Bus Pirate v3 or v4? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Oculus
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 12, 2013, 01:24:23 pm
content: I've been looking at Bus Pirate for quite some time now and the more I read the cons and pros of the v3 and v4 on the internet the more confused I get.While most of the sources I find claim that v3 should be the way to go in production environment while v4 if you're up for experimenting, I don't know how much of it is based on sheer speculations and the fact that v3 has simply been out for longer rather than real experience.So I thought I'll just ask on forum and hopefully people that has experience with the thing can actually say how "untrustworthy" v4 actually is or even the other way around. Would love to hear from people that has played around with both. Would you recommend one over the other and why? And all in all, could you let me know of any pros and cons of one relative to the other and the downsides of both of them.

author: MickM
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2013, 08:38:33 am
content: To quoye Tayken:"Problem arises from the USB stack. v3 uses an FTDI chip for USB<->UART conversion, v4 does this inside the uC. If I am not wrong, there are still issues with certain protocols (for example flow control in UART). I would still consider it as a sandbox device, v3 is more reliable. I would say the biggest problem is debugging: As the USB communication is handled in the uC, you cannot step through the code line by line or function by function as that causes the USB communication to drop. So there are still bugs lingering in there."http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6037Ian Lesnet has just moved to China from Amsterdam, he is the main guy at DP.Once he resurfaces things will move along.Mick M(I have both a v3 and a v4)

author: plesa
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2013, 09:46:12 am
content: Quote from: Oculus on December 12, 2013, 01:24:23 pmI have v4 for year and I'm quite satisfied. You probably found this comparsionhttp://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate_v4_vs_v3_comparison

author: Medo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2013, 10:59:09 am
content: Quote from: Oculus on December 12, 2013, 01:24:23 pmI had same question year ago and I ended up getting both. However, I really use only one of them - v3. Major reason for me was FTDI chip. That thing has a (working) driver for pretty much every OS you can think of (even 64-bit Windows 7 and above). Yes, it is possible to do get driver working on 64-bit Windows also for BusPirate v4 but it takes a lot of effort getting it right and extra booting modes get to nerves pretty quickly. If you work on multiple computers like me, it ends up being just too annoying compared to v3.Second factor was actual header. I like to make a custom cable for any project I have to debug (yep, I am that anal) and one thing I can count on is having 2x5 ribbon connector (whatever its official name is) somewhere in toolbox. If I would check under my bed, I would probably find couple of them. BusPirate v4 uses 2x6 ribbon and that is not something I use often. That means either forcing 2x5 in or connecting it wire-by-wire. And I would probably use it like that if I haven't had v3 too. With v3 I would just plug in my ribbon cable and happily go cursing at chip of the day instead.And feature-wise, I haven't found anything on v4 that I really needed. Yes, it is more powerful design, but I am not aware of single functionality that is available on v4 and not on v3 (ok, you do have two extra pins with dubious firmware support).I had them both for more than a year now and I have used v4 only to play around (and swear at its USB drivers). For all debugging purposes (mostly I2C) I used v3 exclusively. Maybe my personal experience and habits are affecting my judgement, but I would go with v3 any time. It is not that v4 is really, really bad. It is just that I found v3 more convenient.

author: AndersAnd
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2013, 06:51:07 pm
content: Quote from: Medo on December 23, 2013, 10:59:09 amIt's usually just called an IDC connector (short forInsulation-DisplacementConnector):http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulation-displacement_connector