Going to do a group buy/build on these: If you're interested put your name in the discussion. Buy here: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/bus-pirate-v3-assembled-p-609.html?cPath=174 Interfacing a new microchip can be a hassle. Breadboarding a circuit, writing code, hauling out the programmer, or maybe even prototyping a PCB. We never seem to get it right on the first try. The ‘Bus Pirate’ is a universal bus interface that talks to most chips from a PC serial terminal, eliminating a ton of early prototyping effort when working with new or unknown chips. Many serial protocols are supported at 0-5.5volts, more can be added. ===== Protocols (bus modes) ===== * 1-Wire * I2C * SPI * JTAG * Asynchronous serial * MIDI * PC keyboard * HD44780 LCD * 2- and 3-wire libraries with bitwise pin control * Scriptable binary bitbang, 1-Wire, I2C, SPI, and UART modes ===== Features ===== * 0-5.5volt tolerant pins * 0-6volt measurement probe * 1Hz-40MHz frequency measurement * 1kHz - 4MHz pulse-width modulator, frequency generator * On-board multi-voltage pull-up resistors * On-board 3.3volt and 5volt power supplies with software reset * Macros for common operations * Bus traffic sniffers (SPI, I2C) * A bootloader for easy firmware updates * Transparent USB->serial mode * 10Hz-1MHz low-speed logic analyzer * Can program many AVR microcontrollers * Supported by AVRdude * Can emulate the AVR STK500 v2 programmer by loading the alternate ST500 Clone firmware) * Scriptable from Perl, Python, etc. * Translations (currently Spanish and Italian) * Public domain (Creative Commons Zero) source. Prototype with the Bus Pirate, then use the code in your project however you want. ===== Applications with Bus Pirate support ===== The Bus Pirate is used through a simple terminal interface, but these applications also support the Bus Pirate as a programming device, etc.** ** * [[http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avrdude|AVRDude AVR programmer]] (AVRDude v5.8+, firmware v4 (any) or v5.9+) * [[http://openocd.berlios.de/web/|OpenOCD JTAG debugger]] * [[http://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom|flashrom bios/flash programmer]] Here is some more info about the Bus Pirate: http://code.google.com/p/the-bus-pirate/ http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Features_overview http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate_schematic_and_partlist