SparkFun Bus Pirate 3.6a

Key Features

• Macros for common operations
• Bus traffic sniffers (SPI, I2C)
• A bootloader for easy firmware updates
• Transparent USB->serial mode

The Bus Pirate v 3.6 a, created by  Ian Lesnet, is a troubleshooting tool that communicates between a PC and any embedded device over 1-wire, 2-wire, 3-wire, UART, I2C, SPI, and HD44780 LCD protocols - all at voltages from 0- 5.5VDC. This product eliminates a ton of early prototyping effort when working with new or unknown chips.

Working with the Bus Pirate is simple and effective - type commands into a terminal on your computer, those commands are interpreted by the Bus Pirate and sent via the proper protocol. The Pirate will also interpret data sent from your embedded device back to your computer terminal.

The main components of the Bus Pirate are the PIC24FJ64 processor and a FT232RL USB-to-Serial chip. A Mini-B USB connector that has also been populated on the board, provides the power to the Bus Pirate and allows you to interact with via your PC. The major difference in this version of the Bus Pirate comes from the shrouded 0.1" pitch 2x5 pin header, which has been flipped around to help standardize this board.

Additionally every pin on this header has been labeled, eliminating the need for a separate I/O pin description document like with earlier versions.

Item Specific
5.5V tolerant pins
6V measurement probe
1Hz - 40MHz frequency measurement
1kHz - 4MHz pulse-width modulator, frequency generator
On-board multi-voltage pull-up resistors
On-board 3.3 volt and 5volt power supplies with software reset
10Hz - 1MHz low-speed logic analyzer
Scriptable from Perl, Python, etc.
Access to PIC24FJ64 ICSP programming port
Some programming skills required
Bus pirate cable not included