Texas Instruments ZeroCode Studio

[IconicPCB]

I need some handholding.
Any willing victims out there?

[Doctorandus_P]

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

I once got a MSP340 development board for free, and I started looking into it. The datasheet looked pretty "meh", it's just another simple 8-bitter. Then I learned it does not work with GCC and I lost interest. (Oops, I was wrong here, see the comments below)

C (and C++) are pretty good languages for microcontrollers, and that's why it's still dominant after 50+ years. I guess that some 70% to 90% of all uC programming is done in these languages.

If you're interested in "click and drag" programming for uC's, then also have a look at node red.

I once saw a demo of the IDE used for the padauk uC's. It's not exactly C (but it looks a lot like it). I found the way the IDE was set up very interesting. The IDE has a lot of built in examples, and it has a interface to insert code snippets (for example for initializing a peripheral) directly into your source code. This looked like a really innovative way to start up projects quickly, and loosing none of the flexibility of writing source code. And though I admire the reverse engineering effort that started after Dave made his video about those things, the OTP nature of these things alone was a hard stop for diving any deeper. For DIY projects it really does not matter much what the cost of the IC's or a development board is, I've set a limit for around EUR10 for such boards, for myself.

[SiliconWizard]

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

I once got a MSP340 development board for free, and I started looking into it. The datasheet looked pretty "meh", it's just another simple 8-bitter. Then I learned it does not work with GCC and I lost interest.

Ironically, the MSP430 are 16-bit MCUs and there's a GCC-based compiler for it: https://www.ti.com/tool/MSP430-GCC-OPENSOURCE

[ledtester]

I once got a MSP340 development board for free, and I started looking into it. The datasheet looked pretty "meh", it's just another simple 8-bitter. Then I learned it does not work with GCC and I lost interest.

Things might have changed...

https://www.ti.com/tool/MSP430-GCC-OPENSOURCE

Also found Platform I/O support...

https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/platforms/timsp430.html

[shabaz]

If OP is targeting MSPM0 parts, then I've not used zero code so cannot comment on it, but would say that the MSPM0 parts are pretty easy to use even without that, just using TI SysConfig, if you're comfortable with coding your application logic in C. So far I've tried perhaps half a dozen of the integrated peripherals with SysConfig and it all just worked. For me, it's fast become a useful microcontroller for small simple tasks. I might try zero code with it one day just out of curiosity though.
I use the microcontroller with GCC and makefile ( I don't like CCS but personally I have no significantly rational reason for that, more emotional).

[Doctorandus_P]

Oops I blundered a bit. My info was 15+ years old (almost weird I could just walk to a drawer and take it out, the ESD package is still sealed).
Nice to see they have GCC now., but 8 or 16 bit does not matter much, it's still a low performance general purpose uC. There are many families of those.

But I am curious: What sort of advantages does MSP430 have over other families that would make them interesting (for hobbyists)?

If OP is targeting MSPM0 parts,

That's a Cortex-M0 core. Didn't know TI had those too. But still, nothing "special" these days. There are many of those too.

[SiliconWizard]

It's significantly more powerful than a typical 8-bitter, and most of all, it's an ultra-low power MCU. There's now a whole range of ultra-low power 32-bit MCUs, to the point that it has become nearly mundane, but back when it was released, it was just one of the very few and kind of unique, and it remained so for many years before the low-power ARM bunch "took over". So, that was its strong point.

There are also variants with FRAM instead of Flash, if I'm not mistaken, which is also kind of unique.

[Doctorandus_P]

It's significantly more powerful than a typical 8-bitter,

A (wild guess) 5 fold speed increase is usually completely irrelevant for uC's. In my projects, the uC is usually either idling 99+ % of it's time, or it's overwhelmed, for example when drawing graphics on a TFT LCD.

[IconicPCB]

I got introduced to C way back in 2002.
I di use it on a number of occasions since but most of it has evaporaed due to lack of use.
Zero Code is a "black box" kind of environment still very young and underdeveloped. Just like my C skills.
Sys Config is something of interest. I think it can be 'mix'd and match'd" with zero code studiosince zero code in essensce generates a bunch oh .h and .c files whihc then get compiled ( without a makefile) into a .hex file.

I had hoped Zero Code studio would have been a bit more complete an environment however my understanding does not match my hopes. I think i may have to either wait or revert to C.

[Warhawk]

I use MSPM0 regularly for small stuff. The SysConfig and provided libraries are surprisingly good, human readable and not bloated. I suggest first looking there. Also, I typically do not start with a blank project but rather import a blinky demo and start with adjustments.

For example:
...mspm0_sdk_2_01_00_03\examples\nortos\LP_MSPM0L1306\driverlib\gpio_toggle_output\

PS: I used to be a bare-metal type of coder but due to the increased complexity I switched to provided libraries. I still use bare-metal for primitive codes for e.g. PIC10-16 or MSP430 (i hate that thing).

[IconicPCB]

So Warhawk,

You use SysCofig utility to configure and define peripheralsa nd then which compiler do You use?

Is therea need for any other utility such as makefile when it comes to compiling the source code?
Is there a programing tool?
Are they perhaps all combined within the compiler ?

How readable is the output from SysConfig?

[westfw]

What sort of advantages does MSP430 have

At the time it was first introduced, it had a bunch of low-power features and you could reportedly build lower power things with it than most other microcontrollers.  (And in particular, it would wake up from low-power modes much faster than most other chips, thanks to a rather weird clock system.)

There's a "trip report" I wrote "way back when" (where the 430F flash versions were just being introduced) here: https://www.oocities.org/westfw/trip-report-msp430.txt
Low power get more attention not long after that, and it's really hard to compare low power performance from datasheets, so I don't know whether the MSP430 has held up in that department.  There is a subset that operates down to 0.9V ( https://www.mouser.com/new/texas-instruments/ti-msp430-low-voltage-mcus/ ), and there are the FRAM versions that have been mentioned already.

It does have a nice von Nueman architecture; very PDP11-like (probably the most PDP11-like I've seen in a modern-ish microcontroller.)
TI was also one of the early players in the "Arduino-Killer" development board game.  They offered an MSP430 "Launchpad" with built-in debugger for $4.30 (for a while.) (Probably that's the one you got "for free.")  IIRC, it was one of the earliest "cheap development boards" to include a debug capability.  It didn't really catch on in the Arduino Community, but there was/is an Arduino-compatible IDE/Core for it, and TI has kept up with other similar low-cost development boards for a wide range of their chips.  (Even if you think Arduino is otherwise useless, it apparently demonstrated the desirability of having development boards that "just plug in" to a USB port...)

[IconicPCB]

So apparently there are three applications

CCS 20.3.1.xxxx
MSPM0_SDK
SYSCONFIG

are all three to be installed?

Is there a conflict between SDK and CCS?

[IconicPCB]

Where in SysConfig do I set VREF to 2.5V? or is that done elsewhere?