Welcome!  Let’s start today with a review of the Texas Instruments MSP430 LaunchPad kit, aka the MSP-EXP430G2.  It’s a great value for the experimenter at only $4.30. The kit includes a ‘G2553, the premier chip in the Value Line of microcontrollers. Almost an oxymoron, isn’t it. Lucky for us, this chip hits the sweet spot of cheap and loaded with features.

TI upgraded the kit in late 2011 to include this more capable microcontroller and a lesser spare chip, the ‘G2452. I’m not sure why the spare is included, maybe for breadboarders or people who can’t keep their bug-zappy fingers off the pins.

How do these devices stack up?  Check out their features in the table below, or on TI’s Product Search page. Future articles will focus on the MSP430G2553, so pay particular attention to the stats on that puppy.

TI MSP430 LaunchPad Comparison

Have I “sparked” your interest yet? Alrighty, then. You’ll need your own board and a little free software to keep up with the program. Do it now, and you’ll be up and running in a week. I’ll do my best to keep you afloat as we push the LaunchPad to its limits. These links oughta get you moving…

• Texas Instruments
  • New! MSP430 LaunchPad Portal
  • MSP430 LaunchPad Wiki
• Documents
  • LaunchPad User’s Guide
  • IAR C/C++ Compiler Reference Guide for MSP430
  • MSP430Gx2xx Family User’s Guide
    • Don’t let this guide intimidate you, it’s a reference.  We’ll break it down in digestible chunks.
• Software
  • Code Composer Studio
  • IAR Embedded Workbench for MSP430, Kickstart Edition (alternative)
  • PuTTY
  • MSP430 Code Examples from Texas Instruments

If you’re adventurous, feel free to choose an alternate Integrated Development Environment (IDE) such as IAR Embedded Workbench or Open Source MSPGCC, but you’ll be on your own (or maybe not…).  I use Code Composer Studio simply because I hit the code size limit on IAR EW.  The Kickstart compiler is limited to 4 kilobytes of executable code, which can be a problem if you suck in even a few C libraries.  The code limit in CCS is 16K.  We’re building from the ground up, with no cushy libraries.  Well, maybe some definition files, but NO bloat!  We’ll be good for a while.

You’ll need a decent terminal emulator like HyperTerminal (gone from Windows 7), PuTTY, or Tera Term.  I prefer PuTTY because it’s always worked for me, from way back in the terminal days.

Have you ordered that LaunchPad yet?  While you’re waiting on it, see if you can install the IDE and get it working.  You’ll want to set it up for the MSP430G2553 target, and select the simulator option for now, rather than the actual hardware.  Create a project and experiment.

As far as I know, you have to re-do settings every time you make a new project.  This is my only beef with IAR EW and to some extent CCS.  [TODO: verify steps to clone project in CCS]  Other than a few odd crashes…there is no easy way to clone a project!  I like to build on past projects, and keep them intact.  The closest I have come to cloning is to create a new project, change settings, copy files from the old project, ADD files to the new project, and beat on it until it compiles.  Wheeee!

Next up…

Blinkety-blinkety-blink.  We’re not ready for “Hello World” yet.  Welcome to embedded programming!

And eventually…

Bit-banging on the serial port when you can’t find a UART.  And…fixing TI’s mistake.  Any guesses what it could be?