Homemade Bus Pirate

[Fezoj]

Hello,

I came across the Bus Pirate in a wiki and I was so fascinated about its capabilities that i could not resist to build one.
Unfortunately I just noticed that I cannot upload a firmware because i have access to "high voltage" pic programmer only.
According to information on this forum and I guess I have to build/buy some PicKit2 programmer as well. Am i correct?
I cannot wait to see the awesome Pirate in action :)

The Pirate in progress:


Jozef

[TitanMKD]

Maybe buy PicKit3 it is the latest PicProgrammer replacing PicKit2 and supporting more PICxxx chipset.

Best Regards
Benjamin

[Fezoj]

Actually I have found an old Max232 and ATMega8 chip among my spare parts and I still do have access to the COM port so I changed my mind a bit. Now i have a crazy idea. I am going to build a one shot programmer on breadboard because I only want to upload a bootloader to my BusPirate.

I saw that some people are working on PIC programmer application for the Bus Pirate. Unfortunately the code is not documented very well so I think that it will be faster if I learn the PIC24F programming specification and create another one.

Regards,
Jozef

[dpropicweb]

Maybe buy PicKit3 it is the latest PicProgrammer replacing PicKit2 and supporting more PICxxx chipset.

Be aware of the PICkit3's shortcomings compared with the PICkit2 - see http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/PIC ... rogrammers

I wouldn't recommend a PICkit3 to my worst enemy... unless it was the PICkit2 didn't support the device(s) for which it was needed (latest Microchip device file update for the PICkit2 was earlier this month).

[Fezoj]

I finished a simple AVR based PIC24FJ programmer. If anybody has a same problem like I had feel free to ping me. I will upload firmware, application incl. sources somewhere.

[ian]

It would be great to see your code for this, I'd like to do a post about it on the blog. Which 24Fs does it support/have been tested?

[BrentBXR]

I cant wait to see this; I want to make my own PIC programemr! Or Ian needs to FREAKIN STOCK THE BP PROGRAMEMR FOR FUDGE SAKE..... GAWL.

comon ian, the programmers interface is beyond proof of concept. lets start providing the hardware and i bet we will see new developers come out the wood works sharing and helping develop the software!

[tech2077]

Agreed, would be great to have a avr based pic programmer, would reduce the cost of starting pic development, especially for those which use AVR before-hand.

[BrentBXR]

like me! im fluent in AVRs and have tons laying around but want to get into PICS and AVRs. So this solution is perfect for me.

[dmmedia]

Yes, exactly the same problem. Free PCB built Bus Pirate waits until I manage to get or do the PIC programmer and I thought about some JDM-like circuit through the FT232 convertor IC, but AVR based programmer would save a lot of time, since I have already an Arduino and several AVR chips as well. Please, share your work, if you have such an intention.

[BrentBXR]

frozj disappeared.... sucks I wanted that circuit.. I knew it was to good to be true; I doubt its real; he made it awful fast... I would need more time researching let alone building in that time.

[dpropicweb]

"awful fast" was 3 weeks...

Anyway, did you contact him as he suggested?

[BrentBXR]

I suppose it was faster then I originally thought; now that I double checked the post dates.

And yes, no reply.

[dmmedia]

Yoohoo! Jozef has replied in PM that he will post something soon. Great!

[Fezoj]

Hello,

I uploaded firmware for ATMEGA8 and software at github: https://github.com/JoKr2/ApProg
I created this programmer according to following spec. http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/D ... 39768d.pdf
My goal was to burn in bootloader into my homemade BusPirate. I never worked with PICs before so all I can tell is that programmer works for PIC24FJXXXGAXXX devices.

The PCB is not necessary - I used just few wires on BreadBoard:


Note that MCLR wire is hidden under the BusPirate PCB. This wire is connected to PORTB pin 2.

I created a schematics because circuit is not clear from above picture:


Enjoy :)