<br clear="all">I tried it earlier to order 4 for experimenting but it gave 404 after I tried to check out. No link was given so I'm not sure I was at the right place for ordering. Is that a good place for ordering them?<div>
<br></div><div>Darcy<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Jean-Marc LeBlanc <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jeanmarc.leblanc@gmail.com">jeanmarc.leblanc@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Yeah I bought mine on the second day and received it last week. If<br>
you order one of these I would order it right from the TI store and<br>
not a retailer.<br>
<br>
check out their wiki.<br>
<a href="http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_LaunchPad_%28MSP-EXP430G2%29" target="_blank">http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_LaunchPad_%28MSP-EXP430G2%29</a><br>
<br>
if you have only used the arduino, keep in mind that the launch pad is<br>
a little bit more complicated to program than the arduino. But<br>
nothing you can't learn.<br>
If you are interested in my code though let me know. Ill try to leave<br>
more detail comments than in the example code. You can get an Idea of<br>
how it works<br>
<div class="im"><br>
<br>
Jean-Marc Le Blanc<br>
---<br>
<br>
"Do you pine for the nice days of Minix-1.1, when men were men and<br>
wrote their own device drivers?" Linus Torvalds<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</div><div><div></div><div class="h5">On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 11:18 AM, Tom Burns <<a href="mailto:tom.i.burns@gmail.com">tom.i.burns@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Launch pad is under $5 apiece shipped when purchasing from the TI e-store<br>
> and comes with a USB programmer that also serves as debugger and USB<br>
> backlink. Only annoyance is a long lead time as they're constantly<br>
> backordered.. I bought 3 for $14 back in June and received them about 2-3<br>
> weeks ago.<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Darcy Whyte <<a href="mailto:darcy@siteware.com">darcy@siteware.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> The Launch Pad thing is less than $5?<br>
>> My arduino was around 30 bucks assembled.<br>
>> Wow! Your baby's already getting married?<br>
>> --<br>
>> Darcy Whyte<br>
>> Darcy@Siteware.com<br>
>> 613-563-3634<br>
>> Ottawa, Canada | N 45° 25'03.1" W 75° 42'21.4"<br>
>><br>
>> Inspirational Flying Machines:<br>
>> <a href="http://www.rubber-power.com" target="_blank">http://www.rubber-power.com</a><br>
>> MAAC 23153<br>
>><br>
>> Social Media, Interaction, SEO<br>
>> <a href="http://www.generalSocial.com" target="_blank">www.generalSocial.com</a><br>
>><br>
>> Software services since 1988<br>
>> Web, Database, LAMP<br>
>> <a href="http://www.Siteware.com" target="_blank">www.Siteware.com</a><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Jean-Marc LeBlanc<br>
>> <<a href="mailto:jeanmarc.leblanc@gmail.com">jeanmarc.leblanc@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>>><br>
>>> Hey guy,<br>
>>> I been using the launch pad for about a week now. I have not done<br>
>>> that much with it yet, but I have enough to have a few comments in<br>
>>> regards. The first thing I will point out, is that it is not as easy<br>
>>> to use as the arduino. The arduino has its own library that<br>
>>> simplifies allot of things. For example if you want to write to the<br>
>>> serial port with the arduino it is only a matter of serial.open(baud);<br>
>>> serial.print() or similar. On the launch pad, you would need to<br>
>>> figure out how to divide your clock, set an interrupt every X number<br>
>>> of cycles and set the bit manually. Same thing with the analog pins.<br>
>>> That being said if you have used the arduino with simply the AVR c<br>
>>> code, then this is not any thing different or if you used any other<br>
>>> similar processor.<br>
>>><br>
>>> That being said, if you are ok with the take on programming this is a<br>
>>> great development platform. The thing that has impressed me the most<br>
>>> is the debugger. Normally you would need either an expensive<br>
>>> development board or some JTag. I never ventured into JTag since it<br>
>>> looked expensive and complicated and it looked scary ( I don't know if<br>
>>> it really is though). This though, is 4.61$ and you can debug your<br>
>>> code. you can set break points, you can see the value of you<br>
>>> variables and step threw your code. All you need to do is hit the<br>
>>> debug button the the eclipse IDE and debug it as you would any other<br>
>>> eclipse code.<br>
>>><br>
>>> The chip it self is not as powerful as the AVR (arduino). These 16 bit<br>
>>> processors, only has 2k Flash program space and 128 byte of ram.<br>
>>> Though for simple projects or drivers these are prefect. They are<br>
>>> cheap and you can even sample some for free. A good use for them<br>
>>> would be for sensor drivers or line drivers. For example you could<br>
>>> have that chip read the temperature convert it to Celsius and then<br>
>>> that to your arduino (kinda like 2 threads). I say this because they<br>
>>> have some neat features like 10 analog pins. Another thing I like is<br>
>>> you can set an interrupt on raising or falling edges or change of any<br>
>>> digital pin. To my understanding AVR only has 2 pins for that (please<br>
>>> correct me if i am wrong).<br>
>>><br>
>>> As for the documentation, it took me a while to find what I needed.<br>
>>> There is allot of example code with really bad comments so they are<br>
>>> not that helpful. what I found the most helpful was the uses guide<br>
>>> with the data sheet. I think it would be better if there were more<br>
>>> comments or explanation.<br>
>>><br>
>>> I have managed to send data to the serial port and read my snes<br>
>>> controller. With the new baby and wedding coming up this week end ;)<br>
>>> I have not had time yet to put them all together so that it works. I<br>
>>> hope to have my SNES controller work on my PC by the end of the week.<br>
>>> If any one is interested in the source. I will try to comment it as<br>
>>> much as I can so first time users will understand what is going on.<br>
>>><br>
>>> P.S.<br>
>>> if you are worried about the small program space, my code is only 64<br>
>>> bytes and 16 bytes ram.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Jean-Marc Le Blanc<br>
>>> ---<br>
>>><br>
>>> "Do you pine for the nice days of Minix-1.1, when men were men and<br>
>>> wrote their own device drivers?" Linus Torvalds<br>
>>><br>
>>> _______________________________________________<br>
>>> Lab mailing list<br>
>>> <a href="mailto:Lab@artengine.ca">Lab@artengine.ca</a><br>
>>> <a href="http://artengine.ca/mailman/listinfo/lab" target="_blank">http://artengine.ca/mailman/listinfo/lab</a><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> _______________________________________________<br>
>> Lab mailing list<br>
>> <a href="mailto:Lab@artengine.ca">Lab@artengine.ca</a><br>
>> <a href="http://artengine.ca/mailman/listinfo/lab" target="_blank">http://artengine.ca/mailman/listinfo/lab</a><br>
>><br>
><br>
><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>