If you can get a bunch of people, even hobbyists, who might have ordered some "free sample" chips and then sat there staring at it wondering how to make them go, it instead spend $5 on a development board and actually DO something with it, I think that counts as a marketing win. Now, I don't know if the launchpad is going to achieve that kind of success (the MSP430 IDE is no "Arduino"), but it COULD. Maybe.
I ordered 2 and got the confirmation and backorder emails. Honestly @$4.30 ill probably give one set away if i dont like em. I didnt see any reason not to give it a try.
Cheap enough to get one to play with, its no great loss if it isn't up to much. They must be losing a fortune shipping 'em free to the UK and the rest of Europe.
Of course TI have deep pockets for marketing tricks like this..... 
When you go to TI's Order Status page and enter your confirmation number, does it work?
When I enter the one I was given over the phone, all I get is the same page with the text:
Unable to find E-Store Order #
written above the text field. 
Also, the charge seems to have been completely removed from my account :|..
Well, I called again today, and it seems that they had the wrong email address :P. It's been corrected now though.
I forgot to ask about the charge to my account, I'm going to email them about that now.
With the code HALFMSPTOOL you get 50% off. That makes 2,15$ per kit shipped. Max. 3 per order.
TI is far away from Atmell and Pic in user based support groups but you have to start somewhere.
Maybe this kicks some speed into gcc development support forums.
Ok. I think TI sucks on this one. 15 tries over a week with 6 different cards. Every one of them throws an error at the final stage of the order. I think i can live without this one.
A lot of people say that you just have to make sure billing and shipping info are the EXACT same, and that the information matches your credit card EXACTLY (to the punctuation!).
Or you could just call in the order like I did :P.
A lot of people say that you just have to make sure billing and shipping info are the EXACT same, and that the information matches your credit card EXACTLY (to the punctuation!).
Well i've tried this as it is. and it has worked in a lot of places. the worse thing, is when i call them, they said 'No Free Shipping!'.
Hmm that's strange.
Anywho, I just got an email saying it shipped!!!! Woooo.
No charges on the account yet, so I can't tell if it charged shipping or not, but I'm excited! They shipped via Fedex overnight, and tracking says it'll be here tomorrow!? Awesome!
I'll update you guys when I get more information!
It's working well!
The C I've learned through programming Arduinos definitely helps, but there's a lot to learn. I'm thoroughly enjoying myself.
The only problem is that I can't find the maximum ratings for output current from an I/O. I've looked through the datasheet, but the closest I've found is:
Diode current at any device terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ±2 mA
Is that what I'm looking for? That's pretty low :(.
[edit]If my measurements of an oboard LED's resistor are correct (470 Ohms), then the LED is drawing about 7 mA at 3.3V. So I assume I'm safe with that at least..[/edit]
I can't find the maximum ratings for output current from an I/O.
It looks to me like the recommended value in 6mA; see the notes in the "outputs - Port Px" section of the electrical specs on page 22 of the MSP430G2x01 datasheet.
If you're willing to let the voltage swing "out-of-spec", it looks like it is "safe" to draw more current. See the graphs in Figure 4 through 7. (for instance, read fig5 as "if you're willing for the "low" output voltage to get up to 0.5V, the current you can get is about 15mA...)
Thanks for that help :).
I'll try to keep it about 6-10 mA then :).
I dug out my old EZ430-F2013 USB stick (TI's older low-cost ($20) development thing for MSP430), and got it working on my windows system.
How ... annoying, compared to the Arduino environment. By the time you support half-a-dozen different programmer/bootloader things, and a couple hundred different chips, I guess "easy to use" pretty much goes out the window. I mean, I'm supposed to be a skilled professional, but I was reduced to reading the "getting started" guide to make any progress at all. Not to mention the sheer duration of the install process! Sheesh!
Hehehe :).
I know what you mean about installs, the CCS install took over 30 minutes on my netbook :O.
It only took about 5-10 on my desktop PC though.
After being spoiled by all the predefined libraries, commands, etc. in the Arduino language, I spent about an hour scratching my head and trying to figure out how to read if a pin is High or Low.
Finally figured it out, though. I ordered some Attiny2313s a little while ago. Are those more like Arduino (being AVRs)? Or is it that once you're in C, it's all basically the same?
I ordered some Attiny2313s a little while ago. Are those more like Arduino (being AVRs)? Or is it that once you're in C, it's all basically the same?
Without the Arduino libraries, an AVR chip and a MSP430 chip will look very similar in C.
I claim that it is a useful exercise to try to make the Arduino libraries work on other CPUs, even without the environment or "full compliance." The libraries are "tricky" enough that you'd learn a significant amount about the other CPU, and "useful enough" to make it better than wasted time...
The "manual" that goes with mspgcc seems to be an exceptionally good document (compared to most compiler manuals.) It talks about the MSP architecture, memory space, and other stuff as well as the cpu-specific features added to the compiler for msp430.
oops. Forgot the link: mspgcc
Woot! I have my Mac talking to my EZ430-F2013 (which is very similar to the launchpad. I think.)
All it takes is:
-
Send email to usb@ti.com asking for the beta TUSB3410 driver for Mac, specifying company particulars. (I told them I was interested in talking to MSP430 tools from my mac, and that was apparently sufficient. They included source and some helpful instructions for recompiling to access the EZ430. I also included BigCompanyName and a more official reason for wanting it. YMMV...)
-
Modify TUSB3410 driver as per instructions and recompile using Xcode (you already have the Mac Developer tools installed, right?) Install the resulting kext and reboot the Mac.
-
Install libusb and libelf using Fink (you already have Fink Commander and Fink, also. Right?)
-
download mspdebug from sourceforge. Modify the makefile to search the Fink include and library dirs as well as normal Mac locations. Run "make." This resulted in a mspdebug executable, and it seems to run!
(This does not yet include a compiler, of course. But the compiler is comparatively "easy." Sort of.)
BillW-MacOSX-2<1072> ./mspdebug -d /dev/tty.EZ430JTAGfd3140 uif
MSPDebug version 0.9 - debugging tool for MSP430 MCUs
Copyright (C) 2009, 2010 Daniel Beer <daniel@tortek.co.nz>
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Trying to open UIF on /dev/tty.EZ430JTAGfd3140...
Initializing FET...
FET protocol version is 10002000
Configured for Spy-Bi-Wire
Set Vcc: 3000 mV
Device: MSP430F20x3
Code memory starts at 0xf800
Available commands:
= erase hexout mw read run sym
cgraph gdb isearch opt regs set
dis help md prog reset step
Available options:
color gdb_loop
Type "help <topic>" for more information.
Press Ctrl+D to quit.
(mspdebug) md 0xfff0
fff0: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 22 fc |..............".|
(mspdebug) dis 0xfc22
fc22: 31 40 7e 02 MOV #0x27e, SP
fc26: b2 40 48 fc 00 02 MOV #0xfc48, &0x0200
fc2c: b2 40 48 fc 02 02 MOV #0xfc48, &0x0202
fc32: b0 12 40 fc CALL #0xfc40
fc36: 0c 43 CLR R12
fc38: b0 12 00 fc CALL #0xfc00
fc3c: b0 12 44 fc CALL #0xfc44
fc40: 1c 43 MOV #0x1, R12
fc42: 30 41 RET
fc44: 03 43 NOP
fc46: ff 3f JMP 0xfc46
fc48: 30 41 RET
Ohh. The C Compiler worked too, and I successfully sent NEW C programs to the TI EZ430 stick. I made it blink slower, I made it blink faster, I made it do doubleBlinks.
I'm going to have to review makefiles, though...
westfw, thanks for the updates. I ordered a couple of these in spite of the fact it "won't work" on my mac. Looks like I was wrong, and there's a gcc for it as well.
Of course I just ordered, so there's no telling how long before I see the hardware.
-j