Today I’m releasing a new open source hardware (OSHW) project – the Test Interface for Multiple Embedded Protocols (TIMEP). It’s based around the FTDI FT2232H chip and logic level shifters to provide breakouts, buffering, and level conversion for a number of common embedded hardware interfaces. At present, this includes:

  • SPI
  • I2C
  • JTAG
  • SWD
  • UART

TIMEP

This is a revision 4 board, made using OSHPark’s “After Dark” service – black substrate, clear solder mask, so you can see every trace on the board. (Strangely, copper looks very matte under the solder mask, resulting in more of a tan color than the shiny copper one might expect to see.)

It’s intended to be easy to use and work with open source software, including tools like OpenOCD and Flashrom.

Edit: I rushed to get this post out late at night, but I should’ve acknowledged that this project was inspired while I was taking a hardware security class with Joe Fitzpatrick. He also provided a review of an early revision of the board. If you have no idea what SPI, I2C, JTAG, and SWD are, I can’t recommend his classes enough to get started in hardware hacking. (Even if you do know what those are, his classes are a lot of fun.)

See the project on GitHub, and I hope to have some boards available for sale on Tindie in the near future.