I2C/SPI interface tool, bus-pirate or something else

[prutser]

I am looking into buying a test tool to be used mainly for I2C/SPI interfacing from PC (Both Windows/Linux).

It seems Bus-pirate is still the most common one, although it looks a bit outdated.  GreatFET looked nice, but seems obsolete.

Bus-Pirate
Shikra.
GoodFET.
GreatFET.

Any opinions/suggestions/experiences ?

[tai]

Cheaper alternative would be a FT2232* modules (usually sold as simple breakout module or JTAG adapter) as it can be just repurposed as SPI/I2C/JTAG/GPIO/UART adapter. You can also expect great driver/library support across all OSs for foreseeable future.

Products based on a microcontroller or FPGA/CPLD are capable of firmware upgrades, may have additional features, maybe faster (for protocols like I2C), and usually comes with good level shifter frontend to support IO below 3.3V. But if you work with usual 3.3-5V logic only, it would be a good alternative.

[tai]

Here's a good comparison chart from Tigard project.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/securinghw/tigard

Tigard itself seems to be a decent FT2232H-based interface module that worth consideration.

[Faranight]

So, what happened to Bus Pirate? Seemed like a nice gadget, but then development stopped all the sudden.

[prutser]

So, what happened to Bus Pirate? Seemed like a nice gadget, but then development stopped all the sudden.

That was what I noticed as well, hence my question. I have seen a newer version once, but I think it wasn't a big success.

[prutser]

@tai Thanks for the link.

Tigard itself seems a nice alternative. And the advantage is indeed that the FTDI MPSSE is quite standard. Probably I  will order one. 

[RAPo]

Would this suffice?

[Electro Fan]

It’s been a long time since I tried the Bus Pirate but at the time the software interface seemed pretty basic/primitive.

Depends on what you are going to use it for.  If it happens to be as a logic analyzer you might want to look for devices that work with PulseView.

https://openhub.net/p/pulseview

https://sigrok.org/wiki/PulseView

[zapta]

For I2C there is this https://www.adafruit.com/product/4267 and this https://www.adafruit.com/product/4970

They communicate with the host over a USB serial port and thus doesn't require any additional drivers to install.

[Nominal Animal]

I tend to just use my Teensy 4.0 with a custom interface using USB Serial (well over 200 Mbit/s sustained data rate) and voltage level translators (TXU0202 or TXU0204 for UART, TXU0304 for SPI) or digital isolators (ISO1640 for I2C, ISO6721 for UART, ISO7741 for SPI).  They're cheap, easily available at Mouser, and lets me not worry about ground loops or power supply issues.

The standard Teensyduino USB configurations include dual and triple USB Serial, so I can trivially use three completely separate buses on a single Teensy.  If I need more, I use a simple multiplexing and escaping scheme.  As Teensy 4.x are high-speed USB devices, the bandwidth is sufficient even for display modules.  Only the actual data transfer code needs to be written, as the USB details are handled by the Teensyduino add-on based on menu selection.  It is useful to implement any time-sensitive stuff and initialization directly on the microcontroller, however.  One particularly useful detail is that when using USB Serial endpoints, one can detect on Teensy whether an application has opened the serial device or not, simply by checking if the device object (Serial for main USB serial) evaluates to True or False.  I find cobbling together quick tools dedicated for the task at hand more suitable to my mindset than reaching for a professional tool I use at most once a month.

I do have a very cheap Cypress FX2LAFW logic analyzer I occasionally use (with Sigrok PulseView).  For example, if I want to just peek at I²C traffic, it's easier than using an I²C peripheral on a MCU.  For UART traffic, it makes it easy to discover the exact format and baud rate.

[RAPo]

Version 5 is out now.
I really like it.

So, what happened to Bus Pirate? Seemed like a nice gadget, but then development stopped all the sudden.

That was what I noticed as well, hence my question. I have seen a newer version once, but I think it wasn't a big success.

[thm_w]

Looks good:
- Voltage measure every pin (unsure of sample rate)
Supply with:
- Current sense
- 1-5V output
- 0-500mA limit

[BennoG]

I have the V5 in back order at dirty pcb.
If I have time and think of it will post some photo's and tests when it arrives.

Benno

[RAPo]

Just to tease you:
It is five by Rense Posthumus, on Flickr.

I have the V5 in back order at dirty pcb.
If I have time and think of it will post some photo's and tests when it arrives.

Benno