Hello everybody,
it tried to programm a MSP430 (from an eZ430-RF2480 - former ez430-RFZACC06) with the SmartRF Flash Programmer for the first time. Moreover I used gcc (mspgcc) for compiling and linking a c-coded program the first time, too. Before that I always used IDE's to do all the work at once. The program consists of a sourcefile (*.c), some standart header-files like stdio.h and stdlib.h and the controller specific header-files.
The programmingtool finds the right controller and the connection but when I try to programm the controller with the created .hex-file the programmer shows the error-message "Could not determine file type". The compiler doesn´t show an error on compiling and linking the file.
My questions now are:
What would cause such an error message?
Are there any special parameters that i should set for compiling the source by calling mspgcc (at the moment i only tell him the source file with the main function and the hex-file to create (object))?
could anyone may help me please
Roldi
The SmartRF Flash Programmer is designed for the SoC devices like the CC2430, CC2431, etc. It will not program the MSP430 on the eZ430-RF2380. The MSP430 on that board can be reprogrammed via IAR IDE, CCS IDE or any other IDE that programs the MSP430.
Scott
But why is the programming of a MSP430 descripted in the manual of the programmer?
It's chapter "4.3 MSP430 programming" and it says that you can program a MSP430 using the eZ430 USB dongle (which is part of the eZ430-RF2380 Dev-Kit).
My mistake. The user manual does say that the eZ430 emulater can be used.
Double-check that the drivers for the board are correctly installed. Uninstall them and reinstall them if necessary.
Did you get program the msp430? I'm in the same situation. I have compile a file with mspgcc and i want to upload to the msp430 but i can do it whit the SmartRf flash programmer. I read the you can program the msp430 whit the MSPGCC tool chain. Did you test this tools? Now i'm trying to make the upload whit this tool chain
Hi,
I didn't follow this problem for a while because I deleted some of my C-code because which was not realy important for the demonstration purpose (like using LEDs to show activities) and sourced out some parts of the code to an apllication on an PC (like calculating the measured values in an PC programm and only tranymit the raw data from the ADC).
With all this done I finally managed to compile and link my software for the MSP with Code Composer Essential's Core Edition which is available for free (now Code Composer Studio v4 Core Edition).
Thanks Roldi for you quick answer. One more question. Why didn't you used the IAR Embedded workbech instead of the Code Composer? Because i already have that software and i'm not used to the latter one. I don't have trouble to change to the Code Composer, but i want to know the reasons of the choice if there any special.
Thanks again
I've started programming MCU only around half a year ago, when i finished my study of engineering physics and came to the company where I'm now working. They wanted to do something with programming and also had some development kits from several companies (like TI, Atmel and Microchip).
During study I've programmed computer software (with C and C++) in bloodshed dev. and microsoft visual studio 200x, so on reason for using CCE was that the IDE looked more like the one I used to use (like highlighting the syntax, debuging and those things). Another reason was the possibility to write larger programms with the free edition, so that I could do quite some good tests with it. Last but not least is CCE (now CCS) much cheaper if we need to buy a full version of it.
In my opinion, the only thing about it, which might be a problem, is that TI does not support this as much as IAR Embedded workbench with their dev-kits. There are quite a lot of good examples awailable for download, but the demo software of the development kits is mostly written with IAR embedded workbench and in some cases (like the ZigBee or energy harvesting kit) it's quite difficult (or even impossible) to make chances to the provided code and compile/link it afterwards with IAR. But this topic is discussed in this forum a lot of times.
I think choosing an IDE is sometimes something philosofic, like using C or ASSEMBLER to programm your controller.
Are there two sets of drivers?
After I got my eZ430-RF2480 kit today, I followed the quickstart guide which involved installing "ZigBee Sensor Monitor" and the driver included with that. Now when I plug in m eZ430 it shows up as "MSP430 Application UART (Com3)" and neither IAR nor "SmartRF Flash Programmer" seem to recognize it at all.
Do I need to install another driver instead? I've searched (via Update Driver), but the only drivers XP claims are compatible with my hardware seem to leave things in the same situation.
Got it working. It conflicts with my HP USB Wireless keyboard/mouse set (USB ID: 03F0:050C). Or I should say, the msp430.dll sees the HID device from the wireless keyboard/mouse transceiver and refuses to recognize the eZ430. Fortunately I can use a PS/2 Keyboard/mouse on this machine. With the keyboard attached, CCS, IAR Kickstart, and SmartRF fail to see the device, but all work with the keyboard detached.