Getting started

[ian]

This guide is terribly outdated since the release of the v4+ firmware and v4+ bootloader. I'll try to get it updated soon.


*Bus Pirate manual*

*Bus Pirate 101 tutorial*

*Bootloader v2 to v4 upgrades*
*Pirate-Loader firmware updater for v4 bootloader (Windows/Linux/Mac)*

*Updated EEPROM examples for v2go and firmware v0g+*
*Practical guide to pull-up resistors*
*Self-test guide*

*Recent Bus Pirate guides at DangerousPrototypes.com*

Here's some helpful links to get you started with your Bus Pirate:

Check the Windows device manager to determine the COM port number assigned to the Bus Pirate. You can modify it from the FTDI driver configuration menu.

Windows Hyperterminal is cranky, get Tera Term Pro or another freeware terminal program. If you know other programs, or how to get Hyperterminal working, please share.

If you're inclined to program, develop, and tinker, download the source at Google Code.

[Scorpia]

hyper terminal seems to be working fine for me after switching the emulation to VT100.

[ian]

Thanks, I included that in a Bus Pirate 101 tutorial.

[Scorpia]

Just had a quick read of that, nice work, and thinking back i may have turned off flowcontrol on hyperterm as well.

Does the bus pirate use Xon-Xoff or just no flowcontrol?

[ian]

XON/XOFF is only used for the JTAG programmer to stop the flow of XSFV data while slow operations take place. You don't need it for anything else (yet), and the JTAG programmer gives you the opportunity to change your settings before programming.

[robots]

Realterm (http://realterm.sourceforge.net/) is really nice terminal. One that actually work :)

Has some nice features like different display modes, Hexadecimal fonts (eg. 0xfd displayed as one character that reads FD), can send hex bytes from 2 buffers, etc etc ...

[pwillard]

A nice free muti-purpose serial terminal is PUTTY.  Though mainly intended as a telnet/SSH terminal... it was updated to support serial comms.  Very customizable and just a teeny bit less "klunky" than Realterm.  Realterm has a lot more fiddly things to play with but as with all fiddly things... that are just as likely to cause you headaches as they are to help you out.

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

[sarexpert]

For a terminal program, PUTTY might do just as well, used in the serial mode. 
it will keep a session log for you, which I think teraterm can't do.  PUTTY will also do all your SSH work too, so you don't have to learn two programs.

Another nice thing is that you can name the window "Bus Pirate" in the settings, play around with font and colors too.

Bitvise tunneler does not have a serial mode, so it won't work.

Ted