After the initial post on new chips being shipped with the Launchpad on the MSP430 Yahoo Group, member pine from the Forums confirmed it with pictures. From what we gather, Launchpad’s now ship with the following changes:
- Higher capacity MSP430G2553 and MSP430G2452 chips instead of the G2211 and G2231.
- Male headers come presoldered.
- Changes in the RX/TX jumper setting to support both USI and USCI serial modules on the G2452 and G2553 respectively.
Header J3 changes:
Any more changes that you noticed? Let us know below.
Thanks to Rockets4Kids for first noticing it on the interwebs.
Ordered two launchpads a week ago and these arrived. I was pleased to find the much more capable G2553 and G2452 chips were included. Not pleased about the presoldered male headers but I’ve made things work.
Hi,
Ive ordered two lauchpads end november and still got the default pack …
cheers
Cor
I too recently got a few launchpads, all which have presoldered male headers, I remove them by prying up the black plastic with a spudger (thin screw driver should also work, anything to pry it up) then desoldering and removing each pin, finally I cleaned up the holes with a solder sucker then soldered the female headers in, much better for breadboard development.
I agree it just makes decisions for you. but you know
If they are going to supply female & male headers, it only makes sense for the female headers to be soldered on…. then, if you need male headers, you simply stick the included male header (may need to move the pins so they are sticking out even on both sides of the black header base) into the female header… and voila…. you have a male header.
I ordered two launchpad in november and got the new version. The only drawback is the fact that the headers comes sodered … I would have prefered female ones.
They supplied female headers in my package as well, but since the male headers are already soldered it seems rather pointless. I would have much preferred the watch crystal soldered on rather than the headers any day. The newer bigger/better chips is good news though.
Female headers are most likely for any expansion board you may want to use or design 🙂
I was thinking that myself as they couldn’t possibly expect me to unsolder the male headers. What I preferred about the female headers is they make more sense for hobbyists, as if you are breadboarding you can just wire directly from the female header to the board.
I think you forget not all Hobbyist starting out are ready to start soldering a lot of pins, some want to just start programming.
Also the male pins on the board is an industry standard for a long time, this way the new hobbyist will not put the headers in wrong per TI standard. This way with future expansion boards come out, they drop right in. Imagine you want to use a TI expansion board and your headers are in wrong.
The female headers can be placed on a expansion board to facilitate bread boarding.
Any chance for exchanges? 😀
this is bad news for shield developers, who is releasing an adapter?
I’ve ordered one Launchpad at 11th of Dec, and I still got the default pack…. I’ve only ordered because of the new CPUs and new board version…. Randomizing is not too happy thing…
Ordered two Launchpads on December 12 based on the info in the 43oh.com post. Both arrived on the 14th and had the smaller microprocesors 2231 and 2211. The board was a version 1.4 and don’t have the header or jumper modification.
I am very disappointed.
430oh needs to correct their post. Nine bucks wasted. Don’t buy any Launchpads expecting the new revision until TI makes it policy clear.
You must be one of the unlucky ones. TI did not confirm it. The post was based on pictures and reports from the Forums and the web…and it clearly states that. It would be unfortunate to discard all the old revision boards.
Look at the bright side, the ones on your board did have have the headers soldered in… and you can always purchase samples of the 2553/2452. Good luck.
“Unlucky” isn’t really an acceptable response.
My advice is not to buy any Launchpads until other “unlucky” folks buy up all the obsolete versions.
I have contacted TI to see if they will make this right. They are reluctant, but might still come through. We’ll see.
43oh.com needs to modify their article to indicate that, TI is still unloading the old version of the Launchpad.
It is unfortunate, but it is not 43oh’s fault. The article clearly mentions with proof that new chips were being shipped. The article also does not quote TI on anything, not even a news release… which you should have checked for before spending your $9.
Also, you should be happy with the unsoldered header LPs you got. You can always get the high capacity chips via the sample system. The only down side is the UART bridge which can be easily solved:
http://www.43oh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1703&p=11641#p11633
I have used female headers in my launchpad since the connections can be taken out to a breadboard with normal jumper wires. This eliminates the need for a special female-male cable. The pre-soldered male headers are definitely a bad idea. So my first task is to de-solder the headers when I get the new one.
I actually mentioned that in my repost of this news on my blog. I would much rather see them unsoldered. Maybe they can make it an option (Select whether you want unsoldered or soldered headers, shouldn’t be hard for TI to offer).
Please note that even the PCBs are different and are marked as “Rev 1.5” while the Launchpad’s that shipped in the same period but with the standard chips are with PCBs “Rev 1.4”.
I wonder what the differences are…
Actually the new starter guide all but confirms this :-
http://www.ti.com/general/docs/lit/getliterature.tsp?literatureNumber=slau318a&fileType=pdf
1.2
Kit Contents
The MSP-EXP430G2 experimenter kit includes the following hardware:
• LaunchPad emulator socket board (MSP-EXP430G2)
• Mini USB-B cable, 0.5 m
• Two MSP430 flash devices
– MSP430G2553: Low-power 16-bit MSP430 microcontroller with an 8-channel 10-bit ADC, on-chip
comparator, touch-sense enabled I/Os, universal serial communication interface, 16kB flash
memory, and 512 bytes of RAM (preloaded with a sample program)
– MSP430G2452: Low-power 16-bit MSP430 microcontroller with an 8-channel 10-bit ADC, on-chip
comparator, touch-sense enabled I/Os, universal serial interface, 8kB flash memory, and 256 bytes
of SRAM
——
The assignment of jumper J3 has been changed in MSP-EXP430G2 revision 1.5, see the
comments in Table 1 to find the assignment for a specific board revision.
Thanks for the update Madox.
I’ve used your mazda can bus rev engineering doc to decode my MZ3’s can bus. 🙂 Many thanks!
I actually ordered 6 more Launchpad’s after my colleague got the new chips, but I ended up with the old ones 🙁 I wonder when they’ll run out of stock.
The Rev 1.5 boards fixes the UART pin assignments by being able to put the jumpers vertically or horizontally for the 2553 pinout, or for the old pinout.
PS : Glad you liked the MZ3 :> I’ve just started on 430 and will have some 430 projects coming up 🙂
I just received the new launchpad from TI eStore: New revision with presoldered headers. Love it!
Every now I then I run uC workshops and I always had to solder the headers manually. So much easier now.
After reading about the new version I order boards from a distributor the week before Christmas – and I received the old version.
Lessons learned: You might want to check with your favorite distributor before you place an order.
You can order free samples of the 2553 from TI’s website. They are currently back-ordered, but I placed an order anyway. They said they should be getting in a new shipment by Jan 20.
the only issue i have with this is that the workshop labs don’t seem to work with the new chips as is.
I finally got a blinky to work but when trying to load the temp sensor code i get errors. tried making sure to use the right include for the 2452, etc but no luck. since i’m pretty new to this all i’m kind of at a stop point now until i find tutorials specific to these chips i guess. 🙁
Well, TI just screwed me over!!! We just received our production development boards (500+) and the J3 pin changes now do now match!!! I have 250 students now with LaunchPads that are not compatible with our boards. THIS IS NOT COOL!!!! Why would TI change J3 pins in the middle of their productions!!! Does this mean we can’t count on anything from TI????
(I’m mad if you can’t tell!!!!!)
TI screw me 🙁
Purchase 4 LauchPad a week ago, at now fedex bring me them at home, and… At now I have 4 LP rev1.4 with G2211&G2231. Megafault…
I rejoiced that have made shipment of more than 3 pieces for time.
I hate you, Alicia A.
That’s unfortunate. We just ordered 5 Launchpads as a test from the TI Estore. They were all v1.5
Order Date: 2/18/2012 2:14 PM
Misfortunate 🙁
PS Before I get some rev1.5, thinks all oldies gone forever…
Are all shipments for MSP430 launchpads from TI’s estore coming from the same place?
I ordered an MSP430 launchpad from mouser, order shipped Feb 13th and I got a revision 1.4
I’m new to launchpad and already not a fan of the idea of pre-soldered male headers. First thing I did with my launchpad is solder on the female headers. I’ve got an SSR connected to GND and XIN with some nice 22 gauge solid core wire. Hmm, maybe I’ll order another launchpad with my next mouser order…
Absent pull-up resistor (R34) for port pin P1.3 wrt its predecessors
Just ordered a LaunchPad from Mouser recently, got the old rev 1.4 board and tiny processors. Ended up buying some of the larger ones for the heck of it. I don’t even have a working dev environment yet, so this is a toy for months away.
You can buy it from the 43oh Store. We make sure it is the 1.5 Version.
http://store.43oh.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=51
The image of the v1.5 product shows a 14 pin chip.