I just received a MSP-EXP430F5438 exploration board and MSP-FET430UIF debug interface from another engineer to start development on an MSP430 project. Unfortunately, they came without the software CDs.
I downloaded CCS 5.2.1 from the TI web site and installed with ARM and MSP430 features. When I plugged in the FET, the computer recognized it and apparently installed a driver from somewhere (and gave it message that the hardware was ready), since the computer tinkles when the FET is connected with no error messages.
When I opened CCS, I was able to select a sample program, but it is not apparent how I select the FET to use as a debugger. The Help menu has no obvious help.
How do I configure and enable CCS to use the FET?
Thad
Hi Thad,
for MSp430 projects, CCS automatically more or less creates a target configuration and decides on Spy-Bi-Wire vs JTAG etc etc. Basically you should simply be able to plug in the FET and debug.
If you want to get to some advanced settings then open the target configuration file. This is the .ccxml file in the project. In there you can see the emulator/port etc. You can also verify in the device manager. With CCSv5 you should see the FEt come up with two items. It should create a VIrtual MSP430 COM port and also show up as a USB CDC device.
Does this help?
Best Regards,LIsa
That helped me to find the problem.
I verified the MSP430 virtual com port. I did more exploring in Code Composer and found my earlier mistake: when I asked to debug, it said that a low-power adviser has comments and asked if I wanted to proceed. I didn't care about low-power advice at that time, so canceled to not pursue an irrelevant path. Apparently I canceled not only low-power advice, but debugging as well! When I later proceeded (instead of canceling), the debugger launched, asked me to update the FET driver, which I did, then proceeded to debug properly.
A clearer message for user input would have eliminated my problem.
Thanks for your quick and helpful response.
glad to hear you are up and running. If I remember correctly there should be a "do not show this again" tick box on the low power advisor message.
All the best with development
Best Regards,
Lisa