An Interview with Ian Lesnet - Bus Buccaneer Builder
Ian Lesnet of Dangerous Prototypes discusses the evolution of the Bus Pirate and the company's open hardware business model, which relies on manufacturing partnerships with Seeed Studio in China. He details the technical challenges of developing the Bus Pirate version 4, including the switch to an open-source USB stack and the implementation of built-in self-test (BIST) for manufacturing quality control. Lesnet also explains the 'Sick of Beige' initiative to standardize PCB footprints for recyclable cases and the community-driven nature of their firmware development.