as an inexpensive accessory for the Bus Pirate. We get a lot of questions about this cable, this might be your chance to get one.

We suggested that Seeed use the round barrel clips, rather then the flat tweezers. The tweezers probes on this test cable didn’t last very long, though we really abuse our tools.

Don’t forget that it’s time to vote in Seeed’s Rainbowduino contest.

Bus Pirate firmware v2.3 problems

fm-24

There have been several problems reported with the recent Bus Pirate v2.3 firmware release. We believe it’s a problem with some terminals sending NULL characters (0x00) to the Bus Pirate, which causes it to enter the new binary IO mode.

This 2.4-nightly for v2go tries to fix that problem by looking for 20 NULL characters before entering binary IO mode. Other than this change, it’s exactly the same as the v2.2 firmware. Hopefully this will help us get a handle on the extent of the problem.

Some tips:

  • You must erase the chip before programming new firmware. Press the green ‘X’ button on the Windows updater before pressing the write device button.
  • Check your verify errors to make sure none are outside the range of 0x400 and 0xc00.
  • See the Windows and Python update guides for the complete firmware upgrade procedure.

Bus Pirate: Binary bitbang mode

rawspi

See the latest version in the documentation wiki.

There’s two new binary I/O libraries in the v2.3 Bus Pirate firmware. Raw bitbang mode provides direct control over the Bus Pirate pins and hardware using a simple single-byte protocol. We discussed the new raw SPI mode yesterday.

Hopefully the raw access modes inspire some interesting new Bus Pirate tools using PC software. There’s already a patch for AVRDude AVR programmer in the works.

Full documentation of the raw bitbang binary I/O mode after the break.

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Bus Pirate firmware v2.3

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Bus Pirate firmware v2.3 is available for download. This version fixes a major bug with the speed settings in all modes, but especially in the UART library.

There’s also two new binary IO modes for controlling the Bus Pirate from a PC, which should allow a number of complicated programmer functions that couldn’t fit in the firmware. The first new mode is a raw bitbang IO mode, similar to the bitbang mode of an FTDI232 chip. The second mode is a raw SPI mode written for high-speed communications with AVRDude.

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Bus Pirate: Raw SPI mode

rawspi

See the latest version in the documentation wiki.

Raw SPI is a new mode that provides high-speed access to the Bus Pirate SPI hardware. It was developed in conjunction with Michal Ludvig, so that AVRDude can use the  Bus Pirate to program AVR microcontrollers and EEPROMs.

Firmware v2.3 includes two new raw I/O modes that give computer software and scripts direct access to the Bus Pirate hardware. Hopefully this opens the door to a whole new class of Bus Pirate applications, like chip programmers. In this post we describe the raw SPI access mode. We’ll describe the raw bitbang mode in a few days. The protocol is documented below the break.

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AVRDude patch: Program AVRs with the Bus Pirate

bpv3-atmel

UPDATE: Bus Pirate support is now included in the current AVRDude SVN version.

Michal Ludvig submitted a patch that gives AVRDude support for programming ATMEL AVRs and serial EEPROMs using the Bus Pirate. AVRDude parses ASCII terminal output at the moment, but we’re working on a raw SPI mode for better speed and performance. More in the forum.

The picture shows the Bus Pirate v3 with a Protostack ATMEL AT8 development board.

Bus Pirate: Major UART fix

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There was a major bug in the speed setting code for all libraries. At some point the speed variable was reduced to a single bit, so only the first two speed settings in any library worked correctly. This had an especially noticeable impact on the UART library.

Since this is a major issue, we’ve made a v2.3 preview release for all hardware. This is a recommended upgrade for anyone with speed setting problems. V2.3 will be released soon.

Other major changes in v2.3 include a transparent UART bridge for a simple serial->USB mode. There’s two new raw IO modes for bitbanging and SPI. The bitbang mode uses a simple 8bit/byte protocol to control the Bus Pirate pins and functions directly from a PC program. The SPI mode provides a fast, raw SPI connection for integrating the Bus Pirate with AVR ISP programming software. These features will be documented in posts over the next few days.

Last Bus Pirates in preorder 1

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The Bus Pirate hardware v3 preorder has been a huge success. Thank you for your support!

The BPv3 rollout has been pretty low-key. We haven’t posted the Instructables version, and the new design hasn’t been linked by any blogs. Only readers and forum members know about the new hardware, but we’ve almost run out of chips anyway.

Changing to the SSOP-sized PIC helped alleviate some supply problems, but we’re still reaching the end of 24FJ64GA002-i/ss chips available for immediate local delivery in Shenzhen.

There’s about 50 Bus Pirate v3 left in the current preorder, after that we’ll move onto a second preorder with a later delivery date. The delay shouldn’t be as bad as the Hack a Day preorder, but unfortunately it seems unavoidable with popular items.

Thank you for supporting this open source project.

Chips: 24AA02E48 I2C EEPROM with MAC address

24aa02e48

See the latest version in the documentation wiki.

The 24AA02E48 is an I2C EEPROM with 256bytes of data storage. It’s similar to other EEPROMs we’ve looked at in the past, but this chip has a 48bit EUI-48 ethernet MAC address permanently burned into the upper-most six bytes. This is an easy and cheap way to buy a legit, totally unique MAC address for your ethernet projects.

Keep reading for a complete 24AA02E48 demo using the Bus Pirate universal serial interface. If you’re not using a Bus Pirate, that’s OK, you can still follow along and get a better understanding of how to implement this chip in your own application.

You can preorder assembled Bus Pirate hardware at Seeed Studio for $30, including worldwide shipping. This preorder will end October 15, 2009.

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Free PCBs: Bus Pirate v3

bpv3-pcb

To celebrate the completion of Bus Pirate v3, we’re giving away two BPv3a PCBs. V3a is the second and final revision of the Bus Pirate v3 family, the same PCB that will go into production. If you’re up for the challenge of building your own BPv3, just ask for one of these PCBs.

Get assembled red Bus Pirate v3 hardware for $30 at Seeed Studio, including worldwide shipping.

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Prototype: Bus Pirate BPv3

sideiii.450

UPDATE: v3b is the latest Bus Pirate revision, read about the changes here.

BPv3 is the latest hacking multi-tool from the Bus Pirate project. It connects to a USB port and interacts with electronics through a simple terminal interface.

stack-exampleUse it to see how much of your private information is stored on smartcard SIM chips. Explore the Wii Nunchuck over the I2C bus like Johnny Lee. Read and write EEPROM chips in consumer electronics at any voltage. Check out all the existing chip demonstrations.

BPv3 has features an intrepid hardware hacker might need to prototype their next great creation:

  • Talk to 1-wire, I2C, UART (async serial), SPI, JTAG, MIDI, LCDs, PC keyboards, and a ton of generic serial devices from a terminal.
  • Scriptable from Python, Perl, etc.
  • 0-40MHz frequency counter, 0-4MHz pulse-width modulator.
  • 0-6volt measurement probe.
  • 3.3volt and 5volt power supplies with reset.
  • On-board pull-up resistors for multi-voltage interfacing.
  • Address scanners, chip dumpers, and other helpful macros.
  • USB interface, power. USB firmware updates.
  • Translations (currently Spanish and Italian, add your own).

Get an assembled red BPv3 for $30, including worldwide shipping, thanks to Seeed Studio. You can also grab the plans from the Bus Pirate project page and build your own.

This article introduces BPv3, the latest hardware from the Bus Pirate project. We’ll look at the history of the design, share our experience organizing the production of Bus Pirate v2go, and talk about issues that influenced hardware version 3.

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Free PCBs: The last Bus Pirate v2a PCBs

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BPv3 is ready, so we’re getting rid of any extra Bus Pirate v2 PCBs. If you want a Bus Pirate v2a PCB, just ask for it in the comments. We have at least two, possibly three or more. PCBs by Seeed Studio and one by BatchPCB.

The Bus Pirate v2a was really handy for developing the Bus Pirate v2 series, but the Bus Pirate v2go is really the final revision of the v2 design. The nicest feature of v2a is the power switch, which allows developers to reset the Bus Pirate without messing with the USB cable.

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Bus Pirate: Easter egg submissions

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There’s an Easter egg in the Bus Pirate firmware. Type ‘+’ in the Bus Pirate terminal to see the current configuration bits for your PIC and some ASCII art. Now that we’ve announced it, we’ll change the key and message in the next firmware update.

Send us your ASCII art, it might be included in Bus Pirate firmware v2.3. An ASCII art generator might be helpful.

Bus Pirate: BPv3 is here

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***Read about BPv3 here***

BPv3 circuit boards arrived today. By popular vote, the final PCBs will be RED. Tests look great, we’ll be ready ASAP. It’s National Day in China, so it might be a few days before Seeed is available to start the preorder.

Sorry about the lame posting the last few days, we’re busy stuffing boards and testing firmware. In the mean time, tell us what you thing of spoilers: do you want to know about our upcoming projects, or is it best to ‘drop’ them as a surprise?

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Bus Pirate: BPv3 final update

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BusPirate-v3e-renderii.450

Nearly 1000 Bus Pirate v2gos were sold during Hack a Day’s preorder. It raised a ton of money, with all proceeds going to Mahalo, the company that owns Hack a Day.

Bus Pirate v3 is a complete redesign of the Bus Pirate v2go PCB, with improvements based on our experience running the preorder for Hack a Day. We optimized the PCB layout for production, and used a more widley available version of the PIC24FJ64GA002.

The top image shows the first revision of the v3 PCB. The stuffed, tested PCB is shown here. After working with the PCB we decided there were a few things we really didn’t like, so we made an ‘a’ revision.

The second version (below) has the LED resistors along the top edge of the PCB. This makes room for the 3.3volt power supply in the top corner, and eliminates some obscene routing.

The revised PCBs were submitted to our board house on Sept 9, and were mailed Sept 14. Normally they would arrive in 4-5days, but extra security surrounding a national holiday delayed the package in China until Sept 21. We would probably have the boards by now, but the tracking shows the package going to the wrong country. The address is definitely correct, it was just a random mail problem.

Today Seeed dispatched an additional shipment of BPv3 PCBs by DHL, which should arrive much faster. It’s a bit of a contest, which get here first: the DHL express packet, or the postal package forwarded from the Dutch Antilles?

BPv3 will be ready to go as soon as we test the final PCB, the article is already written and ready to publish. It’s a bit different that our usual design overview. We recount the development process that led to the current design, and dug up some very early ‘in house’ Bus Pirate prototypes. We’ll also talk about our experience running Hack a Day’s Bus Pirate preorder, and discuss how it influenced the v3 design.