Author Topic: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30  (Read 49244 times)

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Offline Zyvek

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #100 on: December 07, 2010, 06:27:32 pm »
Amazing. The FedEx truck dropped off my launchpads today, and the TI website still says that my order is backordered, and they have no ship date. Almost 4 months to fill the order.

Now ... what the hell was I going to use these for???

I feel your pain.  My first two orders were never confirmed so I ordered a third time, 4+ months later I had five of these. Today three more showed up.  :-/ 
-Z
 

Offline JohnS_AZ

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #101 on: December 07, 2010, 06:39:26 pm »
Well, they're pretty and red... we could add hooks and hang them on the Christmas tree.   :)
I'm either at my bench, here, or on PokerStars.
 

Offline Zyvek

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #102 on: December 07, 2010, 07:07:12 pm »
Well, they're pretty and red... we could add hooks and hang them on the Christmas tree.   :)

I was thinking of giving them to my systems engineers at work to see if the electronics bug would take, but I think I like your idea better -
-Z
 

Offline Nerobro

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #103 on: December 08, 2010, 04:01:11 pm »
I ordered mine in July.    I got it yesterday.  That's.. a little nutty.

How can you plan on using a chipset, if they can't even deliver development boards? 

Oh well, time to play with them. 
 

Offline RayJones

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #104 on: January 28, 2011, 12:21:18 am »
Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I only in the last few days I have actually fired up the MSP430 dev kit.

I'm getting a 24V pump to operate in conjunction with a photovoltaic solar panel to pump water through a solar heater panel for the pool.
The MSP430G2231 supplied in the kit is perfect for my needs as it has an inbuilt ADC, and it is not a ridiculously large micro for the job.

What have other people used it for, or are all these $4.30 dev kits now just languishing on the shelf?

My biggest hurdle was reliably sensing if the pump is running or not simply by observing the panel voltage.

Out of interest, I was playing with a (free) mBed just a week earlier, and my 12 year old son was able to do some things with that real easy. The MSP kit lost him real quick having to get right down to the nitty gritty of the chips registers.

 

Offline joelby

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #105 on: January 28, 2011, 03:56:38 am »
I used mine a few months ago to prove to my landlord that his fridge was broken. The built-in temperature sensor is a nice feature to have! I connected it to my computer, which was sitting outside the fridge, via USB and then wrote a program that charted the temperature and uploaded it to a Web site every few minutes.

He never fixed the fridge and my Famers Union iced coffees kept spoiling, so I eventually moved out.
 

Offline CafeLogic

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #106 on: January 28, 2011, 04:02:49 am »
I ordered one, they fedexed it overnight (I have no idea why) then sent me another one week later (I have no idea why). They have sat on the shelf ever since. I got that free embed too. I haven't played with it yet but I plan to, I like the LPC1768.
 

Offline andyg

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #107 on: January 28, 2011, 12:57:06 pm »
I have one of these too.

Really wanted to use it to design and make some stuff, but the valueline MCUs are hard to get in Australia (Element 14, RS Components), hardly ever any stock, so I didn't see the point of designing something with it if I have to buy it chips from the US. At least not for a hobbyist.

Took forever to get mine too. Even emailed them, never any reply. Very common story if you read their MSP430 launchpad wiki.
 

Offline CryptLordGR

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #108 on: January 28, 2011, 09:50:19 pm »
following anothers project i made a SPI Explorer controlled by computer via serial port, for exprepimenting with new spi chips without having to program every time a bit of code, now it is on-the-fly testing. I would like to expand to other protocols but the flash is very limited.
 

Offline RayJones

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #109 on: January 28, 2011, 09:59:58 pm »
but the valueline MCUs are hard to get in Australia (Element 14, RS Components), hardly ever any stock, so I didn't see the point of designing something with it if I have to buy it chips from the US. At least not for a hobbyist.

Damn!

I have been meaning to order some as I released the magic smoke from one of my chips by a stupid shorting error on veroboard.

I was already cursing the stuff before this, now I'll vow to never use that crap again!
The design is now on matrix board. When I was young I would have done a small PCB, but now I don't have the enthusiasm for messy chemicals and drilling those holes!
 

Offline TheDirtyTopic starter

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #110 on: January 29, 2011, 03:50:29 am »
Really wanted to use it to design and make some stuff, but the valueline MCUs are hard to get in Australia (Element 14, RS Components), hardly ever any stock, so I didn't see the point of designing something with it if I have to buy it chips from the US. At least not for a hobbyist.

You can program other devices with the Launchpad.  It's a Spy-By-Wire programmer similar to the USB sticks in the EZ430 kits.

http://hackaday.com/2010/09/28/launchpad-not-limited-to-value-line-chips/
Mark Higgins
 

Offline DJPhil

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Re: MSP430 LaunchPad - $4.30
« Reply #111 on: January 29, 2011, 10:30:39 pm »
You can program other devices with the Launchpad.  It's a Spy-By-Wire programmer similar to the USB sticks in the EZ430 kits.

http://hackaday.com/2010/09/28/launchpad-not-limited-to-value-line-chips/
Thanks for this. :)
Somehow this escaped my attention. I followed the bouncing ball and found the GoodFET project. Might prove useful to some.
 


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