Several members have asked this question on the Forums. Rocket4Kids did a nice write up on how you can program other SBW or Spy-By-Wire MSP430 controllers with the Launchpad. His notes are concised below:
This has been mentioned a few times before but as not too many people know about it. I thought I would bring it up again with my particular spin on things. It is a little known fact that the Launchpad can easily program external chips. In fact, I only programmed a chip in the Launchpad socket itself just a few times before connecting it to an external breadboard.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is my Launchpad-breadboard setup:
To understand what is going on here, it is best to look at the schematic and PCB layout that is included in the Launchpad User’s Guide. It is important to note that the “Emulation” side is completely separate from the “EXP-MSP430G2” or “target” side. You can actually (physically) cut the board along the dashed line if you want. Aside from power and ground, all of the signals cross the dashed line via the jumper pins. If you remove the jumper pins, you have access to all of the signals required to program an external chip.
Many people also seem to be confused about the minimal support circuitry required for the MSP430, so that is definitely worth going over. The schematic in slau318 is nicely split on multiple pages to show G2/target side of things on a single page. This is essentially what you will be building on the breadboard.
Obviously the chip requires power and ground, and these are provided via the Launchpad. The power supply must be properly decoupled for proper operation. This involves a 10 uF cap (electrolytic or tantalum) somewhere on the breadboard and a 0.1 uF (a cheap ceramic is just fine) as close to the MSP430 as possible. The RST line must be held high with a 47 k resistor. If you wish to reset the chip, just apply a jumper from RST to ground. You could use a switch, but a simple wire works just fine when needed.
It is important to note that the chip is programmed over the TEST/RST lines, *not* the TX/RX serial lines. If you do not need serial communication, TX/RX do not need to be connected to the launchpad, and the pins can be used as GPIOs.
Below is Robg’s cut emulator board mounted on a breadboard for debugging/programming
Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask them below or in the Forums.
Isn’t there some smallish asymmetrical trickery either side of the dashed line to allow for the software/hardware UART selection (configurable with the orientation of 2 jumpers.)
ie wouldn’t cutting the pcb leave the hardware jumper configuration broken?
(On a latest rev board…I think 1.5)
Or put more concisely than I have above:
I believe later revisions of the board deliberately vertically reversed one of the UART jumpers to allow horizontal OR vertical jumpering.
This means there are tracks that cross the dotted line… so cutting would be a bad idea (for later revisions) and potentially one of the UART headers used for the above would need to be from below the dotted line rather than above (for those later board revisions).
I might well be wrong, but I suspect that this instructible could well trash later model boards so please double check and warn users.
Thunderclapp, with a bit of solder you can fix that problem, you need to file the protective layer from the PCB away though.
Sorry, I know this is an old post, but on what version did they do this change? I know that had something to do with the Tx and Rx being reversed in the original version because it was bit bang right? Then I’ve got disconnected from all this, and I forgot what was the problem and in what version they were going to change it, also I find really difficult to follow TI’s documentation, is this change fully documented in the Launchpad website?
I was wondering if you program a msp430 using the launchpad then take the msp430 out of the launchpad and connect it to a circuit that is not connected to a computer, will the program still be there?
Yes, it will.
Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on sites I
stumbleupon every day. It’s always exciting to read through content from other authors and use a little something from their web sites.
I’ve done this for a while, but with larger programs I’ve been having problems reliably debugging them. I’ve got a lot of intermittent freezing and “errors no source found” etc… when debugging with the launchpad. Has anyone else had this problem?
I’m trying to program and debug an MSP430F5637 with 13.5k sized code. The programming works fine, but the debugging seems buggy.
I’ve done this for a while, but with larger programs I’ve been having problems reliably debugging them. I’ve got a lot of intermittent freezing and “errors no source found” etc… when debugging with the launchpad. Has anyone else had this problem?
I’m trying to program and debug an MSP430F5637 with 13.5k sized code. The programming works fine, but the debugging seems buggy.
Forget to check email notification the first time.
i am doing a project on RF.For this i am using TI tx and rx, and MSP430G2452IPW20 micro controller. How can i interface it with MSP430 launchpad
Hello there..
I have an MSP430 Launchpad.. I have downloaded the program onto the IC.. Although I was wondering how I could remove the IC from the launchpad.. ?? Do I have de-solder it for the IC to be removed ??
The IC is in a socket, just unplug it…
I followed the above instructions to program one of my board with MSP430F2410 using launchpad via JTAG SpyBiWire using code composer studio. It looks like I have done everything right but the CC studio says — MSP430: Error connecting to the target: Could not find device (or device not supported).
I see some activities in the oscilloscope for both (RST and TEST) signals.
How to tell code composer studio that I am using SpyBiWire connection for programming as there are options for USB and UART only.
Could you please suggest some insights to my problem?
Thanks.
Hi, cutting the board as proposed would indeed sever the Rx/TX tracks and also remove one of the pins need for the UART. This is because one of the pins on the emulator side is actually directly connected to the MCU’s UART pins. Its not how it seems !
If you really want to cut the board then cut it below ALL the pins so you get to keep ALL the required pins for UART.
JJ
Hi… i know very less about launchpads, and now i want to buy MSP430G2 for a project and i want to know that if i programmed once can i change the program for the second time? and can i use the same launch pad for different projects?
Of course you can, else the board would not be very useful :).
Hi 43oh,
I want use +5v and GND from g2 emulator.How I can interface with msp430fr5969.Is there any +5v source in fr5969 controller itself? Help me
Regards
Veeresh
The MSP430FR5969 doesn’t use +5V itself, and doesn’t have any 5V input or output pins.
The G2 launchpad doesn’t output 5V either; VCC on that board is 3.6V.
That’s not 100% true. The G2-Launchpad have two holes near the mini-usb, if you solder one pin at each hole, you will have a GND pin (TP3) and a 5V VCC pin (TP1). For whatever you need it.
Can this set up be used to program any msp430 microcontroller, for example, I’m using map430i2030 and would like to use launchpad rather than other expensive target boards.
Can programm msp430f427
I have an MSP430F5529-based board which provides only the 4-wire JTAG interface.
I noted that on the USB LaunchPad MSP‑EXP430F5529LP the pins TP104, TP105, TP106… TP110 correspond to this interface according to its documentation.
Is it possible to use these pins to debug and program my MSP430F5529 device using that? If not, which is the purpose of these pins?
Is it possible to use e.g. an MSP430F launchpad to program MSP430G2 devices? Because the G2 devices are not supported when running CCS on Ubuntu.
The MSP430F5529 Launchpad for example has the EZ-FET Lite programmer/debugger on board. http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ-FET_lite. A note in that page says that as long as the MSP430 has SBW capability, you should be ok programming the MSP430, with the EX-FET Lite.