Ian @ Dangerous Prototypes
@buspirate.bsky.social
Ian@dangerousprototypes.
Slacker hacker,
Instructable author,
Hack a Day writer,
Purveyor of hardware at Dangerous Prototypes and DirtyPCBs.
Organizer of Hacker Camp Shenzhen.
I made pink capacitors once too.
We're also on:
@buspirate@mastodon.social
Slacker hacker,
Instructable author,
Hack a Day writer,
Purveyor of hardware at Dangerous Prototypes and DirtyPCBs.
Organizer of Hacker Camp Shenzhen.
I made pink capacitors once too.
We're also on:
@buspirate@mastodon.social
Pinned
Great to see so many friends joining :) I'm Ian at Dangerous Prototypes. We make the Bus Pirate, an open source hardware debug tool. We also do stupid manufacturing tricks like anodizing capacitors, dying ABS plastic, and custom scratch n' sniff stickers. Here's a podcast I did in the spring:
Big moment: will magic smoke escape?
DDR4 wants 9 volts on address pin 0 before it allows changes to write protection.
We're using a bench supply, to be replaced by a 9 V battery later. The High Voltage is applied when needed by an optocoupler and Bus Pirate pin.
DDR4 wants 9 volts on address pin 0 before it allows changes to write protection.
We're using a bench supply, to be replaced by a 9 V battery later. The High Voltage is applied when needed by an optocoupler and Bus Pirate pin.
November 28, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Big moment: will magic smoke escape?
DDR4 wants 9 volts on address pin 0 before it allows changes to write protection.
We're using a bench supply, to be replaced by a 9 V battery later. The High Voltage is applied when needed by an optocoupler and Bus Pirate pin.
DDR4 wants 9 volts on address pin 0 before it allows changes to write protection.
We're using a bench supply, to be replaced by a 9 V battery later. The High Voltage is applied when needed by an optocoupler and Bus Pirate pin.
Made a prototype adapter for reading/writing previous gen DDR4 RAM sticks.
Dumping the contents via I2C is easy. We can tell that this is a DDR4 SODIMM made in 2018 by Kingston with Micron DRAM chips. S/N ACR24D4S7S8MB-4.
There's some manuf. specific data too which may be extended profile info.
Dumping the contents via I2C is easy. We can tell that this is a DDR4 SODIMM made in 2018 by Kingston with Micron DRAM chips. S/N ACR24D4S7S8MB-4.
There's some manuf. specific data too which may be extended profile info.
November 26, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Made a prototype adapter for reading/writing previous gen DDR4 RAM sticks.
Dumping the contents via I2C is easy. We can tell that this is a DDR4 SODIMM made in 2018 by Kingston with Micron DRAM chips. S/N ACR24D4S7S8MB-4.
There's some manuf. specific data too which may be extended profile info.
Dumping the contents via I2C is easy. We can tell that this is a DDR4 SODIMM made in 2018 by Kingston with Micron DRAM chips. S/N ACR24D4S7S8MB-4.
There's some manuf. specific data too which may be extended profile info.
Reposted by Ian @ Dangerous Prototypes
Ian, to your GPS resource, please consider adding the cross-platform, free, and open-source GPSBabel. CLI and GUI. Twenty four years & counting. It can reduce, interpolate, toss out junk, etc.
Coming soon (merged to Git): Kalman filter
www.gpsbabel.org Specfically
www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-deve...
Coming soon (merged to Git): Kalman filter
www.gpsbabel.org Specfically
www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-deve...
GPSBabel: convert, upload, download data from GPS and Map programs
www.gpsbabel.org
October 31, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Ian, to your GPS resource, please consider adding the cross-platform, free, and open-source GPSBabel. CLI and GUI. Twenty four years & counting. It can reduce, interpolate, toss out junk, etc.
Coming soon (merged to Git): Kalman filter
www.gpsbabel.org Specfically
www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-deve...
Coming soon (merged to Git): Kalman filter
www.gpsbabel.org Specfically
www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-deve...
Anyone going to 39C3 in Hamburg this December? It's my first, and I hope we get a chance to meet up if you'll be there too!
October 31, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Anyone going to 39C3 in Hamburg this December? It's my first, and I hope we get a chance to meet up if you'll be there too!
New I2C quick connect adapter plank! One board to rule them all - supports Qwiic, Stemma (3P/4P/QT), Grove, Gravity, and Breakout Garden connectors. Quick prototyping with the Bus Pirate and your favorite solder-free ecosystem.
October 30, 2025 at 1:00 PM
New I2C quick connect adapter plank! One board to rule them all - supports Qwiic, Stemma (3P/4P/QT), Grove, Gravity, and Breakout Garden connectors. Quick prototyping with the Bus Pirate and your favorite solder-free ecosystem.
New tutorial: Learn NMEA GPS modules with the Bus Pirate! Connect any GPS module via UART, decode NMEA sentences in real-time, and extract coordinates/satellite data. Includes a full teardown of common NMEA sentences. docs.buspirate.com/docs/devices...
October 29, 2025 at 12:32 PM
New tutorial: Learn NMEA GPS modules with the Bus Pirate! Connect any GPS module via UART, decode NMEA sentences in real-time, and extract coordinates/satellite data. Includes a full teardown of common NMEA sentences. docs.buspirate.com/docs/devices...
Time to upgrade a 10-year-old GPS! New modules track all 4 GNSS systems (GPS/BeiDuo/GLONASS/Galileo) for faster locks & better accuracy. Ublox NEO-M9N ($10) is common and solid, but the ZhongKeWei ATGM336H-F8N76 ($6.50) is cheaper with more frequencies/satellites. Any other recs?
October 28, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Time to upgrade a 10-year-old GPS! New modules track all 4 GNSS systems (GPS/BeiDuo/GLONASS/Galileo) for faster locks & better accuracy. Ublox NEO-M9N ($10) is common and solid, but the ZhongKeWei ATGM336H-F8N76 ($6.50) is cheaper with more frequencies/satellites. Any other recs?
The latest Bus Pirate firmware has a usbpd command to probe and trigger USB C power delivery. Select a fixed voltage profile, or specify a voltage if PPS is supported. We used a generic AP33772S breakout board for development, but a Bus Pirate USB PD plank prototype is in the works.
October 27, 2025 at 12:52 PM
The latest Bus Pirate firmware has a usbpd command to probe and trigger USB C power delivery. Select a fixed voltage profile, or specify a voltage if PPS is supported. We used a generic AP33772S breakout board for development, but a Bus Pirate USB PD plank prototype is in the works.
USB-C PD enables fast charging with fixed & programmable voltage outputs. Using Bus Pirate + AP33772S, I found charger labels don't always match actual PD profiles. This laptop charger lists 5/9/15/20V, but also supports 3.3-21V programmable output—unlabeled. More below..
October 24, 2025 at 11:28 AM
USB-C PD enables fast charging with fixed & programmable voltage outputs. Using Bus Pirate + AP33772S, I found charger labels don't always match actual PD profiles. This laptop charger lists 5/9/15/20V, but also supports 3.3-21V programmable output—unlabeled. More below..
DDR5 RAM Serial Presence Detect chips tell a computer about the RAM specs. It has 1024 bytes of EEPROM storage, temperature monitoring, and pass-through access to a Power Management IC (PMIC). I wrote a very hands on low-level demo on how to access the chip using a Bus Pirate
October 23, 2025 at 11:01 AM
DDR5 RAM Serial Presence Detect chips tell a computer about the RAM specs. It has 1024 bytes of EEPROM storage, temperature monitoring, and pass-through access to a Power Management IC (PMIC). I wrote a very hands on low-level demo on how to access the chip using a Bus Pirate
Reposted by Ian @ Dangerous Prototypes
I love the expandability of the Bus Pirate. Fully open source with a great community, it's easy to add new functionality to interface to different hardware and busses.
It took 3 revisions to get right, but the DDR5 RAM SPD adapter is now available. Use with the Bus Pirate to read and write DDR5 SPD EEPROMs. HSA pin is grounded so blocks can be unlocked (offline mode). UDIMM (desktop) and SODIMM (laptop) supported.
October 22, 2025 at 1:18 PM
I love the expandability of the Bus Pirate. Fully open source with a great community, it's easy to add new functionality to interface to different hardware and busses.
It took 3 revisions to get right, but the DDR5 RAM SPD adapter is now available. Use with the Bus Pirate to read and write DDR5 SPD EEPROMs. HSA pin is grounded so blocks can be unlocked (offline mode). UDIMM (desktop) and SODIMM (laptop) supported.
October 22, 2025 at 11:51 AM
It took 3 revisions to get right, but the DDR5 RAM SPD adapter is now available. Use with the Bus Pirate to read and write DDR5 SPD EEPROMs. HSA pin is grounded so blocks can be unlocked (offline mode). UDIMM (desktop) and SODIMM (laptop) supported.
Super happy with the new Bus Pirate HEX viewer! Valid ASCII and non-zero values are highlighted. Quiet mode (-q) hides addresses for easy paste into HEX editors. Dump range can be specified, and paging is enabled by default. Used in all data dump commands: DDR5 tool, SLE4442...
July 15, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Super happy with the new Bus Pirate HEX viewer! Valid ASCII and non-zero values are highlighted. Quiet mode (-q) hides addresses for easy paste into HEX editors. Dump range can be specified, and paging is enabled by default. Used in all data dump commands: DDR5 tool, SLE4442...
Grabbed some SHT3x and SHT4x temperature and humidity sensors for a Bus Pirate demo. SHT3x is a significant upgrade to the ancient SHT2x with a wider temperature and humidity range, and higher accuracy at the extremes. SHT4x slightly improves on the SHT3x specs, but is mostly...
July 10, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Grabbed some SHT3x and SHT4x temperature and humidity sensors for a Bus Pirate demo. SHT3x is a significant upgrade to the ancient SHT2x with a wider temperature and humidity range, and higher accuracy at the extremes. SHT4x slightly improves on the SHT3x specs, but is mostly...
The typical 8 pin memory chip has ground (GND, VSS) on pin 4 and power (VCC) pin 8. It doesn't appear to be a formal standard, but more a tradition. Modern EEPROMs (24x, 25x), flash (25Qx), SRAM (23x) and FRAM all have a similar power n ground pinout. However there are a couple oddities out there...
July 8, 2025 at 11:01 AM
The typical 8 pin memory chip has ground (GND, VSS) on pin 4 and power (VCC) pin 8. It doesn't appear to be a formal standard, but more a tradition. Modern EEPROMs (24x, 25x), flash (25Qx), SRAM (23x) and FRAM all have a similar power n ground pinout. However there are a couple oddities out there...
Reposted by Ian @ Dangerous Prototypes
My #jumperless + #BusPirate all pimped out and ready to party! @buspirate.bsky.social @architeuthisflux.bsky.social
July 4, 2025 at 1:14 PM
My #jumperless + #BusPirate all pimped out and ready to party! @buspirate.bsky.social @architeuthisflux.bsky.social
Has anyone used a Microchip UNI/O single wire EEPROM? Protocol looks like Manchester encoded I2C. Debuted >10 years ago (when 1-Wire was already a zombie) with talk of a bunch of devices. Today there's just a couple EEPROMs, and a few hits on GitHub. Single wire must kill it...
July 4, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Has anyone used a Microchip UNI/O single wire EEPROM? Protocol looks like Manchester encoded I2C. Debuted >10 years ago (when 1-Wire was already a zombie) with talk of a bunch of devices. Today there's just a couple EEPROMs, and a few hits on GitHub. Single wire must kill it...
About twice a year I need a through hole resistor kit, but this is also fine... The Bus Pirate eeprom command is now read/write/dump/verify/testing 1-Wire EEPROMs.
July 2, 2025 at 10:59 AM
About twice a year I need a through hole resistor kit, but this is also fine... The Bus Pirate eeprom command is now read/write/dump/verify/testing 1-Wire EEPROMs.
The Bus Pirate I2C EEPROM command is coming along, so I wanted to see if we can use a common code base to work with SPI EEPROMs. I narrowed the list of SPI EEPROMs down to this set with common page sizes and addressing methods. Most SPI EEPROMs have write protection blocks...
June 30, 2025 at 1:26 PM
The Bus Pirate I2C EEPROM command is coming along, so I wanted to see if we can use a common code base to work with SPI EEPROMs. I narrowed the list of SPI EEPROMs down to this set with common page sizes and addressing methods. Most SPI EEPROMs have write protection blocks...
Working on a command to dump, read, write, verify, erase and test I2C EEPROMs. Held off on doing this because there are so many EEPROM variations, but it should work with every 24XX EEPROM from Microchip (née ATMEL) and their major competitor, uh, also Microchip.
June 27, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Working on a command to dump, read, write, verify, erase and test I2C EEPROMs. Held off on doing this because there are so many EEPROM variations, but it should work with every 24XX EEPROM from Microchip (née ATMEL) and their major competitor, uh, also Microchip.
Picked up a handful of new breakouts recently, one was a FRAM chip. Ferroelectric RAM is a fairly new type of memory with the speed of SRAM and the persistence of EEPROM. It’s still much more expensive than EEPROM, flash or SRAM, but check out these benefits:
June 25, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Picked up a handful of new breakouts recently, one was a FRAM chip. Ferroelectric RAM is a fairly new type of memory with the speed of SRAM and the persistence of EEPROM. It’s still much more expensive than EEPROM, flash or SRAM, but check out these benefits:
DDR5 UDIMM and SODIMM modules on a prototype breakout board. Motherboards detect DDR5 via a "SPD hub" chip with an I2C/I3C interface. A 128 byte register configures the hub and temperature sensor. Standard tables in a 1024 byte EEPROM describe how to configure the RAM.
June 5, 2025 at 12:23 PM
DDR5 UDIMM and SODIMM modules on a prototype breakout board. Motherboards detect DDR5 via a "SPD hub" chip with an I2C/I3C interface. A 128 byte register configures the hub and temperature sensor. Standard tables in a 1024 byte EEPROM describe how to configure the RAM.
Bus Pirate documentation update is complete! A new automated system captures and converts terminal output to screencasts and HTML to keep the docs up to date. Docusaurus is slow and v3 choked on a lot of Bus Pirate output, so we ported the whole site to super fast Hugo Docs.
June 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Bus Pirate documentation update is complete! A new automated system captures and converts terminal output to screencasts and HTML to keep the docs up to date. Docusaurus is slow and v3 choked on a lot of Bus Pirate output, so we ported the whole site to super fast Hugo Docs.
RP2350 supports a second NOR flash or PSRAM. Trying PSRAM, but QSPI only sends 0xFF. Here it should send 0x9F and read 6 bytes to get the chip ID. Sending any value results in 0xFF on the bus. Not sure if this is a hardware or software issue.
March 18, 2025 at 12:41 PM
RP2350 supports a second NOR flash or PSRAM. Trying PSRAM, but QSPI only sends 0xFF. Here it should send 0x9F and read 6 bytes to get the chip ID. Sending any value results in 0xFF on the bus. Not sure if this is a hardware or software issue.
