BusPirate, the hardware hacking swiss tool

The BUS Pirate board 

by Dangerous Prototypes

Here are some notes of my learning of BusPirate, an open-source logic-analyser, protocol decoder and electronic-hacking swiss-knife.

I'll explain basically how to use it, upgrade the firmware, as well as show many different use cases


Basic setup

1) To connect it, plug it on your usb port, fire up your serial COM port ( I use the one from Arduino software) set it up to 115000 kbps

2) The device always boot up in "Hi Impedance" mode, to protect itself and the other devices.
you should see the menu.
The first thing you can do is a self check to see if everything is working perfectly.
http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2009/07/28/bus-pirate-self-test-guide/

3) Starting from then, get to know which pins are binded in which mode, as well as the menu.




Basic functionalities:

- measure voltage (up to 6 volts) by connecting 2 probes on the ADC pin and GND, then pressing the letter from the menu

- measure frequency (there are even python script to visualize an oscilloscope)

- Activate two voltage regulated power supplies (5v e 3,3v)
You need to habilitate the appropriate mode (see menu "m"), with short protection. If something is happening it will shut down the power supply and display a specific message.

- Send pwm pulses (for exemple to turn a servo motor)

Note: worth noting that even small servos use a larger power than the internal PSU can provide;
To test it: use an extenal PSU, and simply hook the AUX pin and the GND pin of the Bus pirate to the servo, then go out of HiZ mode and press S, then use write an angle to let the Servo move.
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate_servo_driver_documentation

- Decode Midi music devices:
http://www.bent-tronics.com/2016/09/video-talk-midi-with-bus-pirate-on-talk.html

- Program an AVR microcontroller chip:
Very good article on how to do it here, and a helpful comment if you are having problem connecting with avrdude.

- And of course, analyze and play with hardware protocols.


The full guide is available at this link:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate_menu_options_guide

How to upgrade firmware

1) Download the latest firmware uploader (for mac and linux)

https://github.com/DangerousPrototypes/Bus_Pirate/tree/master/package/BPv3-firmware

- download the whole repo, then find out the latest hex file into  package / bpv
- you will also need download the pirate loader binary to be able to flash the pirate bus firmware.

2) to flash the firmware, you need to short the PGC and PGD pins, and then from the  bus pirate menu, select the rom flash mode by entering "$", once done, shut down the serial window to free the COM port for the flashing program.

Other interesting links related to Bus Pirate and Hardware Hacking:

Bus pirate Gui for android mobile:
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/30/hack-mobile-with-a-bus-pirate-interface-for-your-phone/

Serial interfacing with bus pirate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6grUGkShWJE

Hardware hacking with UART/JTAG:
https://cybermashup.com/2014/05/01/jtag-debugging-made-easy-with-bus-pirate-and-openocd/
http://www.devttys0.com/2012/11/reverse-engineering-serial-ports/


Other related tools and software for hardware hacking:

Open chip debugger: http://openocd.org/
Jtagulator (UART/JTAG pin auto discovery) http://www.grandideastudio.com/portfolio/jtagulator/

https://www.rsaconference.com/events/us15/agenda/sessions/1619/tools-of-the-hardware-hacking-trade