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Tool

ESP32 Bit Pirate

Open-source firmware that turns ESP32-S3 boards into a Bus Pirate-inspired multi-protocol hardware tool, operated from a USB serial terminal, a Wi-Fi web CLI or the M5 Cardputer's own keyboard and screen. Its modes talk to, sniff and script I2C, SPI, UART, 1-Wire, CAN and other buses, read EEPROM and flash chips, and scan for JTAG and SWD pinouts. USB adapter modes let host tools such as flashrom, OpenOCD and sigrok/PulseView use the board as an SPI programmer, debug adapter or logic analyzer.

Requirements & limits

  • Latest release at review: v1.8, published 2026-10-11, with prebuilt images for 17 board builds that the README installs through the project's web flasher or, for M5Stack devices, M5Burner; the reviewed pioarduino branch commit is identical to that tag. Source builds use PlatformIO with the Arduino framework on a pinned pioarduino ESP32 platform, and CI runs the native unit tests.
  • Needs an ESP32-S3 board with at least 4 MB of flash. The README lists ESP32-S3 dev kits and M5Stack, LILYGO, Heltec, Seeed Studio, Waveshare and Unexpected Maker boards with the same feature set, warns that the default pin mapping may not match other boards, and notes that some features need additional hardware. Connected devices must run at 3.3 V or 5 V.
  • Analysis needs physical access and wiring to the target's buses, memory chips or debug pins; the firmware talks to and captures what it is connected to and does not interpret recovered firmware. The README also lists Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sub-GHz, RFID and cellular modes, some of which transmit, and limits use to educational, diagnostic and interoperability testing on authorized devices; this record covers only the bus, memory-chip and debug-interface functions.
  • MIT-licensed; the lib directory vendors third-party drivers under their own licenses, including GPL-2.0 for RF24. The repository holds firmware sources, board profiles, tests and images, with no target firmware. No board was flashed and no hardware was tested.

About this entry

Type
Tool
Category
Firmware tools
Relationship
Foundation tool
Targets
Firmware · Protocol

Sources reviewed

The description was reviewed against primary sources. This does not establish runtime testing, security auditing or verified compatibility.

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Primary sources

  1. README.md GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  2. README.md#L16-L54 GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  3. README.md#L56-L105 GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  4. README.md#L183-L191 GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  5. platformio.ini GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  6. .github/workflows/native-tests.yml GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  7. LICENSE GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  8. lib/RF24/LICENSE GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  9. src/Adapters GitHub · geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate · Revision 8a91778
  10. https://github.com/geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate/wiki/15-JTAG/0b54b00dc6272cbb125d5293c30178cf2255371d
  11. https://github.com/geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate/wiki/99-Adapters/08c0046c1c84da6d301c9c4bb330f71d744526f2
  12. https://github.com/geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate/releases/tag/v1.8

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