Chipflasher Webpage
Progress on firmware, PCB and device development is as well posted on the Welcome page.
Please have a look to stay tuned.
To some extent, devices and kits are available for purchase: Zerocat Shop
This shop uses Secure HTTP and is located in Germany, Europe.
Javascript and 3rd-party modules are not required.
Prebuilt documentation for all flavors of the device can be found here:
Documentation for Zerocat Chipflasher
“Chipflasher NG”
The “Chipflasher NG” is a placeholder name for the device in progress – it will be released as “Chipflasher v2.1” once all required details are in place. This version fixes all bugs and deficiencies found on the “v2” device, and ships new features.
Preorders are supported from Zerocat’s shop.
The prebuilt “Chipflasher NG” documentation is available here:
Documentation for Zerocat “Chipflasher NG”
RYF Certification Programme
Device samples will be sent to the Free Software Foundation in Boston, USA, in order to apply for their Respects-Your-Freedom (RYF) certification programme. In order to reflect the current status of the application, an extensive system is used on the sales pages and associated documents:
RYF intended –> pending –> applied/denied
At the time of writing (December 2025), the status still is:
RYF intended
The RYF programme not only requires the device to be developed with a clean stock of free-software applications, it also checks copyright and license compatibilities of the hardware distribution, of shops and sales pages. If the Zerocat shop finally succeeds, “Chipflasher NG” can be offered as an RYF-certified device.
Timeline 2025
December 14:
First preorder received
December 7:
New PCB under test: preliminary success | Call for preorders
November 23:
Batch of bare new PCBs just arrived!
November 9:
PCB board-v2.2.0 released!
The PCB design of tag board-v2.1.0 will not be used for production due to a broken title page of the HTML documentation.
November 2:
PCB board-v2.1.0 released!
November 1:
PCB board-v2.1.0-rc3 made available for review.
This is the third release candidate for board-v2.1.0!
October 27:
PCB board-v2.1.0-rc2 made available for review.
This is the second release candidate for board-v2.1!
October 20:
PCB board-v2.1.0-rc1 made available for review.
This is the first release candidate for board-v2.1!
October 9:
Project version advances towards v2.3.0 – USB-to-RS232 adapter based on FT232RL nicely supported
September:
Project version advances towards v2.2.0 – introducing the Zerocat Loader project.
July:
“Chipflasher NG” 3D device previews available, preorder accepted, shop is open again.
June:
Preview of “next generation PCB” available with “Chipflasher NG”.
March:
FSF invites me to send sample devices and I am working on an amended PCB, heading towards “Chipflasher v2.1”...
Spring:
The shop is currently down, as I am in urgent need to find a new workshop or studio – I will then resume sales and check with the FSF to see if they are able to send a ticket number.
“Chipflasher v2”
First Devices
Some first devices and kits were made available from Zerocat’s shop:
“Chipflasher v2” Documentation
The “Chipflasher v2” documentation is available here:
Documentation for Zerocat “Chipflasher v2”
Fixes required
It turned out that the resistors R10 and R23, wired in parallel, are populated with too low values. Since 2025, the PCB is shipped in a modified version with values of 100Ohm and 1KOhm. The resistors are socketed to allow adaption if required by use case.
Multifuse V1 should be bigger – it heats up too early with certain targets, thus throttling the supply voltage and falsifying the SPI voltage monitor
Funded by NGI Programme
The development of “Chipflasher v2” and its firmware, kick2, has been
funded by the Next Generation Internet (NGI) programme, as
announced by the NLnet Foundation. The funded results
are available for reference on branch flashrom-interface, which has
been updated to meet important progress and bug fixes. The
documentation, as referred by NLnet, is available here:
Documentation for Zerocat Chipflasher Flashrom Interface
The new firmware offers interfaces to the project’s own host utility
connect, as well as to flashrom and friends. By default, the device
communicates over RS232 at 115200baud and drives the SPI bus at clock
rates up to 40MHz when used via serprog v1 protocol.
Updated Firmware
Since project version v2.1.1, kick2 is able to detect PCBs
‘board-edition-1’, ‘board-v2’, and ‘board-v2.1’ (which is not yet
released), and will adapt accordingly.
Since project version v2.1.6, the SPI clock is driven by kick2 at
10MHz across all interfaces and jobs. Code overhead
is greatly reduced. With connect, the end-of-write-cycle-detection
reaches a resolution of one microsecond per sample.
Hardware Protection Mode
It is worth noting that the flasher can be used to access SPI configuration registers so that users can apply Hardware Protection Mode to the BIOS chips of their desktops and laptops if the chips support that feature. See Zerocat Flash Access to get into that technique.
Hardware Protection Mode greatly improves system integrity by preventing firmware modification via software, spyware or malware...
“Chipflasher ‘board-edition-1’”
Branch master, tag board-edition-1: In May 2018, this version had
been certified to respect computer users’ freedom by the Free Software
Foundation (FSF). First ten devices, shipped in signed packages, were
available for purchase since then. Production of more
devices had been resumed as of 2021, 12th of April, but has been
suspended again in September 2021 due to ongoing development. However,
the software of branch master (e.g.: kick2) still applies for this
RYF-certified device, so please feel free to upgrade in case you have
built or purchased this product.
Check its dedicated webpage for more details:
Webpage for Zerocat “Chipflasher ‘board-edition-1’”
The documentation, now built in an updated GNU Guix environment, is available here:
Documentation for Zerocat “Chipflasher ‘board-edition-1’”