General • How do I set up USB Sniffer Lite on My Raspberry Pi Pico?

Hey guys, I'm relatively new to Raspberry Pi and very new to both Github and Pico. I'm trying to set up a USB sniffer using the world famous USB Sniffer Lite at https://github.com/ataradov/usb-sniffer-lite but I'm having a ton of trouble. I've tried lots of things, but the farthest I've gotten so far is downloading the compiled binary linked in the repo's README and uploading it to the Pico when in bootsel mode (ataradov says to do so in bootrom mode. Is there a difference or tomato/tomahto?)

Anyway, after that I opened up Thonny, changed my configuration to MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico) USB Sniffer Lite (RP2040) @ COM 7. Not I'm getting some signs of life:

USB Sniffer Lite. Built on Apr 11 2023 20:41:25.

Settings:
e - Capture speed : Full
g - Capture trigger : Disabled
l - Capture limit : Unlimited
t - Time display format : Relative to the SOF
a - Data display format : Full
f - Fold empty frames : Enabled

Commands:
h - Print this help message
b - Display buffer
s - Start capture
p - Stop capture

However, shortly after that, I get

Device is busy or does not respond. Your options:

- wait until it completes current work;
- use Ctrl+C to interrupt current work;
- reset the device and try again;
- check connection properties;
- make sure the device has suitable MicroPython / CircuitPython / firmware;
- make sure the device is not in bootloader mode.

No amount of waiting, Ctrl+C, resetting, or checking connections seems to do anything useful. My guess is that I'm missing some piece of the suitable "MicroPython/CircuitPython/firmware" mentioned, but I don't know enough to know how to figure out what I'm missing. And frankly, I might not even know enough to know how to get this Micropython/CircuitPython/firmware on my Pico even if I did know what was missing.

As you can tell, there are many gaps in my knowledge. All I'm trying to do is create a sniffer than can detect a certain sequence of packets being sent from my computer to a USB speaker and then send a notification to my phone once detected. If I can get over these first fairly trivial humps, I think the rest will be pretty within my reach.

Any guidance would be hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Statistics: Posted by smithysmithens — Sat Apr 12, 2025 3:27 am — Replies 1 — Views 73

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