Thursday, January 19, 2012

Updating the firmware on MSP430 LaunchPad

I swear I must be the only schmuckazoid in the world having so many problems with the MSP430 LaunchPad.

Well, maybe not, as a lot of other people found out (by accident) that several of the MSP430 chips were not, in fact, supported.  Kudos to TI for recognizing this - see the thread here.

Anyway, I managed with a different chip for a while, then found the LaunchPad Updater.  "Awesome!" I said.

To be safe, I tested the LP with IAR, just to make sure.  It is a bit twitchy.  For $5, you put up with a few niggles.  Worked fine.

Ran the LaunchPad Updater - version 2.0.  Didn't work.

In my case, it gave the "No MSP430Gxxx device found" error message straight off the bat.  It said it saw the LaunchPad, but not the chip in the socket.  Kinda hard to put a chip in the socket when one is already there, TI!

I tried both a '2231 and a '2152.  No luck.  Checked IAR again, yes, that works.

Anyway, in my case, what fixed it was putting in a brand-spankin' new 'G2352 - never programmed, factory-fresh.  The previous two chips were both programmed with my own application code.

Why this would make any difference, I have no idea.  All I can say is that the LPad does seem to get a bit unreliable with application code that involves LPM modes.  That could just be my imagination, or not, because in any case it should not affect the emulator.

Anyway, it did work, in the end.

If you're having problems, try a blank chip.

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