I'm in the market to get a bench power supply, but am not sure which route to go. I'm willing to spend more if it's a quality tool that gives more value (and long-lasting) over a ~$75 supply, but I also have to acknowledge that I'm only a hobbyist, and don't necessarily need anything crazy. I've seen some decent looking ones on Amazon, despite knowing they're China-quality tools, but the top reviews on the best concern me.
I would love if there was a comparable to the Siglent 1104X oscilloscope, something that more or less is a widely agreed upon tool/recommendation. But I'm up for any suggestions, new or used tools.
Has anyone used or had any experience with a ChipWhisperer tool? Any chance that there are (or could be) any third-party/Chinese clones of these? Looking to do some hardware chip exploring/interfacing, and this seems like a great tool potentially
I've been looking around for a new logic analyzer, but as I have an OLS, I thought I would give it another try, despite hearing that it was abandoned a while back.
What's the best software to use for it? And the latest firmware? Any chance that it could work with Saleae software? I hear that the Chinese clones are able to, just not sure how that's done.
Does anyone have experience or know-how for using the buspirate to diagnose Western Digital hard drive issues?
[BACKGROUND] I have a Western Digital Red 3TB hard drive that suddenly stopped appearing in Windows and even BIOS, despite feeling the drive's motor power up just fine. I'm gutted about this since there was no warning or indication whatsoever via the drive's SMART data or any performance issues, and the drive wasn't overheated or physically touched or moved in any way at all.
Since I can still feel the drive's motor revving up when powered and there's also no clicking or beeping, I'm hoping this might possibly be a PCB issue, which I'm hoping I could fix or at least determine if it's the problem, so I could try finding another PCB to attempt a swap (after transferring the PCB data between the boards).
I've googled and found others attempting similar, but it seems to be with Seagate drives (and a common firmware bug with them). From what I've read, Seagate has an extensive debugging interface accessed through a hard drive's back diagnostic port, however, Western Digital drives do not have the same extensive diagnostic abilities through the port. Someone commented that WD's port is used just for flashing/dumping from the PCB's flash chip.
Any suggestions? Does anyone have experience diagnosing/troubleshooting a Western Digital PCB with a buspirate? Hopefully there's some debugging possibility through WD's port, so I can determine if the PCB is the issue... and not the drive heads or platters.
Can the buspirate determine the size of a chip? Wondering if it's possible to determine the size of a flash/BIOS chip using just the terminal (putty) + manual commands without needing to cross-reference datasheets or use flashrom.
Secondly, is it possible to do a single READ command that reads (and prints) the entire chip's memory without needing to know the number of bytes the chip has and using that number for the repeat-function (e.g.,
I'm receiving this error, despite the self-test reporting everything as working/fine. I have the pirate hooked up to a BIOS chip, trying to talk with it over SPI.
Any ideas? I have a v3b sandbox electronics version, v7.1 firmware and v4.5 loader. Really frustrated trying to figure this out! Any help would be greatly appreciated
I have a Samsung S3 phone that I need to downgrade from 4.4.2, which locks/prevents the use of custom bootloaders. I've seen some people that offer a service to JTAG-downgrade the bootloader, and so it seems that it's possible.
Would this be possible to do with the Bus Pirate? If so, how?
I realize it would be much slower than an actual JTAG device, of course. It's just all I have to work with at the moment.
Hi, I'm wondering if the Bus Pirate sold on ebay by SandboxElectronics is still good/current? Have there been any changes to the Bus Pirate that they don't have? And more importantly -- does Sandbox still pay royalties for this?
I think it'd be great to have a collection of repairs/ideas/projects/experiences that people have had with their bus pirates to inspire others (like myself) with ideas.
How feasible would it be to build something to remotely control a programmable/digital thermostat?
And I don't mean the fancy new smart-thermostats, like the Nest -- I mean just the ordinary programmable thermostats that have been around for years.
Or perhaps I should better ask -- if you wanted to control your home's digital thermostat wirelessly, how would you go about it? What parts might you use?
I have a Yamaha receiver that I'm wanting to modify, replacing some of the onscreen graphics it paints onto my TV whenever I change volume on.
However, the official firmware by Yamaha is in .WAV format, thus the update process must be done via a burned audio CD or streamed over an optical connection to the receiver.
Anyone have any insight on how I might go about modifying this? Of course, I assume the first step is translating the WAV to its "original format, like a bin or rom. But I'm not sure how you'd go about doing that, whether converting WAV to bin or hardware sniffing the receiver during its update process.
Firmwares 6.2 and 6.3 seem to have broken bootloader-switching functions ("$"). When entering the command, it appears to work, asking if you want to switch, and then printing a "BOOTLOADER" below that afterward. However, no LED lights turn on, and the bootloader remains inaccessible.
I've tried using both pirate-loader and ds30Loader -- both to no avail. There is never any bootloader "hello" response back. After unplugging/plugging the BP back in, however, full, regular Bus Pirate functionality continues to work just fine (with both 6.2 and 6.3).
In order to change update firmware, I have to open the BP and manually jumper the pins to get into bootloader mode, which continues to work.
So perhaps software-switching bootloader functionality is hiccuping in 6.2/6.3...?
I'm confused -- should Windows users be using libusb drivers for the Bus Pirate? Or are the "default" drivers sufficient?
I've just been using the standard USB-RS232 driver for my Bus Pirate for a while, which sets up the Bus Pirate as accessible through a set COM port.
In the past week, however, I've needed to use flashrom. Following the tutorial, flashrom asks for specialized libusb drivers to be used instead of the normal/default drivers. After uninstalling the Bus Pirate and then reinstalling with these specialized drivers, Bus Pirate is no longer accessible through COM ports.
Is this correct functionality? Or should I have just kept using the previous drivers?
What's perhaps throwing me off is the flashrom site/tutorial saying that "USB" devices require those custom, special drivers. But now that I'm thinking about it, maybe that means "strictly" USB devices -- and that since the Bus Pirate was previously set up as a COM port device before (even though it was through a USB connection), then the previous drivers would have been sufficient, and thus, still give me access to the Bus Pirate through COM port terminal access.
I'm trying to get the Bus Pirate to reach my workbench. Because I don't have a long enough USB cable to reach from the BP to my computer, I've considered an improvisation of connecting the BP to a USB extender cable which then connects to my computer.
The "extender" cable is actually a cable that is included with Logitech wireless keyboards/mice -- it ends in a little platform where you plug in the wireless USB receiver (rather than plugging the USB receiver into the back of the computer, which is usually tucked back further away from the keyboard/mouse).
Would plugging the BP into this extender cable affect operation and/or signals between the BP and the computer? I suppose it would come down to two separate issues:
1. With using the extender, the total length of USB cord between BP and computer is 10+ feet. I wonder if this amount of cord will lead to signal/power degradation
2. The "weak point" of conjoined connectors -- plugging the BP into the USB extender base, which then has another set of conjoined connectors at the motherboard. I've wondered if this additional set of connectors would affect signal quality.
Conversely, I've also considered that because of the USB chip in the BP, that data is completely digital between the BP and the computer, and so it'd either be "on" or "off". In other words, if the BP connects and communicates with this setup (both length of USB cords and additional connectors), then that perhaps means that all will be well, and I wouldn't have to worry about BP measurements or signals being affected (like analog). But perhaps I assume erroneously on this.
