It looks like Hack a Day's second preorder has started to arrive at mailboxes all over the work. Feel free to post your unboxing experience here.
Just got mine from the post office about an hour ago....
So far No Go for me... Here are things I have tested (or am I too dumb to use it?)
- On my desktop, I have tried 2 USB cables, updated to the latest FTDI driver (even my previous version sees the USB COM port), Tested both Hyper Terminal and TeraTerm. No matter what I type, nothing show up on terminal. Sidenote, the USB activity LED on the board only blinks when it is first connected. After that, it never blinked. And yes, my computer detected the USB Serial Port as COM8.
- Moved my test to my laptop just in case, result is the same.
Then I read the post about I "may?" have to upload the firmware (kinda confused why it is not on the board at the first place?) Decided to try upload firmware from my desktop
Downloaded "Bus Pirate.firmware.v2.1.zip", unpacked, run P24QP.exe. Tried with and without jumper between PGC & PGD, still no luck. (Tested Baud Rate from 115200 to 9600) it just said "Not Connected..."
So at this point I am getting frustrated and no idea what to try next. Ready to scream WTF!
*UPDATE*
After reading another post http://whereisian.com/forum/index.php?topic=19.0 (http://http://whereisian.com/forum/index.php?topic=19.0) and I tried reflow my board as well... and ta da, it worked.
BTW, here is a simplified version of "what needs to be done" right after receiving the board
1. Download the latest firmware file "Bus Pirate.firmware.v2.1.zip" from http://code.google.com/p/the-bus-pirate/downloads/list (http://http://code.google.com/p/the-bus-pirate/downloads/list)
2. Unpack it
3. Connect your bus pirate WITHOUT any jumpers (The middle - MODE LED should be on)
4. Run P24QP.exe
5. Follow instruction @ http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/07/24/bus-pirate-firmware-upgrades/ (http://http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/07/24/bus-pirate-firmware-upgrades/)
6. At "Step 1", ignore "Disconnect the Bus Pirate from the USB cable or power supply if you haven’t already. Put a jumper between the PGC and PGD pins of the Bus Pirate ICSP header. Connect the Bus Pirate to the USB port." NO JUMPER IS NEEDED
7. At "Step 3 Click the open HEX file button. Find the firmware for your Bus Pirate version and load it.", Select "v3-Firmware-v2.1.hex" in BPv3 folder
8. Once it is programmed (i.e. at STEP 6) click OK. Disconnect the board and reconnect.
9. (OPTIONAL) proceed to self test here -> http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/07/28/bus-pirate-self-test-guide/ (http://http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/07/28/bus-pirate-self-test-guide/)
Still not sure why firmware is not loaded on the board at the first place, and I would expect they have run the self test before shipping....
I hope this helps. Now it is time to start hacking.....
@dk - I'm sorry your Bus Pirate didn't work. I glad you got it going, but I'm sorry you had to reflow it.
Thanks for sharing the instructions. You can also check out this post, it has a bit of explanation of the situation:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/09/ ... -firmware/ (http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/09/10/bus-pirate-preorder-2-new-bootloader-no-firmware/)
I wish HaD would post something about preorder 2 for their readers, but now that they've got the money from the fundraiser they don't seem interested in posting about it anymore.
I tried to include hints for the v2go preorder 2 on the upgrade guide, too. Thanks!
Let me know if you have any other problems or feature requests.