TI MSP430 Programmer Without PC?

[hal9001]

Is there a way to program a MSP430FR with SBW or BSL without using a PC? I want to load the firmware to a stand alone board like a Arduino or another MSP430 and use that to program other MSP430s.


Cheers!

[josip]

Yes, it is possible. There is open source MSP430 Replicator (https://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slau320aj/slau320aj.pdf) with some reported but never cleared bugs. MSP Debug stack (https://www.ti.com/tool/MSPDS) is much better (regarding bugs) but it is related to master PC. Case where target is FR is less complicated because there is no timing requests, and only needed functions are Quick Read/Write.

Of course, you can use BSL, where beside entry sequence (TEST & RESET pin on target) it is based on UART communication. MSP Debug Stack support BSL, so you can check how it is done there. BSL Scripter (PC Side) is also open source, not important that is written for PC side. There is also G2 LP based master BSL (https://www.ti.com/lit/an/slaa535a/slaa535a). BSL is covered by slau319 (https://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slau319af/slau319af.pdf).

[gnuarm]

What about an rPi?  If the programming software runs under Linux, that should do the job.  I think I did that many years ago.  My lab is downstairs and I got tired of running back and forth (also tired of working down there).  I set up the rPi to be controlled from the laptop through the rPi.  The actual MSP430 programming software had to be on the rPi. 

See if TI supports Linux.

[hal9001]

Yes, it is possible. There is open source MSP430 Replicator (https://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slau320aj/slau320aj.pdf) with some reported but never cleared bugs. MSP Debug stack (https://www.ti.com/tool/MSPDS) is much better (regarding bugs) but it is related to master PC. Case where target is FR is less complicated because there is no timing requests, and only needed functions are Quick Read/Write.

Of course, you can use BSL, where beside entry sequence (TEST & RESET pin on target) it is based on UART communication. MSP Debug Stack support BSL, so you can check how it is done there. BSL Scripter (PC Side) is also open source, not important that is written for PC side. There is also G2 LP based master BSL (https://www.ti.com/lit/an/slaa535a/slaa535a). BSL is covered by slau319 (https://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slau319af/slau319af.pdf).

Thanks for all the info! I think MSP430 Replicator doesn't support MSP430FR series but it is useful!

Has any one written a stand alone BSL master for the MSP430FR? I can find examples of BSL bridges controlled by PC but none that are stand alone.

[rsjsouza]

The MSP430 Flasher is open source, is ported to both Windows, Linux and OSX and AFAIK supports the FRAM devices.

https://www.ti.com/tool/MSP430-FLASHER

[Peabody]

Do you need to be able to flash a large number of new chips, or would you be updating existing firmware?  If the latter, you could include your own "bootloader" as part of your FR code.  It could be as simple as you want - the starting address, the actual code, and a checksum.  You would develop an algorithm that the FR and the other device would use, and write that code for both.  I developed an SD card bootloader for some of the older MSP430 parts, and it just opened the SD card, found the latest binary file, and copied its contents into flash memory.  In assembler it was 1K, but almost all of that was dealing with the SD card.  If you're just receiving UART, it really could be very simple.  And remember that with TI's BSL you have to deal with the password, which can be a pain in the butt.

[josip]

Thanks for all the info! I think MSP430 Replicator doesn't support MSP430FR series but it is useful!

MSP430 Replicator support MSP430x2xx and MSP430x5xx flash familly and FRAM family as target devices. If you open sources you will see that is separated in 3 project's (2xx, 5xx and FRAM). Also functions names prefix in source files is different.

If your comment is related to default Replicator master 5xx device, than it is the same CPUXv2 as any FRAM device, with minimum difference between registers.