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Bus Pirate

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The Bus Pirate is an open source hacker multi-tool that talks to electronic stuff. It's got a bunch of features an intrepid hacker might need to prototype their next project. This manual is an effort to link all available Bus Pirate information in one place.

Contents

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Introduction

Project Summary
Name: Bus Pirate
Buy it: Get one for $30 at Seeed Studio
Price: $30
Status: Mature
Manufacturing: Shipping
Forum: Bus Pirate Forum

Linux, Mac

Reference

User terminal mode

The Bus Pirate is accessed from a command line in a serial terminal. The Bus Pirate always starts in high impedance mode (Hi-Z), a safe mode with all outputs disabled. It's intended to protect any connected devices from conditions beyond their specifications. From there, a bus mode can be selected to use the Bus Pirate with a specific protocol.

Binary scripting mode

The Bus Pirate has a binary access mode that can be used with software or scripts. There's example scripts in C, Python, Perl, and more in the SVN repository.

Binmode protocol pages: bitbang, SPI, I2C, UART, 1-Wire, and raw-wire.

A guide to getting started with the pyBusPirateLite Python library: Bus Pirate Scripting in Python

I/O header and hardware

Various probe cable pinouts

Application guides

Several applications can use the Bus Pirate as a programmer or debugger.

JTAG

The Bus Pirate is a slow serial port device intended for human-speed interaction. It was NEVER intended to do JTAG duties. Because it's open source, cheap, and versatile, the community hacked various JTAG features into it. They're great in a pinch, but no substitute for the real thing!

The Bus Pirate supports JTAG in three ways: with the OpenOCD debug application, as an XSVF player, and through a user-mode terminal interface.

JTAG and OpenOCD

The Bus Pirate is supported as a JTAG programmer/debugger by OpenOCD. If your target is supported by OpenOCD it may work. Slowly :)

FPGA and CPLD programming

As a stand-alone XSVF player to program CPLDs/FPGAs. This requires a simple firmware swap.

JTAG terminal mode

The -extras firmware has a the old user terminal JTAG mode from the Hack a Day demo. This was removed from the main firmware because nobody used it - it isn't particularly useful to enter JTAG commands manually.

AVR programming

The Bus Pirate can be used to program Atmel AVR microcontrollers. AVRDUDE version 5.8 and later support the Bus Pirate as a programmer directly. AVRDude is the most common software for programming AVR microcontrollers. Many packages such as WinAVR and the Arduino IDE bundle a version of AVRDude.

There is also an alternate firmware that can be installed on to Bus Pirate to make it an STK500 v2 AVR programmer clone.

flashrom

A flash chip programmer for Linux and Windows.

Logic Analyzer with SUMP

The Bus Pirate can act as a low speed logic analyzer using a SUMP-compatible protocol. Jawi's latest OLS client includes extended support for the Bus Pirate.

Oscilloscope (very low speed)

Utilities

Chip demonstrations

Here's a comprehensive list of Bus Pirate chip demonstrations. It includes Ian's old demonstrations from Hack a Day, and the most recent demos from Dangerous Prototypes. Tutorials are arranged by Bus Pirate hardware version.

Bus Pirate v2&v3

Bus Pirate v1a

Bus Pirate v0a

User submitted hacks and demos

Firmware upgrades

With firmware v5.9 we ran out of space. We can't fit all the new goodness in one firmware.
Firmware release v5.9+ includes a bonus firmware with some extra modes.
Bootload the BPv3-Firmware-vx.x-extras.hex file to try the new modes.
Currently: digital IO mode (DIO), JTAG, PC keyboard, more

Updating with Bootloader v4

Instructions for changing the firmware in a Bus Pirate over USB.

These are for Bus Pirates with bootloader version 4+. See the next section for more bootloader information.

Follow these instructions to load new firmware, older firmware (v4+ only), the extras firmware, or the XSVF player firmware.

Bootloader upgrades

The bootloader is a small program in the Bus Pirate that installs the firmware upgrade. The bootloader itself can also be upgraded with a small amount of effort. This is not normally required.

Firmware version 4 and higher requires bootloader version 4 or higher. The new v4 bootloader makes space for more features.

Find your bootloader version:

  • Verify version with command i in the terminal (type i then press enter)
  • Hardware v3b and v3.5 shipped with a v4+ bootloader, don't do anything!
  • Hardware v3a and v2go shipped with the v2 bootloader, please see upgrade instructions below

Still not sure?

  • Firmware v4.0 or higher means you have a v4+ bootloader, don't do anything!
  • Firmware v3.10 or less means you have a v2 bootloader, please see upgrade instructions below

How to upgrade the bootloader over USB:

Bootloader v4.3 is the version of the v4.3/v4.4 bootloader installed with an upgrader. v4.4 is programmed with a PIC programmer. They are the same.

Program with a programmer

How to put the bootloader in a new chip or replace a damaged bootloader.

Hardware documentation

Bus Pirate v3.x

Bpv3-side-450-W250.jpg

A minor update to v3 available from June 2011. All changes are cosmetic, v3.5 works exactly the same a v3a/b.

v3a and v3b were available from October 2009 to June 2011. A similar version is sold by SparkFun.

v3.x is based on the original v2go circuit using a PIC24FJ64GA002 microcontroller.

Bus Pirate v4.x

BPv4-f.jpg

v4 is currently in development. The first batch is available, but the hardware is still experimental.

Legacy hardware

Bus Pirate v2go was the first USB Bus Pirate. Around 1000 were sold as a fundraiser for Hack a Day. The PCB is black.

v1a and v0a were serial port Bus Pirate prototypes. Fundamental Logic briefly sold a through-hole kit for v1a.

Mods

Known Defects

Manufacturing resources

We maintain a combined bootloader/firmware flash image to assist in manufacturing.

There is also an automated self-test utility, but it is generally slower than doing it manually

Cases and accessories

BusPirateLCDv2-W250.jpg

Source

License

  • PCB art: CC-0
  • Bootloader: GPL (from ds30 Loader project)
  • Firmware: CC-0
  • The Bus Pirate pinout, menu, and command tables are released into the public domain.
Retrieved from "http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate"