Has anyone who was backordered at the TI estore gotten theirs?
I just went back and checked the status on my order. It says "shipped" (but not when) via FedEx, but also shows 3 still backordered on the bottom line of the form :-/
I made a post to someplace/forum about the release of this thing (tooting the Arduino horn) - since then I get updates from the forum when someone makes a post on it.
So far, the responses have been pretty negative - non shipping, long waits, pricing on shipping being higher than the cost of the chips, etc...
Overall, I think TI tried to do something to move into the hobbyist market, and failed miserably at it...
Something these wannabe players need to take note of: You can't create a hobbyist market for a product; such a community just "happens", and nothing you can do will generally make one happen. Typically, it takes a third-party using parts from the first; TI should've just released the chip thru their normal distribution channels and/or other channels, and just let it be used for whatever it was to be used for. Maybe it would've taken off, maybe it would've flopped.
You didn't see Atmel pushing to create the "Arduino" community; it just happened. Same thing with the Microchip PIC - Parallax started the whole "Basic Stamp" thing; Microchip was just the manufacturer of the original chip (which had its hobbyist adherents long before Parallax came around; but it was arguably the Stamp that caused the real sensation).
I think TI tried to do something here, and didn't really understand the market, nor were they ready to really fufill such orders (which is a totally different beast from volume orders).
http://www.hackerfoundry.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=57
personally it was a waste of 5 bucks
I just got my two today. Ordered on june 23. Ill probably give one or both away. My opinion: Theyre great to start someone out in microcontrollers. If they dont end up liking it/dont pick it up, it was only $4.30. Show me a cheaper way to start out.
BUT...If youre already into it/know your way around/have ever messed with them before, its kinda like "well why am I buying this?" So worth it is all a matter of what youre using it for.
I ordered mine early, and they were backordered for about a week before they shipped.
Personally, I enjoyed it :). It was a new experience for me, not a particularly useful one, but a good one nonetheless. I learned operators for port manipulation for one thing (which, obviously, I could have learned elsewhere, but this gave me an excuse to learn it :P). I've still got one unopened (which I'm open for trading for various things ;D).
My order status...
Ship Status Not Shipped
When I try to login to cancel the order...
The email address and/or password you entered is incorrect. Please try again.
Noticed that the password field is cutting my password short so I go through the "forgot my password" process and got this...
We can't recognize your email address; please check it for accuracy
Two weeks ago I emailed them asking for the order to be canceled. Absolutely no reply. I'm done with TI.
Today was "MSP430 day" at the local Arrow dealer. This is a pretty marketing-based talk about the state of the MSP430. I went; these are usually pretty interesting, and there are useful discounts and/or freebies. There were a couple of things mentioned wrt LaunchPad:
- quite a few attending customers were annoyed by the long delays in getting they're ordered LaunchPad. They had about 10 that were handed out to the more desperate or deserving or something. Given (2), I elected not to be greedy.
- Supposedly a whole boatload (somewhat literally) shipped from the manufacturer (China?) on Monday. In another week or two, there should be a lot more of these in the hands of people who ordered them...
- Even the overly enthusiastic (hey, that's their job!) sales rep had played with a real Arduino and admitted that TI had some ways to go to match the "easy to use" part...
- They claimed to have shipped about 80,000 LaunchPads! (I'm not sure whether that includes the in-transit boatload) (nice to be part of a large-company marketing budget, eh?)
I don't want to pour salt in anyone's wounds - but I ordered one of these (free shipping to Europe, you're damn right I ordered one) and it arrived within a week. This was about a fortnight ago.
Guessing TI are making a bit of a mess over filling these backorders.
I'll say something else about Texas Instruments - they have no idea how to build an online community around the Launchpad.
This forum (and the arduino.cc site/wiki) is a great asset to Arduino.
Well, FWIW, I just sent for one of these, under five bux, it's worth looking at.
Here's what I am thinking.. at a minimum, it could be used as a nice little support circuit for an arduino. Like a USB handler.. that alone would be worth the $4.30. With 10 I/O lines, it could be used as a multiplexer for LED's or a display driver. I figure at this price, even if it goes up later, have a programmable support device able to handle some I/O tasks for the arduino for under five dollars. Sure, it's not gutsy, small memory, etc.. but that's okay if all we intend to do with it is use it as a LED matrix driver to be fed data.. and it includes two MCU's for that five bux, plus programmer and IDE. No brainer.
I don't think this is a serious "competitor" to Arduino.. but it might be a VERY useful support device. Let's give TI a chance before we start hating on 'em too hard....
it could be used as a multiplexer for LED's or a display driver.
the pins have a max current of 6ma
and no it does not include the IDE, you might want to start that process now, you have 2 things to download (just under 600mb) and the second you have to fill out a US government form and wait for approval
(honestly for the applications your talking about get a attiny and one of the core files, and its cheaper and you dont need to learn a new language)
well, if I threw $5 at a USB cable and some support circuitry (the board should provide a few usable things to play with), the worst I did was overpay for a usb cable. There's got to be a USB interface at least, which is cute enough to mess with for that money.
I'm still relatively new to microcontrollers and don't want to get too religious about any one platform, just for the sake of getting religion, if you know what I mean. I figure this is an easy way to suss out what TI has to offer for cheap money. Since I was a Z80 fan back in the day, and TI marketed heavy for Zilog, want to see how they are playing in the market these days. Big Motorola fan too, I LOVED those old 6502 days...
Besides, if we wanted to do things the "right" and "easy" way, we wouldn't be goofing around with arduinos either probably.. I mean sure there's a few folks making commercial products with these- but honestly, there's better choices of course, price wise, than arduino. I think you get what I mean- simply that this (arduino) is a great hobbyist platform, and that's good, because I'm a hobbyist
well, if I threw $5 at a USB cable
its half a meter its not even as long as a standard pc tower is deep
and some support circuitry (the board should provide a few usable things to play with)
the ti usb <> serial chip is interesting but you can buy that separately, otherwise its another msp chip with propitiatory jtag and other functions you need to use their codes for (that they have not released)
the more you know ...
but it might be a VERY useful support device. Let's give TI a chance before we start hating on 'em too hard....
Those were my thoughts, too. Unfortunately, TI blew that chance.
I knew from the postings on this thread that I was going to wind up on backorder for a while. When I checked a few weeks ago, the website said my order had "shipped". Sorta: the webpage was poorly designed, so it wasn't really clear whether it had.
When it hadn't arrived last week, I went back to check again. Not only had the "check status" link they emailed me stopped working, but the webstore had completely lost my account.
There's no contact link specific to the webstore, so I used the "comment about the website" link to complain about that, and ask for contact information. I got a form email that appeared to be about product tech support, saying that "due to export regulations, we need to know where you live before we can talk with you". It told me to go to a page on their site and fill out the contact info form. So, grumbling, I followed the link, and discovered that there was no form there.
This is actually my second go-round with the MSP430: the first one ended when the Linux driver (not TI's, so not their fault) for TI's USB-to-serial chip replaced the firmware in the ez430 programming dongle with standard serial port code. Unfortunately, it's too light to be used as a boat anchor, and I'm not big on jewelry 
I don't know who TI is competing with, but they're sure making it easy for them.
the Linux driver (not TI's, so not their fault)
Bull. It's certainly TI's fault for not support linux directly in the first place. I don't know what they were smoking when they though they could ship a windows-only USB/Serial chip!
If FTDI can ship drivers for 3+ major operating systems, Then TI ouhght to be able to do it to! (Although there are a lot of TI documents that sorta read like any actual programmers we kept far away...
If you had an EZ430-F2013, I believe that the standard firware should work OK. The second chip does serial to spy-bi-wire.
If you had an EZ430-RF2500 set or the wristwatch set, then there is special coding in that chip; If you now have standard serial code, you may have lost everything. (but it might be possible to put back.
I have discount codes some development tools; let me know if anyone is interested in Chronos wireless (915 MHz)watch @$25, ez430-rf2500 wireless dec kit (2.4GHz) @$25, CCS4 MCU edition ($250), or generalized JTAG interface ($50)
I quite like the TI USB cable, when a hub just under my desk it's the perfect length to use with an Arduino.
I came with a free MSP dev board too :
Not managed to make it do anything useful beyond getting Linux to talk to the serial port, although very unreliably, not got close to getting a program on it... I keep being told I should just use the windows software, but imo... Thats cheating...
If nothing else, the PCB has nice straight edges, would make a good glue spreader 
A million years and a few lifetimes ago I was notorious for a transistor cannon powered by exploding electrolytic caps. If I can't make something cute out of it, I will make it die in a manner befitting the unholy, have no fear, if only for getting my hopes up and then dashing them upon the rocks, like so many of life's petty hopes and dreams...umm..okay, maybe I invested a little more in that than was necessary.
They probably make a pill for people like me...
Please ensure that a camera is recording the event before you're forced to take said pill, I'd love to see ;D
After umpteen trails right from the day this thread started, i finally managed to place an order for 3 of these boards today. Not sure when they will be shipped. No, I'm not a great fan of TI or anything. Just want to explore other alternatives purely from a commercial product point of view. let me wait and see if it was worth it?
My LaunchPads have arrived!
(Ordered two on 27-Jun, direct from TI eStore.)