Dead Launchpad FET

[alexwhittemore]

I ran into what I'm pretty certain is a hardware issue with my Launchpad board today. I've used it successfully before, but CCS started complaining about no USB FET present. Comparing with my same chip and a friend's board, it looks like the flash emulation portion of the board just up and kicked the bucket on me. Maybe I shocked it or something without knowing.

Anyway, has anyone had a similar issue? Anyone know if there's a way to reset the FET portion? For $4.30 it's almost certainly not worth my time, but hey, I hate to waste a good board.

[vtl]

Does the device show up in device manager? (I assume you're using Windows). If so you might try flashing the firmware

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_LaunchPad_Firmware_Update

I must say these boards are pretty resilient though, I've accidentally short circuited VDD to VSS many times and the internal protection on the board works a treat.

[alexwhittemore]

I mean, shorting VDD and GND should be the last thing that *Bricks* a device . If you haven't considered that contingency, you're just not trying.

But anyway, no, the device fails to install automatically in a new machine, then doesn't show in device manager, hence my suspicion it's beyond repair. But I'll have a look at the link when I get a chance, thanks!