MSP430 programmer hardware-Any suggestions?

[djsb]

I'm trying out a MSP-EXP430G2ET launchpad. Are there any external/stand alone programmers available apart from using the launchpad itself as a programmer for any breadboard/pcb based circuits? Is there anything open source? Do any programmers work with ALL the MSP430 range? I'm a complete beginner with this MCU. Thanks.

[josip]

MSP-EXP430G2ET is with eZ-FET lite (based on MSP430F5528/9) that can be used with any offboard TI MSP430 SBW (JTAG is not supported) target device. Beside breakpoint debugging, there is MSP-Flasher CLI (open source) that can be used on any OS too.

All TI FET's are open software / hardware, but replicating them will be more expensive than buying original one. MSP-UIF was replicated, but for today use it is too slow. MSP-FET use FPGA for interface to target device that is closed. But, again if you check part list, doubt that replicating will put price down.

For example, I bout 5529 LP that is at mouser right now 17 euros, and 5529 itself cost 11 euros, and on LP you have 2 (5528 is identical to 5529 except pinout). 5529 LP you can transform to 2 FET masters (one original and another on target 5529 device) using one USB cable.

Why nobody till today didn't port open source TI FET firmware from 5528/9 to bluepill or recent rp2040 (to boost speed for no cost). Don't know (no enough motivation for this). TI right now working on (porting to) new MSP-FET that will be based on ARM but it is unknown if it still be open source.

So there is not existing any low cost 3rd party product like LP. Only professional / expensive like Elprotronic.

[djsb]

Is this unit from Olimex any good?

https://www.olimex.com/Products/MSP430/JTAG/MSP430-JTAG-TINY-V2/

I'm not yet familiar with the development environment used for MSP430. I would prefer to use a GCC based tool chain and not be tied into proprietary software tools such as TI's code composer studio (unless V6.1.2 is still available and free) or IAR's tools.

I have the MSP430 Microcontroller Basics by John H Davies book on the way so I will have to see what tools are used in the book.

I've not bought the MSP-EXP430G2ET yet. Would a different Launchpad be better (that does support JTAG)?

[voltsandjolts]

...or IAR's tools.

Yup. I recently got a quote of GBP 2800 for a dongled version of IAR EW430. Gulp.
They can't be selling many licenses at that price.

I have the MSP430 Microcontroller Basics by John H Davies book on the way so I will have to see what tools are used in the book.

The IAR tools, EW430!
Probably the free 8KB restricted version, which is OK for learning.

[josip]

Is this unit from Olimex any good?

https://www.olimex.com/Products/MSP430/JTAG/MSP430-JTAG-TINY-V2/

I'm not yet familiar with the development environment used for MSP430. I would prefer to use a GCC based tool chain and not be tied into proprietary software tools such as TI's code composer studio (unless V6.1.2 is still available and free) or IAR's tools.

I have the MSP430 Microcontroller Basics by John H Davies book on the way so I will have to see what tools are used in the book.

I've not bought the MSP-EXP430G2ET yet. Would a different Launchpad be better (that does support JTAG)?

Don't buy this Olimex tool (20 years old UIF like master). Also, don't buy MSP-EXP430G2ET (any DIP MSP430 on breadboard/pcb can be connected to any on board eZ-FET Lite SBW master).

If you need device with USB hardware module (and HID factory bootloader) than there is only one LP for this...

https://www.ti.com/tool/MSP-EXP430F5529LP

If USB is not important for you then take one of new FRAM LP's. At least 10 of them exists. You don't need extra FET because this on LP boards can flash / debug all SBW devices. And all, not older than 10 years have SBW interface.

You can use any tool chain you like on any OS. I learned from open source examples without books.

[djsb]

Thanks.
What is FET and SBW in regard to programming. I assume by LP you mean Launchpad. I'll see if I can find a MSP-EXP430F5529LP somewhere.

[voltsandjolts]

Mouser have 1045 of them

[josip]

Thanks.
What is FET and SBW in regard to programming. I assume by LP you mean Launchpad. I'll see if I can find a MSP-EXP430F5529LP somewhere.

FET (Flash Emulation Tool) is TI name for SBW / JTAG master. SBW (Spy-Bi-Wire ) is like JTAG interface with less wires (2 vs 4), similar to ARM SWD / JTAG.

MSP-EXP430F5529LP is with older eZ-FET that does not support energy trace, so if you think that low power consumption inspection can be important for you, maybe FRAM LP is better option. However FRAM devices don't have USB hardware module.

https://www.ti.com/tool/ENERGYTRACE

[djsb]

Just ordered a MSP-EXP430F5529LP off RS. I'll see how I get on with that first. I'll have a look at the FRAM launchpads later once I've figured out what FRAM is all about.
Is the Energia IDE any good? I see this launchpad is listed on the website. I'll go through the getting started guide first and see how I get on. Thanks everyone.

[Peabody]

My exposure to MSP430 was a decade ago, was limited to the Value Line parts (MSP430G2xxx), and assembly language.  CCS and IAR seemed like total overkill for what I was doing, so I used the Naken assembler (free, and very small) with my text editor, and used TI's command line Flasher program with the old G2 launchpad.  So that would be the minimal setup, but I don't know if that would work with the newer stuff like FR parts or USB-capable parts.

But note that most of these parts also have a BSL, and you can flash them with a USB-to-UART adapter running BSL-Scripter.  That eliminates the need for a Launchpad or other programming device, but I don't think it gives you the fine access to everything that you can get with the Flasher.

[djsb]

Yes, Id like to get to know how to use Naken and command line tools rather than getting locked into the proprietary IDE's. I'm not familiar with BSL or BSL-SCRIPTER. What are they? Thanks.






PS The last time I used TI MCU's was in 1994 to 1997. I used TMS370 MCU's and assembly language. I've been using PICS since 2010, but thought I'd give these MSP430 parts a try.

[josip]

Just ordered a MSP-EXP430F5529LP off RS. I'll see how I get on with that first. I'll have a look at the FRAM launchpads later once I've figured out what FRAM is all about.
Is the Energia IDE any good? I see this launchpad is listed on the website. I'll go through the getting started guide first and see how I get on. Thanks everyone.

Energia is Arduino like environment with some low level staff hidden. Doesn't support break point debugging like IAR and CCS. F5529 is factory preloaded with HID BSL (boot loader), so it can be used standalone without FET with BSL-Scripter CLI or Win GUI. MSP-Flasher CLI is using FET master for firmware update by SBW interface.

[Peabody]

I had forgotten about Energia, but I think it only supports a limited number of parts.   However, it appears to use this compiler, which you might want to just use directly:

https://mspgcc.sourceforge.net/original.html

Just Google BSL-Scripter download for the BSL stuff.

[djsb]

Are there any popular forums dedicated to the MSP430 that I can visit in addition to this forum? Thanks.

[josip]

Are there any popular forums dedicated to the MSP430 that I can visit in addition to this forum? Thanks.

https://forum.43oh.com/ is dead, but useful informations are still there.

And powered by TI https://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/msp-low-power-microcontrollers-group/msp430/f/msp-low-power-microcontroller-forum

[Fred27]

There used to be a great MSP430 forum at https://forum.43oh.com/ but it fizzled out a few years ago.

If you're after a separate programmer, I have a MSP-FET430UIF that I'm not using. It's the earlier version of the MSP-FET, but still worked with all the current devices last time I checked. Yours for £15 (incl. postage) if you want it. I can probably throw in a few random MSP430 bits too as I haven't done much with the MSP430 for a while.

Alternatively, if you think you want to get properly into the MSP430 I can dig through an extensive collection of Launchpads, etc. I've even got an EZ430 Chronos watch dev kit somewhere!

[djsb]

Thanks Fred27,
I'll keep your offer in mind for later. I'll see how far I get with the MSP-EXP430F5529LP for now. Thanks everyone.

David.

[Peabody]

I will add that the TI forum does have TI people participating there, so it's a real support forum, and you can often get valid information from engineers or techs who know how to find answers.  The other participants there are also pretty knowledgeable.

[brucehoult]

I'm not yet familiar with the development environment used for MSP430. I would prefer to use a GCC based tool chain and not be tied into proprietary software tools such as TI's code composer studio (unless V6.1.2 is still available and free) or IAR's tools.

gcc has supported msp430 forever, right up to and including gcc12

https://godbolt.org/z/fT1T8xfzs

I installed msp430-gcc from an Ubuntu package. For some reason this only gave 4.6.3, but it works well enough. You could build gcc12 if you want it.

Code: [Select]

$ cat fib.c
#include <stdio.h>

int fib(int n){
  return n < 2 ? n : fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);
}

int main(){
  printf("%d\n", fib(40));
  return 0;
}
$ msp430-gcc -Os -c fib.c
$ msp430-objdump -d fib.o

fib.o:     file format elf32-msp430


Disassembly of section .text:

00000000 <fib>:
   0: 0b 12        push r11
   2: 0a 12        push r10
   4: 0b 4f        mov r15, r11
   6: 0a 43        clr r10
   8: 2b 93        cmp #2, r11 ;r3 As==10
   a: 07 38        jl $+16      ;abs 0x1a
   c: 0f 4b        mov r11, r15
   e: 3f 53        add #-1, r15 ;r3 As==11
  10: b0 12 00 00 call #0x0000
  14: 2b 83        decd r11
  16: 0a 5f        add r15, r10
  18: f7 3f        jmp $-16      ;abs 0x8
  1a: 0f 4a        mov r10, r15
  1c: 0f 5b        add r11, r15
  1e: 3a 41        pop r10
  20: 3b 41        pop r11
  22: 30 41        ret

Disassembly of section .init9:

00000000 <main>:
   0: 3f 40 28 00 mov #40, r15 ;#0x0028
   4: b0 12 00 00 call #0x0000
   8: 0f 12        push r15
   a: 30 12 00 00 push #0 ;#0x0000
   e: b0 12 00 00 call #0x0000
  12: 21 52        add #4, r1 ;r2 As==10
  14: 0f 43        clr r15

lgtm

Incidentally at 36 bytes for the fib() function this is slightly larger than RISC-V (32 bytes) or Thumb2 (26 bytes) but it's very good for such an extremely simple ISA.

[justjason]

There used to be a great MSP430 forum at https://forum.43oh.com/ but it fizzled out a few years ago.

If you're after a separate programmer, I have a MSP-FET430UIF that I'm not using. It's the earlier version of the MSP-FET, but still worked with all the current devices last time I checked. Yours for £15 (incl. postage) if you want it. I can probably throw in a few random MSP430 bits too as I haven't done much with the MSP430 for a while.

Alternatively, if you think you want to get properly into the MSP430 I can dig through an extensive collection of Launchpads, etc. I've even got an EZ430 Chronos watch dev kit somewhere!

Do you, by any chance, have or use any of the newer Ti C2000 based Lauchpad ( I think the C2000 series is mostly the TMS32f2xxx mcus )?

[Fred27]

No - I've never used the C2000. They use a different programmer to the MSP430 one anyway. They use the XDS110 - which I have used a little with the Sitara on a BeagleBone.

[Doctorandus_P]

Now this old thread has been dragged up...

Is there anything open source?

A quick check suggests TI themselves support open source tools:
https://www.ti.com/tool/MSP430-GCC-OPENSOURCE#included

And apparently they also support debugging with gdb:
https://www.ti.com/lit/ml/slau591c/slau591c.pdf?ts=1694951980373