USB-Cereal

USB-Cereal is a powerful and fully open source development tool that can make testing, development, debugging and manufacturing of devices that utilize USB-C simple. It can save time and effort through using USB-C's extended capabilities, a kind of simplified debug and factory log capture, uncomplicated command line interface and firmware update procedures.

In a word, the reason why USB-Cereal is so useful is that enables simple UART serial communication with the host device using the sideband pins typically dedicated to device-specific application.

The USB-Cereal was originated from an open source from Google. This project has been used widely and gain great success. This USB-Cereal fork by 0xDA makes those same robust capabilities avaible to developers. There has been a complete redesign with steep BOM cost optimization, and 0xDA has made sure that all high speed traces are routed on internal layers to aviod problems with emissions testing.

The goal of USB-Cereal is to cut development/ debugging/ testing time and save component costs for makers, hackers, hardware/ firmware/ software enigineers, testers, and everyone who loves USB-C. USB-C is now becoming more and more popular and ubiquitous. We believe in that USB-Cereal and the elegant and simple methodology it use will become more popular and useful over time.

USB-Cereal Makes USB-C Easy to Work With

USB-Cereal can do a lot of tasks to make woriking with USB-C much more manageable. It can perform general closed-case debugging/ testing/ data capture on devices with USB-C and without bringing up a USB stack. It can also perform as a complimentary communication channel, which is very convient for devices that uses USB-C for power delivery and not USB-compliant communications.

USB-Cereal can do low level debugging with USB drivers not yet fully loaded. This is handy for USB stack debugging, when USB logs are not accessible. It can also perform closed case firmwave update procedures.

Features & Specifications

• Development logs can be captured with the device under test (DUT) closed up, without any jumper wires hanging around, and no extra connectors.
• No USB drivers on the DUT need to be brought up or booted up to get communication running back and forth, so the lowest level log capture is possible with minimal effort.
• Another USB-C accessory supported by the DUT can be connected via the pass-through port. This way problems occurring only with the accessory attached are easier to pinpoint.
• No extra DUT costs are incurred as no extra components or mechanical considerations are needed.
• Up to 3Mbaud rates are supported for both 1.8 V and 3.3 V signal levels.
• Both TX and RX operations are indicated using on-board green and orange LEDs.

This projects is going to crowdfund on CrowdSupply, click to support it if you are interested!