USB to UART – Dangerous Prototypes

USB-to-UART CP2104-MINIEK (mini evaluation kit) available for $5

Viswa wrote to us about the USB-to-UART CP2104-MINIEK (mini evaluation kit) from Silicon Labs available for $5. Via the contact form.

FT231X USB to UART chip

Guan Yang draws our attention to a new member of the FT232 family, the FT231X. I wanted access to more pins than your typical FTDI board provides, and realized that our friends at FTDI have designed a replacement for the venerable FT232 series that found a home in classical Arduinos, Bus Pirates and countless USB-to-serial […]

Nook Tablet hardware protection hacked with the Bus Pirate

The Nook Tablet hardware protection was hacked with some help from the Bus Pirate. The Bus Pirate was used as a simple USB to UART bridge so nook hackers can talk directly to onboard ICs and bypass the standard bootloader. The device was released allowing ADB to be accessed. Barnes and Nobel quickly patched this […]

Infrared Toy serial bridge with an RFID reader

Here’s our first test of the USB to serial mode of the USB Infrared Toy. We used it with a UART-based RFID card reader. Pictures and a sample Python script after the break. The USB IR Toy is $20, including worldwide shipping. Every sale supports this open source project.