Texas instruments Code Composer Studio and Tutorials

[ADK Chris]

Hi

I have worked with motion controllers, Windows MFC & C#, some Arduino & AVR
BUT, I am having fits trying to get started with a Texas Instruments MSP432. Eventually I planned to move up a few steps from the MSP432.

I have found plenty of YouTube videos from TI and endless TI web sites with slau-this - slau-that. I can't seem to put this together into some useful info.
I know some people who swear by TI but the material they have been pointing me towards is VERY FRUSTRATING.
The problem is I am not finding much useful content. Just a lot of fluff. How do you program the things? The tutorials talk about code samples that I can't find or don't match the description. Once I find a code sample I can't find much info on the code. What do the functions do?
TI seems determined to get away from bit banging to a more abstract API.
OK
Where is the information on the functions grouped by purpose with a description of each function: what it does, what the parameters are, return values and a tiny code sample.
What am I missing?

Are there any good books that don't just point back to the TI documentation I have been struggling with?

The question is:
Is worth the effort to stick it out with TI and CCS?
Should I stick with TI and try a different IDE?
Should I switch to another brand MCU?

BTW TI keeps going on about low power. Anything is low power if you can't get it to run! I just need to get something working and working well.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[alexanderbrevig]

Embrace and learn the resource explorer.
Be sure to check the MSP432 when you install CCS.

In the resource explorer you will see samples for many of the peripherals. Get to know the code and you will see a pattern. After a while you will be able to intuit which header files you need and the functions are documented in the header files.

Getting set up with a new much and a new toolchain is a skill l. You're not the first one to have trouble with it. Just stick on it and you will get it working

I suggest to always get up and running with the IDE the manufacturer recommends. Then later you can try to set up your own if you prefer:)

Good luck!

[westfw]

TI seems determined to get away from bit banging to a more abstract API.

It sounds like you're complaining more about TI's "TivaWare" code (do they call it that on MSP432?  "DriverLib", I guess.) that they stick in ROM, than about CCS itself.  I mean, CCS is just an Eclipse install and a C compiler, right?  You can write bare metal ARM code with it just like any other IDE...  (Just read and memorize the 800+ pages of MSP432 datasheets...)
I don't like vendor libraries.  They tie you to a vendor, and their quality is frequently questionable.  ROM-based might save code space, but they also introduce extra overhead...

[ADK Chris]

I have been trying to embrace and learn Resource Explorer but it is hard to love or learn.
Most of what I have found so far has been very troubling and a waste of my time.

I am finding so much more cheer leading fluff then nuts and bolts information. The info I do find is so often obsolete and or fragmented to the point of being unreadable.

The code samples are listed in alphabetical order not it seems in order of complexity.
The introduction and 'academy' documents I have found so far seem to start with unnecessarily complicated code. Check out "adcsinglechannel'! It reads TWO ADC channels! Do you really need 3 threads for the first demonstration of using the ADC?
I am finding little or know information on the functions used in the example / demo code.

I am VERY close to walking away from using TI. Which is too bad because TI seems to offer some useful stuff.

[rsjsouza]

If you have a MSP432P device and is looking for "bit banging" examples, you should be looking at the "Register Level" examples, typically located under the Simplelink => Examples => Development Tools => <board> => Register Level.

These examples are not available for the MSP432E devices, though (don't ask me why).

The "SimpleLink Academy" starts from a much higher level that involves the libraries and the RTOS (either the FreeRTOS or their own TI-RTOS), which will require much more reading about the basics of threads and APIs (if you don't have this knowledge already). The "Overview" document contains a guided tour with labs and links to gobs of documents that cover it all - I found easy to go through the labs just to see things working, but to fully comprehend most aspects it took me quite a lot of reading (and I am not near the end). 

As a general statement, the RTOS approach is absolutely mandatory if you need any sort of protocol stack (Ethernet, USB, Wi-Fi, etc.) and there is not escaping to it - that's probably the rationale they used to steer people to start. Also, the way the RTOS is designed it will forcefully require the use of "drivers" - although you can probably create your own but will need to at least interface with the API the RTOS expects.

On the hardware side, the TI devices were never too easy to navigate (who developed with their DSPs knows what I am talking about), although in the last few years they bundled all device information into what they call "Techincal Reference Manual" - a lot easier in my opinion (before it was split in many smaller documents).

[n3rdx]

BUT, I am having fits trying to get started with a Texas Instruments MSP432. Eventually I planned to move up a few steps from the MSP432.


The question is:
Is worth the effort to stick it out with TI and CCS?
Should I stick with TI and try a different IDE?
Should I switch to another brand MCU?

BTW TI keeps going on about low power. Anything is low power if you can't get it to run!

Great question, Chris (?). I am about a few weeks ahead of you in MSP432 coding, and the process was very difficult to get started with. The TI documentation (those alphanumeric PDFs) are really written to confuse you, unless you have a few blocks of time reading and reading and reading and writing it out in the margin notes, while comparing one PDF with another in front of you. It may sound antiquated, I only could do it by printing SECTIONS (I use foxit PDF reader for this) of the PDFs using a double sided laser printer, binding them into a loose book format, and then flipping back and forth between the following documents (which are open on my desktop even now).

• MSP432P4xx SimpleLink™ Microcontrollers Technical Reference Manual (1053 pages)
• MSP432P401R, MSP432P401M SimpleLink™ Mixed-Signal Microcontrollers (198 pages)
• Multiple Time Bases on a Single MSP430™ Timer Module (13 pages)

The result is attached, and it only took me 2 whole weeks ! Just only. 2 weeks to figure out the multiplexing scheme of the pins (IN, OUT). I do not envy you the challenge of comparing contents of section 6.9.3 Timer_A in the SimpleLink document and entire Chapter 19 of the ref. manual. "Reference Manual" means in TI-speak, "every page of that document is confusing" and you can only figure this out by going on E2E forums at Texas Instruments website and asking a question with code segments - and read through their answers.

At least, now I can generate PWM and am beginning to tackle custom timebase development, and separately will work on a serial communications module for my testbed.

So, do you have:

• A digital storage oscilloscope - what type?
• A launchpad - what type?
• A plan for your software/software architecture top level diagram?
• Experience in C or C++ - what level?
• Have you done hardware before - what type? I really miss Netburner NANO54415, by now I would be done - but first time it took 2 months as well.
• Do you have time to do the required development from scratch?
• Do you know that 'cout' and 'printf' in MSP development is difficult to implement - start reading on that if you can find it. Good luck.

[n3rdx]

As a general statement, the RTOS approach is absolutely mandatory if you need any sort of protocol stack (Ethernet, USB, Wi-Fi, etc.) and there is not escaping to it - that's probably the rationale they used to steer people to start. Also, the way the RTOS is designed it will forcefully require the use of "drivers" - although you can probably create your own but will need to at least interface with the API the RTOS expects.

Here I would recommend  Amazon FreeRTOS - there are TI hooks to AWS, the IoT device can "phone home" to AWS S3 cloud !!

SIMPLELINK-CC32XX-PLUGIN-FOR-AWSIOT:
Software Plugin for Integrated Functionality With AWS IoT and SimpleLink(TM) MCU SDKs

On the hardware side, the TI devices were never too easy to navigate (who developed with their DSPs knows what I am talking about), although in the last few years they bundled all device information into what they call "Techincal Reference Manual" - a lot easier in my opinion (before it was split in many smaller documents).

Yes, I agree.