iandexter tumblog

What a day. Salamat sa lahat ng pagbati. :)

Ian Dexter Marquez — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:17:51 -0700

@thadpole LVM is the default scheme for Fedora.

Ian Dexter Marquez — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:16:08 -0700

Heard from the grapevine: Windows 7 is ready to marketing/manufacturing on Monday, EDT, hence Google's Chrome OS announcement. Heh. WTG GOOG

Ian Dexter Marquez — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:30:44 -0700

From an internal list, about a language (guess which): you behave nicely with it coz it asked, not coz it had a shotgun and an attitude.

Ian Dexter Marquez — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:12:02 -0700

Lame script kiddie, not North Korea, apparently behind recent DOS attacks versus US, South Korean gov sites. -http://ow.ly/gQDi

Ian Dexter Marquez — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:34:06 -0700

Julian is dribbling -- as in, soccer dribbling -- his small basketball. Heh. He's got potential, though.

Ian Dexter Marquez — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:32:47 -0700

Report complaints to the TXTPOWER Action Center

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:18:10 -0700

(Spread the message. Get the banner here.)

[Posted from Coredump - Work, play, and everything in between. Follow me on Twitter. View the rest of my stream at public static void.]

Life has the twin drives to survive and to reproduce. Intelligence, an aimless byproduct except as it serves these drives. Heinlein

Ian Dexter Marquez — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:36:49 -0700

@monicai I think it's an EU council rule as well prohibiting retention of employee info.

Ian Dexter Marquez — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:32:03 -0700

Brizzled: Making XML-RPC calls from a Google App Engine application

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:34:14 -0700

Google AppEngine: URL Rewriting « Terminally Incoherent

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:08:50 -0700

Redirect subdirectory to subdomain

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:15:47 -0700

Just a quick note, lest I forget this. To redirect a subdirectory to a subdomain using .htaccess, use the following:

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^subdirectory(.*)$ http://subdomain.domain.tld$1 [R=301,L]
ifmodule>

(Note the 301 permanent redirect.) The regular expression is greedy, but it takes care of the trailing slashes — just in case. *shrugs*

[Posted from Coredump - Work, play, and everything in between. Follow me on Twitter. View the rest of my stream at public static void.]

Sounds stupid, but how do you handle 404s in a GAE app?

Ian Dexter Marquez — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:41:37 -0700

@jploh Capacity management. ;)

Ian Dexter Marquez — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:58:31 -0700

Julian is immersed in the Tomy train and bus track set. How good of kuya Gab to assemble it for him.

Ian Dexter Marquez — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:17:22 -0700

Watching 'The Right Stuff'. Hope it's as exciting as the book.

Ian Dexter Marquez — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:35:41 -0700

RT @mattcutts: Google launches Chrome OS: http://bit.ly/chromeos An operating system that makes the web the platform. Exciting. :)

Ian Dexter Marquez — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:09:39 -0700

Grokking JQuery

Ian Dexter Marquez — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:05:28 -0700

@komikero Keeping in touch with old friends is always a good thing, imho. ;) So long as they don't invite you to try those crap^H^Happs. :D

Ian Dexter Marquez — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:29:38 -0700

@jsuplido Nye. Bummer. So what happened? Naihabol?

Ian Dexter Marquez — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:49:00 -0700

Let this day end already, please? I feel the onset of a headache. :/

Ian Dexter Marquez — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:03:49 -0700

@jsuplido Really? That's great! Good luck. (Balato? Heh.)

Ian Dexter Marquez — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:53:28 -0700

Watching the Watchmen. Heh. Yeah, I know, it's old.

Ian Dexter Marquez — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:45:50 -0700

Er, *subscribed Also: !mutt just seg-faulted on me. :/

Ian Dexter Marquez — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:43:47 -0700

Saddam Hussein Talks to the FBI

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:09:18 -0700

FBI special agents carried out 20 formal interviews and at least 5 "casual conversations" with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after his capture by U.S. troops in December 2003, according to secret FBI reports released as the result of Freedom of Information Act requests by the National Security Archive and posted today on the Web at www.nsarchive.org.

The Temptations – Buttercup

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:08:37 -0700

Metallica – My Friend of Misery

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:56:51 -0700

Eraserheads – Tama Ka

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:53:31 -0700

Jason & The Scorchers – Take Me Home. Country Roads

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:50:17 -0700

Lloyd Price – Stagger Lee

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:47:25 -0700

Eraserheads – Slo Mo

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:44:01 -0700

U2 – Yahweh

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:39:19 -0700

The Cure – Like Cockatoos

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:35:39 -0700

Stevie Wonder – You Are the Sunshine of My Life

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:32:40 -0700

U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:27:13 -0700

What Became of the Senior Wranglers?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:28:07 -0700

During the one hundred and fifty seven years (1753-1909) in which the results of the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos were published in order of merit and divided by class of degree into Wranglers (1st Class), Senior Optimes (2nd Class) and Junior Optimes (3rd Class), great prestige attached to those students who had come out in the top two or three places. The securing of the top position as Senior Wrangler was regarded, at the time, as the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain and the Senior Wrangler was f€ted well beyond Cambridge and accorded pre- eminent status among his peers - indeed years in Cambridge were often remembered in terms of who had been Senior Wrangler in that year. It is curious therefore that no systematic study has ever been made, in so far as the author is aware, of what became of these Senior Wranglers in later years after their triumph. This article may shed a little light on the matter.

Gmail for Mobile HTML5 Series: Using Timers Effectively

Christine Songco — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:20:00 -0700

The Wranglers

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:54:00 -0700

Neuromancer at 25: What It Got Right, What It Got Wrong - PC World

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:12:27 -0700

The tantalizing question about William Gibson’s ideas in his novel Neuromancer involves their relationship with the course that the Web took and continues to take as Neuromancer’s publication date--July 1, 1984, 25 years ago today--recedes farther into the past. In his afterword to the 2000 re-release of the book, novelist Jack Womack suggests that Neuromancer may have directly influenced the way the Web developed--that it may have provided a blueprint that developers who grew up with the book consciously or subconsciously followed. Womack asks “what if the act of writing it down, in fact, brought it about?”

A Literary Legend Fights for a Ventura County Library - NYTimes.com

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:40:46 -0700

Ray Bradbury doesn't like the Internet -- he thinks it's distracting.

Five Best Free System Restore Tools [Hive Five]

Jason Fitzpatrick — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:00:00 -0700

Soccer in South Africa - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:35:23 -0700

South Africa gears for FIFA World Cup 2010

On Influenza A (H1N1)

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:37:01 -0700

"Reverse-engineering" the A(H1N1) virus -- all it takes is just two bits to turn this critter into a deadly bug.

How-to: The Bus Pirate V2 with USB

Ian Lesnet — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:15:21 -0700

The Bus Pirate is a universal serial interface tool, we use it to test new chips without writing any code. It currently supports most serial protocols, including 1-Wire, I2C, SPI, JTAG, asynchronous serial, MIDI, and more. We added some other features we frequently need, like pulse-width modulation, frequency measurement, voltage measurement, bus sniffers, pull-up resistors, and switchable 3.3volt and 5volt power supplies.

The new v2 family adds USB power and connectivity to the best Bus Pirate design yet. We also reduced the part count and cost wherever possible. If you want to get your hands on some Bus Pirate USB goodness, Seeed Studio has assembled hardware for $30 (including worldwide shipping).

Read about the new design after the break.

Concept overview

The Bus Pirate connects to a PC USB port. The user send commands to the Bus Pirate from a serial terminal on the PC. Commands are translated to the bus protocols that control microchips. See our Bus Pirate page for full documentation.

The latest firmware supports 1-Wire, I2C, SPI, JTAG, asynchronous serial, MIDI, and PC keyboards. Bit-wise 2- and 3-wire libraries can interface most proprietary serial protocols. More protocols are being added all the time, check out the source code on our Google Code SVN page.

Hardware

Click for a large image of the schematic (PNG). The schematic and board layout were made with the freeware version of Cadsoft Eagle. Download the latest files from our Google Code page.

PIC24F

A Microchip PIC24F series microcontroller generates the user interface and translates input into bus communications. V2 uses the same 24FJ64GA002 as the previous Bus Pirate versions. It’s cheap, has a ton of memory, a couple 5volt tolerant input pins, and the peripheral pin select feature lets us assign hardware modules anywhere we want.

The PIC (IC1) is powered by a 3.3volt regulator (VR2, C23). Each PIC power pin gets a 0.1uF bypass capacitor (C1,2). The internal 2.5volt regulator requires a 10uF tantalum capacitor (C20). The programming pins are brought to a five pin header (ICSP) on the edge of the PCB.

USB interface

The Bus Pirate is powered from the USB 5volt supply, which is first filtered with a ferrite bead (L1) and 10uF tantalum capacitor (C21). We used the small, still-not-quite-common, USB mini-b connector (J2).

Choosing a ferrite bead is a common hangup. Its purpose is to filter small power fluctuations, all the current for the circuit will go through it. We can guestimate that the Bus Pirate’s worst case current consumption is 525ma (3 power supplies @ 150ma, the FTDI chip @ 25ma, 2 LEDs @ 50ma max). Use a ferrite bead rated for at least 1000ma to be safe. We used this one, which is rated for 1500ma and costs 10 cents.

An FTDI FT232BL USB->serial chip (IC2) handles the USB connection. You might be familiar with this chip from various Arduino boards. FTDI has extensive driver support for most platforms, we used the virtual com port drivers. This is the latest generation chip, and it’s only available in small SSOP and QFN packages. We had no problem hand-soldering it to a professional PCB, but it’s not for everyone.

The FT232BL is powered directly from the filtered, unregulated USB supply. C4 is a decoupling capacitor for the FTDI232BL supply pin. A single LED (LED4/USB) indicates USB status and activity. The FT232BL RXLED pin sinks current, so we powered the LED from the 5volt USB supply through a 1.1K resistor (R3).

While the FT232BL runs at 5volts from the USB supply, its serial IO pins have an independent supply input – they can operate at another voltage. Since the microcontroller is 3.3volts, we just feed the FT232BL IO pins a 3.3volt supply and eliminate any funky translation circuitry. We used the chip’s internal 3.3volt regulator to supply the IO pins because it was the easiest trace to route. The IO pins get their own 0.1uF bypass capacitor (C5).

Switchable power supplies

The Bus Pirate has on-board 3.3volt and 5volt supplies (VR3, VR4) that can power a test circuit. The supplies are switchable, so we can reset the circuit from software when something goes wrong. To be extra safe, the supplies are held off until activated in the terminal.

[Nathan Seidle] at SparkFun recommended that we replace the TPS796xx ($2.50) we used in The Bus Pirate v1a with a MIC5205-xxYM5 ($0.90). They supply just 150ma maximum current, compared to 800ma from the TPS796xx, but the cost savings and reduced part-count are worth it.

The regulators are fed from the 5volt USB supply. The 5volt regulator drops a few millivolts below optimal because there’s no headroom, but it’s within the minimum level specified by most 5volt parts.

The MIC5205 requires a large output filter capacitor (C22-24, 10uF), but no input capacitor. An optional small-value capacitor on the BP pin can decrease power supply noise, but we left this off because it didn’t make much difference in practice.

A small voltage on the EN pin enables the supply, we used a 10K pull-down resistor (R18, not shown) to ensure that the supplies stay off while the PIC initializes. LED3/VREG, with current limiting resistor R32, lights when the power supplies are active.

On-board pull-up resistors

Bus Pirate V2 has multi-voltage, software controlled pull-up resistors via the 4066 (PDF) quad bilateral switch (IC3). When enabled, the 4066 connects the four on-board bus pull-up resistors (R20-23, 10K) to any external signal on the Vpullup pin (0 to 5volts). When disabled, the outputs are high-impedance and have no effect on the bus lines.

The 4066 can’t switch an input voltage greater than the supply voltage. To give it the widest possible range, we powered it from the USB supply (5volts).

When operated at 5volts, it takes 4volts+ to enable the 4066. The PIC pins have a maximum output of 3.3volts, so we have a problem. We solve it with a 5volt tolerant PIC pin and a pull-up resistor. We turn on the 4066 with a pull-up resistor to 5volts (R19, 10K), and then disable it by switching the connected PIC pin to ground.

For a brief instant at power-on, the PIC pin is high-impedance and the 4066 outputs are active because the pull-up resistor holds the control pins at 5volts. This is a concern if the Vpullup input is connected to an external 5volt supply while the bus is connected to a 3.3volt device – the brief exposure to 5volts might harm the device. If you’re worried about this, make sure there’s no active power supply connected to the Vpullup input before powering the Bus Pirate. This isn’t a concern if you use one of the on-board power supplies for the pull-up voltage because they’re disabled at startup.

Voltage monitoring

Four voltage dividers (R10-17, 10K), attached to analog to digital converters, allow the 3.3volt PIC to safely measure up to 6volts DC.

Two voltage monitors measure the switchable power supply output. One measures the Vpullup input voltage, and another connects to the external voltage measurement probe.

Indicator LEDs

Three LEDs indicate power, mode, and voltage regulator status (LED1-3). LED4/USB displays USB activity.

There are pads for resistors R30-32 and LEDs 1-3 on the front and back of the PCB. Only one set should be populated. We put pads on both sides so the board could be mounted with the indicator LEDs abutting the top of an enclosure.

V2a vs V2go

Click for large schematic (PNG) and layout (PNG) images of the version 2a hardware. The Eagle layout files are available in our Google Code SVN.

Bus Pirate V2a is a developer’s board. In addition to all the features of V2go, it includes a jack (J1) for an external power supply and an additional 5volt regulator (VR1). A switch (S1) selects between USB power and the external supply.

The FT232BL chip on V2a is powered directly from the USB supply, and is not connected to the external supply. This is useful if you want to disable USB and use the Bus Pirate with a serial port on a PC or PDA.

The V2a 4066 enable pull-up resistor is powered by the switchable 5volt regulator. The 5volt regulator must be enabled for the 4066 to be active. Don’t forget to install the 4066 pull-up resistor (R19), located on the back of the v2a PCB.

PCB

The PCB is a compact, 2-layer design. We prepared gerbers and had PCBs made by our usual service, BatchPCB ($21, shipped to EU), and tried a new service offered by Seeed Studio ($32, shipped worldwide).

Seeed has a PCB service specifically for open source hardware projects. For $32 (including worldwide shipping) we got 5 small PCBs, and Seeed made a few extra to sell in their shop. We liked the idea that there would be extra PCBs available.

You might know Seeed Studio from their cheap, improved Seeeduino Arduino clone. They’re located in Shenzhen, a Chinese electronics manufacturing hot-spot. A bunch of notable bloggers recently visited the region and wrote about the huge electronic component markets.

The Seed order arrived in 14 days (left), the BatchPCB order arrived in 30 days (right). Seeed and BatchPCB both make beautiful PCBs. Seeed has a much faster turn-around, and has better minimum trace widths and separation (8mil vs 6mil). BatchPCB has standard green PCBs, Seeed gives you the choice of green, black, or white; red, blue and yellow are $7.50 extra.

We really like the Seeed PCB service, extra Bus Pirate v2go and v2a PCBs from our order are available in the Seeed shop. BatchPCB remains the cheapest prototyping option if you want a single board, closed source work, or don’t mind the extra wait.

Parts list

Part	Value (package)
IC1	PIC24J64GA002 (SOIC)
IC2	FT232RL (SSOP)
IC3	CD4066D (SOIC-N)
VR2,3	MIC5205-3.3YM5 3.3volt regulator (SOT23-5)
VR4	MIC5205-5.0YM5 5volt regulator (SOT23-5)
C1-5	0.1uF capacitor (0805)
C20-24	10uF tantalum capacitor (SMC-A)
L1	1000ma+ Ferrite bead (0805)
R1	2000 ohm resistor (0805)
R3,30	1100 ohm resistor (0805)
R10-23	10,000 ohm resistor (0805)
R31,32	390 ohm resistor (0805)
LED1-4	LED (0805)
J2	USB MINI-B (SMD)
I/O	0.1″ pin header (2×05)
ICSP	0.1″ pin header (1×05)
ST	0.1″ pin header (1×03) unpopulated, optional

Optional	Parts for V2a
C6-10	0.1uF capacitor (0805)
J1	2.1mm power jack (SMD)
LED5,6	LED (0805)
R33,34,40	1100 ohm resistor (0805)
S1	Slide switch, SPDT, rt angle
VR1	LD1117s50 5volt regulator (SOT223)

Firmware

The latest Bus Pirate firmware for all hardware version is always available on our Google Code page. The code is written in C, and is compiled with the Microchip C30 demonstration compiler.

Bootloader

The biggest change in the latest firmware is the addition of a bootloader. Now the firmware can be updated through the USB or serial connection.

A bootloader is small program that sits at the beginning of the PIC program memory. It accepts updated firmware through the USB or serial port and saves it to the chip.

The bootloader comes from Microchip application note AN1157. We modified the bootloader to check for a jumper between the programming clock (PGC) and data (PGD) pins at power-up (update, above left). If there’s a connection, the bootloader takes over and waits for new code. Without a connection, the bootloader exits and runs the main program.

There’s a very minor chance of accidentally entering the bootloader with no jumper installed. This won’t damage the Bus Pirate, but you will need to connect it again. You can prevent it by moving the jumper over one position, between the ground pin and the inner programming pin (normal, above right).

Upgrading the firmware with the bootloader

If you’re using a fresh chip, first program it with the bootloader firmware (vxx-PIC Bootloader.hex) through the ICSP header using a ‘real’ programmer like an ICD2 or PicKit.

If you’re upgrading, follow this procedure or refer to the instructions in the firmware download.

Disconnect the Bus Pirate from any power supply such as the USB cable.
Place a jumper between the programming data and clock pins of the ICSP header. This will trigger the bootloader mode.
Connect the Bus Pirate to a USB port (or, if applicable, power and serial cable).
Start the MS Windows P24QP.exe programmer utility. You may need to modify the COM port (portindex=) in P24qp.ini to match your system. Programmer source is available, and the simple bootloader protocol is documented in AN1157 if you want to write an app for a non-Windows system.
Click the connect to device icon (#1). The program will connect to the PIC.
Click the folder icon (#2) and open the firmware update file (vxx-Firmware for BL.hex).
Click the erase device icon (#3) to erase the chip. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Programming may not be successful if you forget to erase the chip.
Click the write device icon (#4) to program the new firmware. Ignore any verify errors between 0×400 and 0xBFF, the bootloader lives in this region and doesn’t get updated.
Click the green arrow icon (#5) to exit the bootloader and start the program. Click OK at the warning, we use the jumper to re-enter the bootloader.
Remove the jumper from the programming pins, or move it over one position to connect the inner PGx pin to ground (GND).
***IMPORTANT*** Now restart the Bus Pirate by disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable (or power cable). Some features won’t work until after a complete hardware reset.

Using it

USB device driver

You may need to install an FTDI virtual serial port driver for your platform.

On Windows, go to the Device Manager to configure the FTDI driver or check the COM port number.

Menus and Syntax

Use a serial terminal to communicate with the Bus Pirate. We like Tera Term.

The Bus Pirate works best with the terminal set to 115200bps, 8 databits, no parity, 1stopbit. Disable local echo in the terminal, and use CR for line breaks. Some modes also require Xon/Xoff software flow control.

In the serial terminal, press ? for the help menu. Read more about the Bus Pirate’s menu and syntax on the Bus Pirate page. There’s lots of demonstrations in our recent parts posts.

LED indicators

PWR indicates power to the Bus Pirate.
MODE is off when the I/O pins are in a safe, high-impedance state. MODE is lit when a bus mode is engaged, the pins may be active.
VREG indicates that the on-board switchable power supplies are active.
UR is a single USB activity indicator LED. It displays data coming from the PC to the Bus Pirate. You can probably change what this LED displays with the FTDI configuration utility.

Connections

Pin location diagrams: v2a, v2g0.

Pin name \|	Description (Bus Pirate is the master)
MOSI	Master data out, slave in (SPI, JTAG), Serial data (1-Wire, I2C, KB), TX* (UART)
CLK	Clock signal (I2C, SPI, JTAG, KB)
MISO	Master data in, slave out (SPI, JTAG) RX (UART)
CS*	Chip select (SPI), TMS (JTAG)
AUX	Auxiliary IO, frequency probe
ADC	Voltage measurement probe (max 6volts)
Vpu	Voltage input for on-board pull-up resistors (0-5volts).
+3.3v	+3.3volt switchable power supply, max 150ma
+5.0v	+5volt switchable power supply, max 150ma
GND	Ground, connect to ground of test circuit

Notes: * TX moved from CS to MOSI in firmware v0g.

The 10 pin I/O block contains the data signals and power supplies that connect to a test circuit. Each pin is labeled on the back of the PCB, refer to the table above for a detailed description.

The pinout on V2 is similar to V1, but we moved the power supply output and Vpullup input to the cable bundle. We also eliminated the second, unused auxiliary pin.

Conclusion

If you want a complete Bus Pirate or a kit, here’s a couple options:

Seeed Studio is accepting pre-orders for assembled Bus Pirate v2go hardware until the end of Friday, July 3. An assembled Bus Pirate v2go is $30, including worldwide shipping.
Seeed Studio also has the extra v2g0 ($5.90) and v2a ($6.50) PCBs from our order.
Fundamental Logic sells a through-hole kit version of the Bus Pirate V1a ($29.50). ***v1a is serial port only***

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this project. The Bus Pirate wouldn’t be possible without a ton of great feedback from the comments. If you’d like to get involved, join the Bus Pirate project at Google Code.

Hack a Day review disclosure: We asked Seeed Studio to make our first order of PCBs for free. Since then, we’ve made several paid orders.

nic.yu - Jugoslovenski registar Internet domena

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:01:31 -0700

.yu domains will cease to work after 30 September 2009.

YUI 3.0.0 beta 1 Available for Download Yahoo! User Interface Blog

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:51:08 -0700

Facebook Purity

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:30:56 -0700

Removes annoying quiz and application messages from your facebook homepage for Greasemonkey

Shoptalk: Kodachrome Celebrated, Terminated

(author unknown) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:07:43 -0700

Production stills from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:28:27 -0700

Shoptalk: Kodachrome Celebrated, Terminated

By David W. Dunlap — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:54:31 -0700