Easy access to the SWD debug port with a special pin header

[electronic_eel]

The Bus Pirate 5 and newer have a SWD debug port accessible from the back of the case. This allows to debug the firmware running on the BusPirate by connecting some SWD-capable debug adapter, for example the official RasPi Debug Probe, a RasPi Pico flashed with the Debug Probe firmware or another Bus Pirate with Debug Probe firmware. It is planned to also add RTT channels (see here) to the firmware in the future, probably making access to SWD helpful to a wider range of users.

While a SWD-capable debug probe is probably something many Bus Pirate users already have at hand or can easily get, stable physical access to the SWD pins on the Bus Pirate isn’t that straightforward. The SWD pins use round pin headers that are probably easy to connect during production, but aren’t that common otherwise.

I’m aware of two threads here with solutions to this:

OpenOCD/RPi Debug Probe Setup

I’m trying to help with the BP debugging. I hooked up a RPi Debug Probe to the 3-hole on the bottom. I’m following the directions the RPi site Here are some tips Use the right plug on the RPi Debug Probe - the one that says JTAG - See picture [BPdebug] Starting from the, edge,the color of the wires are Red, Yellow, Black (SWCLK, SWDIO,GND) Plugging in the male connectors from the probe didn’t seem to fit well. I cut a female header down to 3 wires and used that in-between. I had…

3D printed base to connect to the swd socket

I made a 3d-printed base for the BP which contains pins for the SWD socket. The pins are made with a solid hookup wire size AWG24, bent to run in 3 channels under the base. I expoxy-ed the wires in the base. I am enclosing the stl and some pictures BP-swd-base.zip (267.4 KB) I used PLA to print it with no support. Enjoy, Patrick

And I want to add another one to the collection:

I found this little adapter with round pin headers on both sides, instead of only on one side:

I got it for about 5 cents per pcs. from LCSC:

MH254V-11-03-1000 XFCN | Connectors - LCSC Electronics

This allows to use regular grabbers (like the ones available with the Bus Pirate) to make a stable connection to the SWD pins like this:

Since these little adapter pin headers are so cheap and small, I suggest to add one to the accessories bag that comes with each Bus Pirate. To give every user easy & stable physical access to the debug port.

[kd7eir]

Excellent suggestion! I even had enough of these in my mystery box to outfit all 3 of my BPs

[ian]

@electronic_eel

Since these little adapter pin headers are so cheap and small, I suggest to add one to the accessories bag that comes with each Bus Pirate.

That’s a good suggestion. We will do that the next time we’re packaging parts kits.

[electronic_eel]

@ian

That’s a good suggestion. We will do that the next time we’re packaging parts kits.

Very good.

Maybe add one or two spares of the sticky feet for the new enclosure too.

[ian]

Good point, I forgot the sticky feet update

[grymoire]

I used round milled pin headers which you can get from Amazon or from ali express to make my adapter.