Live data from Hacker News

Bus Pirate 5 Firmware

firmware.buspirate.com

21–30 of 38 posts

Re: Bus Pirate 5 Firmware

#22

I bought a bus pirate years back, at the time it was advertised as open source, i took that to mean cross platform, which it wasn't. it's windows only, the associated apps only run there. you can do a lot in a usb terminal, but i abandoned it. in short, don't buy it unless you run windoze.

What?

I’ve used the Bus Pirate exclusively under Linux for years to do hardware hacking stuff.

Is there a clicky shiny windows app for it?

Re: Bus Pirate 5 Firmware

#23
post #14

Hopefully the firmware development won't stall like it was with v4. Rp2040 is a decent choice for relatively slow speed digital bus multi-tool, but the USB1.1 speeds will be somewhat limiting (IIRC I achieved somewhere around 700-800KB/s of serial data throughput). PIO is also flexible enough for some almost standard-but-nonstandard digital buses (for example, I used it to interface with 12-bit SPI-like interface- no…

I think it was the case that they were just running out of memory to stuff new features in and gave up on it. If so, the RP2040 will give a lot more room for this.

I have a V3 and it is a neat little tool. What isn't clear to me yet is what V5 will sell for. V3 was very cheap but this one has a display and some LEDs that will likely increase the price. Hopefully that increase isn't a big one.

I gotta say though that the RP2040 is a game changer. It is popping up all over the place, from Bus Pirates to Switch mod chips. PIO, good docs, low price, and readily available is a solid combo of features.

Re: Bus Pirate 5 Firmware

#24
post #5

For those who are new to it, and somewhat confused: https://hardware.buspirate.com/introduction

I am still confused. What is a typical use case?

Piggybacking on that question, could I use this to interrogate a device over rs485 and reverse engineer the protocol it speaks? In particular, a pool heater and a variable speed pool pump

Re: Bus Pirate 5 Firmware

#27

I bought a bus pirate years back, at the time it was advertised as open source, i took that to mean cross platform, which it wasn't. it's windows only, the associated apps only run there. you can do a lot in a usb terminal, but i abandoned it. in short, don't buy it unless you run windoze.

App? What app??

You connect to it over USB/uart and enter commands manually.

There are some 3rd party apps that can interface to it, but I belive the big one is in fact open source

Re: Bus Pirate 5 Firmware

#29
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am still confused. What is a typical use case?

Piggybacking on that question, could I use this to interrogate a device over rs485 and reverse engineer the protocol it speaks? In particular, a pool heater and a variable speed pool pump

Yes, but you would still need to convert the differential signals to UART with appropriate voltage levels. A RS-485 to USB adapter might be the better option here. But a buspirate has way more usability than just UART, it's awesome for some quick i2C or SPI experimentation

Re: Bus Pirate 5 Firmware

#30
post #10
post #8

[tangental] two accounts created 3 days ago stating how wonderful the bus pirate is? Cmon, surely you know better than this. And the BP is a great tool, it doesn’t need painfully obvious astroturfing

Uh? Not sure if you meant me (I submitted this instance) but my account is slightly older. I feel like a low-key but established member of this here bunch o' geeks.

Sorry definitely not you, but exactly what seritools mentioned. When I first saw this post they had already posted
Post reply on HN