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How to skip MSP430 Shutdown Protection Modes

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: DLPC300

Hi,

I have 2 DLP® LightCrafter™ Evaluation Modules with the LEDs removed. The two of them have stopped working due to MSP430 protection modes as I can see in led D3:

- System voltage less than 3.8 V or greater than 5.2 V 

- Light engine thermistor above 70°C 

I would like to skip these shutdown protection modes. How can I do it?

Thanks, Pepe

  • Hi Pepe,

    Out of curiousity, why did you remove the LEDs on the Lightcrafters?To void these shutdown protection modes, you'll have to modify the firmware. The package can be found here. Scroll down the page until you see the list of "DLP LightCrafter Firmware and Software Bundles" for various OS.

    Once you've downloaded the ZIP, find the DLP3000-C300REF_MSP430-SourceCode-v3.0 directory. Edit dlpc300_Lightcrafter.c in the code editor of your choice. I would recommend starting by editing the ISR which controls THERMISTOR_SENSING and SYS_VOLTAGE_SENSING. You should be able to simply get rid of the conditions by changing from:

    #if THERMISTOR_SENSING to #if 0

    After modifying the code, recompile it and reload it to the LCr using the GUI. Under the "Upgrade/Splash" tab, select MSP430 from the Upgrade dropdown.

    Let me know if this works for you. 

    Thanks,

    Paul

  • Hi Paul,

    Thanks for your answer.

    I removed the LED's to accommodate one Laser of my choice. One LCr with this modification was working fine until it stopped working. The other LCr was modified in the same way by a colleague of mine but this one never worked.

    I will try to accomplish the process you suggest me and let you know.

    Thanks, Pepe
  • I tried to connect the LCr using the GUI, problem is that LCr doesn't boot due to shutdown measure I guess. The LCr is not seen by my PC in Network Settings either or ifconfig/all in command prompt

    What can I do?
    I saw that in the current software bundle, my two issues are solved!!

    Pepe
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    MSP430 Firmware version 3.0
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    New Features:
    * Supports operation without light engine connected to DLP LightCrafter

    Bug Fixes:
    * Fixed the bug which caused the LED Overvoltage shutdown protection mode to occur when the device was powered down
  • What level of disassembled is your LCr? Could you reattach the LEDs just to update the firmware and then rebuild your set-up?

    Let me do a little digging and I'll get back to you to see if there is a software solution.

    Paul

  • Pepe,

    Is your power supply in the correct voltage range? It would seem to me that if your power supply were correct that the only option that would be causing the shutdown would be the Thermistor. Perhaps the laser is heating up the DMD too much?

    Can you do some sort of cooling to the board (temp chamber, etc) to try to get rid of that error state?

    Just another thought.
    Paul
  • Pepe,

    Unfortunately it looks like the only answer is for you to rebuild the hardware to the point where you can load the new firmware. I'm sorry that we don't have a better answer.

    Paul
  • Hi Paul,

    Thanks a lot for your effort. Indeed, the best way seems to reattach the LEDs just to update the firmware and then rebuild the set-up. I was also looking at flash the msp430 using a jtag connector and all that, but I think it is worth trying your path. So I will try it and let you know.

    The other board really seems to have a short somewhere, because it drains all the current set on the power supply even increasing the current limit.

    By the way, is the LCr very static sensitive ? I ask this because I don't see where the short can come from...

    Thanks again, I'll keep you posted,
    Pepe
  • Hi Paul,
    I reattached the LEDs on the two boards. They don't seem to work :(

    - One board goes on the protection 'Light engine thermistor above 70°C' mode
    - Second board (the one which I think has a short circuit) makes the LED go 'crazy' like randomly flashing. This shows that the LED's are well connected, just the board is driving crazy. 

    conclusion: I cannot connect to them, so cannot upload new firmware

    Can you think in something else?
    Thanks a lot for your effort, Pepe

  • Pepe,

    I'm not aware of the LCr being particularly static sensitive. To clarify, is one of the indicator LEDs going crazy (D3, etc) or are the actual LEDs that shine onto the DMD flashing randomly?

    Honestly, I don't know that I have any other ideas. If one board has a short, that's a diagnosis that's pretty difficult to overcome. It is possible that the FW got corrupted on various components of the board, you could try loading new firmware from an SD card and see if that solves the problem. Can you try following the steps in this post? e2e.ti.com/.../359813

    Sorry for all the difficulties.
    Paul
  • Hi Paul,

    Thanks for the quick reply and 'caring' with my issue.

    I meant the actual LEDs that shine onto the DMD flashing randomly.

    In fact, I was thinking of uploading new firmware in any other way. Your link seems to be perfect for that.

    I will try and let you know. Thanks again! we will make it :)

    Pepe
  • Hi Paul,

    So I followed the steps in link e2e.ti.com/.../359813 to boot from the SD card. NO luck!

    Is there any way to upload new firmware into the MSP430 without the GUI?

    Thanks Paul
  • Pepe,

    I'm afraid there isn't - I'm sorry. I think we've exhausted our options.

    Paul
  • Paul,

    Ok I see, I will buy another one. I hope the next LCr 3000 last for a little longer. Do you think that the latest MSP430 Firmware version 3.0 will overcome the issues I had with my latest 2 LCr 3000?

    Thanks for all your help, Pepe

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    MSP430 Firmware version 3.0
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    New Features:
    * Supports operation without light engine connected to DLP LightCrafter

    Bug Fixes:
    * Fixed the bug which caused the LED Overvoltage shutdown protection mode to occur when the device was powered down
  • Pepe,

    It should. If on the off chance that it doesn't, you'll be able to easily load the new FW before you make any modifications to the board.

    Paul
  • Hi Paul,

    I am back :)

    I am not sure about changing the MSP430 Firmware or not. To me it seems that, since I am NOT going to use the LEDs, I may disable all the checks related to LEDs and light engine. Basically, having all the following set to 0. What do you think? will it help me avoid unexpected shutdowns and not booting again (as it happened before)?

    Thanks Paul!

    #define THERMISTOR_SENSING 1 // LightEngine overtemperature sensing
    #define LED_DRIVER_SENSING 0 // If LED_DRIVER_SENDING is enabled (1) and R139 on driver board is not installed, LightCrafter will enter shutdown mode after booting.
    #define LED_ENABLE_SENSING 1 // LED_ANODE overvoltage sensing using LED_ENABLE
  • Pepe,

    At this point, knowing exactly what you need is going to be up to you. If you are going to be disconnecting the LEDs and don't want to be monitoring the DMD Thermistor, then I would say what you are proposing is a good start.

    Now that you are able to connect to the GUI and update the FW as you like, I would encourage you to make changes in such a way that you can recover back to your starting point if something goes wrong. Make code changes before you make any hardware changes so you can at least see if modifying the code causes any unexpected issues with the LCr.

    Paul
  • Hi Paul,

    Reading about in the forum I found something I was also thinking of doing to avoid surprises. That is, make our own cable with some resistors instead of LEDs ( as said here e2e.ti.com/.../361756)

    The question is:

    - Is this solution more reliable than just remove the LEDS?
    - The latest firmware allows to work with LED removed so in principle replacing the LED by resistors should not be a better solution or yes?

    Moreover, how about to disable light output, SO I keep the LED ribbon cable with LEDs connected BUT loose. Then the LED_EN signals going into the LED driver circuit can be disabled, 

    Question is:

    - Is this a better solution than just removing the LEDS


    Thanks for your help, Pepe

  • Pepe,

    The link you provided doesn't work for me - I'd like to read it if you can try to repost it. We haven't done much work with removing the LEDs from the LCr, so I can't really say which will be better.

    For testing, I would lean toward disconnecting the LED driver ribbon before physically disconnecting anything, again with the idea being that you'll be able to revert back to the original state of the EVM while you test your code.

    Paul
  • The link is :

    e2e.ti.com/.../361756

    See entry at Sep 4, 2014 11:02 AM

    Paul,

    Can you elaborate a little bit more (pros and cons, potential issues, ...) on :

    - The latest firmware allows to work with LED removed (right?) so in principle replacing the LED by resistors should not be a better solution or yes?

    - what do you mean by "...disconnecting the LED driver ribbon before physically disconnecting anything..."

    Thanks, Pepe
  • Thanks for sharing that with me.

    Sorry for the confusion. The latest FW should allow the LEDs to be removed. To test the code, try to disconnect the LEDs in a non destructive way. Don't do any unsoldering or cutting of traces or wires. You want to be able to get back to the original state of the LCr in case something goes wrong.

    Paul
  • Hi Paul,

    Sorry I am so coming back to this all the time, but I want to go very slow, very sure before I do something that takes me back with a broken LCr.

    So now my options (after rejecting putting the LED current to zero) are:

    - Completely remove the LEDs from optical engine and LED ribbon WITHOUT firmware change (as I had it on my previous LCr)
    - Completely remove the LEDs from optical engine and LED ribbon WITH firmware change
    - Take LEDs away from their holes in optical engine but NOT the LED ribbon and do firmware change

    The MSP430 firmware change will be to put the following to 0, so no shutdown checks
    #define THERMISTOR_SENSING 0
    #define LED_DRIVER_SENSING 0
    #define LED_ENABLE_SENSING 0
  • Pepe,

    Ultimately the path you choose would be up to you. We don't know the specifics of your application and can only offer limited guidance. That said, if this were me, here is how I would approach this:

    Step 1: disconnect LEDs such that they can be reconnected easily, DO NOT change FW, and run the board. If that works then you have confirmed that the FW v3.0 does in fact allow you to run the system without the LEDs connected and you can jump to Step 3.

    Step 2: if step 1 doesn't work, disconnect the LEDs such that they can be reconnected easily. DO change the FW and run the board. If that works, you have now confirmed that your code works. If the code doesn't work, then continue to modify until it does.

    Step 3: Once you have a system that works without the LEDs connected, perform your permanent modifications to the LEDs.

    Of course the caveat here is that modifying the LCr does void the warranty, and TI is not responsible for any issues that may occur during modification. But the steps above are how I would go about this problem.

    Hope this helps,

    Paul

  • Hi Paul,

    Thanks for your time.

    Actually the LCr works withthe LEDs removed. The question is for how long and for what reason it suddenly stops working... that's what worries me. That is why I thought that disabling the shutdown protection modes will avoid that (for some unknown reason) the LCr shusts down.

    Anyway, I think you gave me all the answers, so I will verify and close the line :)