[Lab] Launch pad

Mon Sep 20 12:26:11 EDT 2010

Yeah I bought mine on the second day and received it last week.  If
you order one of these I would order it right from the TI store and
not a retailer.

check out their wiki.
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_LaunchPad_%28MSP-EXP430G2%29

if you have only used the arduino, keep in mind that the launch pad is
a little bit more complicated to program than the arduino.  But
nothing you can't learn.
If you are interested in my code though let me know.  Ill try to leave
more detail comments than in the example code.  You can get an Idea of
how it works

Jean-Marc Le Blanc
---

"Do you pine for the nice days of Minix-1.1, when men were men and
wrote their own device drivers?" Linus Torvalds

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 11:18 AM, Tom Burns <tom.i.burns at gmail.com> wrote:
> Launch pad is under $5 apiece shipped when purchasing from the TI e-store
> and comes with a USB programmer that also serves as debugger and USB
> backlink.  Only annoyance is a long lead time as they're constantly
> backordered.. I bought 3 for $14 back in June and received them about 2-3
> weeks ago.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Darcy Whyte <darcy at siteware.com> wrote:
>>
>> The Launch Pad thing is less than $5?
>> My arduino was around 30 bucks assembled.
>> Wow! Your baby's already getting married?
>> --
>> Darcy Whyte
>> Darcy at Siteware.com
>> 613-563-3634
>> Ottawa, Canada | N 45° 25'03.1" W 75° 42'21.4"
>>
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>>
>> Social Media, Interaction, SEO
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>>
>> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Jean-Marc LeBlanc
>> <jeanmarc.leblanc at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hey guy,
>>> I been using the launch pad for about a week now.  I have not done
>>> that much with it yet, but I have enough to have a few comments in
>>> regards.  The first thing I will point out, is that it is not as easy
>>> to use as the arduino.  The arduino has its own library that
>>> simplifies allot of things.  For example if you want to write to the
>>> serial port with the arduino it is only a matter of serial.open(baud);
>>>  serial.print()  or similar.  On the launch pad, you would need to
>>> figure out how to divide your clock, set an interrupt every X number
>>> of cycles and set the bit manually.  Same thing with the analog pins.
>>> That being said if you have used the arduino with simply the AVR c
>>> code, then this is not any thing different or if you used any other
>>> similar processor.
>>>
>>> That being said, if you are ok with the take on programming this is a
>>> great development platform.  The thing that has impressed me the most
>>> is the debugger.  Normally you would need either an expensive
>>> development board or some JTag.  I never ventured into JTag since it
>>> looked expensive and complicated and it looked scary ( I don't know if
>>> it really is though).  This though, is 4.61$ and you can debug your
>>> code.  you can set break points, you can see the value of you
>>> variables and step threw your code.  All you need to do is hit the
>>> debug button the the eclipse IDE and debug it as you would any other
>>> eclipse code.
>>>
>>> The chip it self is not as powerful as the AVR (arduino). These 16 bit
>>> processors, only has 2k Flash program space and 128 byte of ram.
>>> Though for simple projects or drivers these are prefect.  They are
>>> cheap and you can even sample some for free.  A good use for them
>>> would be for sensor drivers or line drivers.  For example you could
>>> have that chip read the temperature convert it to Celsius and then
>>> that to your arduino (kinda like 2 threads).  I say this because they
>>> have some neat features like 10 analog pins.  Another thing I like is
>>> you can set an interrupt on raising or falling edges or change of any
>>> digital pin.  To my understanding AVR only has 2 pins for that (please
>>> correct me if i am wrong).
>>>
>>> As for the documentation, it took me a while to find what I needed.
>>> There is allot of example code with really bad comments so they are
>>> not that helpful.  what I found the most helpful was the uses guide
>>> with the data sheet.  I think it would be better if there were more
>>> comments or explanation.
>>>
>>> I have managed to send data to the serial port and read my snes
>>> controller.  With the new baby and wedding coming up this week end ;)
>>> I have not had time yet to put them all together so that it works.  I
>>> hope to have my SNES controller work on my PC by the end of the week.
>>> If any one is interested in the source.  I will try to comment it as
>>> much as I can so first time users will understand what is going on.
>>>
>>> P.S.
>>> if you are worried about the small program space, my code is only 64
>>> bytes and 16 bytes ram.
>>>
>>> Jean-Marc Le Blanc
>>> ---
>>>
>>> "Do you pine for the nice days of Minix-1.1, when men were men and
>>> wrote their own device drivers?" Linus Torvalds
>>>
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