Dangerous Prototypes

Sigh. I really like the concept, I really dislike the lock-in. I think what I want is the unholy love-child of Saleae and Dangerous Prototypes[1]. I've got the original version of DP's Logic Sniffer [2] and built a really nice USB 2.0 protocol analyzer with it. The combination of open source, inexpensive hardware, and awesome documentation let me take it in a direction that no one else had. Salea on the other hand has really slick software that is sexy as heck, but only runs on Windows and well, I am really trying hard to not have to have a Windows box around on my workbench. [1] http://dangerousprototypes.com/ [2] http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/preorder-open-workbench-logic-sniffer…

Too bad it's delayed the new buspirate boards. For anyone looking to debug or reverse engineer various signaling protocols buspirate is an amazing device. http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate#Introduction

Hi!! The software at DP is way outdated. There's a low baring laptop in the server configuration. It's all just best left alone, it eats a day each time we touch it, but we posted an announcement just now. Check here: http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/

Bys pirate is aweaome, Ian is an allround great guy, and dirtypcbs is my goto source of borderline poisonous hardware. With that said, to best of my knowledge that is not their site and there is no bus pirate 5: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate

That is when you're supposed to reach for your Bus Pirate [1], aarr matey. It's a USB-connected Swiss army knife of embedded electronics access-enabling fun. Really really recommended for anyone who has ever had a similar need. It's by Dangerous Prototypes [2] but I linked to AdaFruit since it's one of the recommended retailers, their site is good, and so on. There is a legendary 4.x version "in the works", but ignore that and get the 3.x if you need to get work done. [1]: https://www.adafruit.com/product/237 [2]: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate

It's not hard from Hong Kong (you do need a China Visa) - essentially you take the Hong Kong subway (last bit's really a train, but part of the subway system, light blue line) to Lo Wu, exit the subway, walk thru HKG immigration exit, cross a bridge, thru China immigration, back down into the subway (green line), 5 stops to HQB. It's worth hunting down one of the Hardware hacker oriented maps like: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/File:Hqb-map-front.png or http://www.seeedstudio.com/document/pdf/Shenzhen%20Map%20for%20Makers.…

I'm a big fan of the similar, but more philosophical, Sick of Beige cases that the Dangerous Prototypes folks came up with: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Sick_of_Beige_compatible_cases They follow a standard size series, with standard mounting hole offsets, corner radii, etc. The idea being that if you're designing a PCB, you may as well go with one of these sizes because the laser cut cases are commercially available, or someone following the design can make their own easily too. They work great with minimal modification for the Pi, Adafruit protoboards, etc.

Maybe you can try attending a "hacker" tour. Although Dangerous Prototypes doesn't seem to have a current offering, you might be able to find something similar: http://dangerousprototypes.com/subscribe/hackercampshenzhen/ Noisebridge seems to have something in October although less focused on Shenzhen: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/NoisebridgeChinaTrip7

A great tool for exploring JTAG and other protocols is the bus pirate: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate It isn't great for what the article mentions (lack of pre-existing tools for common mobile phone tasks) but it is cheap and versatile.

Yes, small boards are great as GPIOs for PCs. Another way is to use the FTDI chip directly: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/FT2232_breakout_board You can twiddle bits (including SPI and I2C) using their D2XX library. But you are better off to get one of these: http://www.latticesemi.com/en/Products/DevelopmentBoardsAndKits/MachXO… You get the FTDI chip plus an FPGA thrown in for free.

The hard/soft boundary is indeed very difficult, especially when you have bundles of leads in all directions! I did some work with stick-on stretch conductive textiles, both silver and polymer-based (Eeonyx), and something I always wished I'd had was a high bit-depth A/D converter so that I could work with a ton of headroom to account for the inevitable swings due to environmental changes, degradation, etc. in software. I'd love to see someone produce a 16bit+ A/D converter front-end for Arduino or something. I actually purchased all the parts for wiring up one of these, but didn't have time to finish: http://www.linear.com/product/LTC2444. Looks like some people have been working on it: http://dangerousprototypes.com/2012/07/02/interfacing-the-ltc2440-24bi…

My favorite tool for this is the Saleae Logic[1], but I've had mixed success with the cheaper Bus Pirate[2] as well. [1] http://www.saleae.com/logic [2] http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate

Interesting product. Doing a quick google search I have seen prices under $100. Unfortunately, it looks like it only has serial out. I have been looking for a small single board linux computer (preferably open source) to use as a gateway and/or web server for embedded projects. I would like something in between an Arduino and Beagleboard. Arduino is great for running simple web servers, but it would be nice to have a Linux OS with some familiar tools to be able to build more complex web apps. Products like the Beagleboard fill this need, but they are complex and expensive if you decide to bundle it with your product. If you don't mind external hosting you can always send your data to the cloud, but I like the simplicity of a self contained product. The closest I have found to these requirement is at Dangerous Prototypes (sill in development). Web Platform v2 - 210MHz ARM926 - 2x SPI - Hopefully 2 layers! - Linux - 4x USART - 2x 10 bit a/d - ethernet - < $100? Forum: http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=935&… Wiki: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Robert:_AT91SAM9260_Linux_developm…

Have you looked into "USB IR Toy" (both versions) ? - http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/USB_Infrared_Toy and http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/USB_IR_Toy_v2

I'm an electronics hobbyist and was already roughly aware of the Bus Pirate, but this website does nothing to explain why I'd want to buy one. The website for the earlier version is much more useful: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate

This page gives a better introduction: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate Basically a tool to interface with whatever IC you might have. Flexible input supporting many protocols, just hook it up to a random chip or serial debug pins on a board you are reverse-engineering and you can figure out the signal mapping and protocol decoding in software.

Depends what your trying to do with it to be honest. If you just wanna use the i2c/spi/uart stuff you can probably handle it. If you can plug some cables in, at worst soldering cables or headers to a board and can find the pins/pads themselves you’ll be fine. At worst if you wanna try it out without spending so much money you can try out the bus pirate from dangerous prototypes it’s only ~27. http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate

I did a similar thing with a 6502 and the Propeller microcontroller. I always meant to make an 8086 or 8088 version, but moved on to other things before ever doing so. Dangerous Prototypes wrote up a pretty good post about it: http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/02/22/prop-6502-propeller-lap…

I've read nice things... a long time ago about the Bus Pirate wrt. protocol analysis/exploration (maybe not for high speeds): http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate

Most those photos are other techniques. What I call dead bug is specifically to solder chip to a prototyping board by inverting the chip and soldering wires directly to the chip pads. http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/11/15/fine-pitch-bga-deadbug-… I don't put photos of my prototypes on the Internet, but this is how it, more or less, looks like (only I use board with holes): http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2012/10/24/who-says-bga-packages-a…

Have look at materials linked there http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2011/04/17/replacing-discrete-7400…

I thought this about Eagle's[1] project storage switching to XML; I figured it would allow us to store projects and libraries in git and easily branch / merge changes etc. It was a nightmare. XML does not work well in git.[2] I even thought I could resolve some of the issues by sorting elements so they'd be in a consistent order, but none of the elements had guuids or anything to allow me to do that. 1: http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2010/10/14/eagle-open-xml-format-f… 2: https://blog.joepairman.com/2016/11/26/xml-in-git-mercurial-watch-out-…

Is there a reason that this is a link to the wikipedia article instead of http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate ?

Sadly the number you are thinking about is self reported by the device - it is required by the spec to report its bMaxPower in USB Configuration Descriptor. This field is merely a convenience and a promise. http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Designing_USB_Devices_for_proper_c…

Dangerous Prototypes offer SLA printing for $0.95/gram. They also do very cheap laser-cut acrylic panels. http://dangerousprototypes.com/store/print3d

It's not just the shipping costs, either. Apparently importing and exporting items in China is a hugely expensive bureaucratic pain: http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2016/02/04/how-to-china-importexpo… "In practice, almost everyone doing production in China has some variant of a story where they smuggle chips into the country in a backpack, pants pocket, etc."

This [0] looks good but I wouldn't call it portable. If there was a case and it had some kind of conformal coating so it doesn't expload from slight moisture then I would say it would be a very good choice. [0] - http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2011/04/22/avnet-spartan-6-lx9-mic…

There are ways to get connected.[1] If you speak electronics but not Chinese, it's possible to communicate. [1] http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Visit_Shenzhen

Ian from dangerousprototypes (Bus Pirate) wrote about his troubles with getting an email account in china that actually works: http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2016/06/21/china-stuff-email-that-…

They've had "small" radar modules for a while, commonly used as microwave movement detectors[0] Also, here is the manufacturer brochure[1] [0] http://dangerousprototypes.com/blog/2013/08/21/breakout-board-uses-hb1… [1] http://www.agilsense.com/useruploads/files/01_HB%20selection%20list%20…