MSP430f5529 programming with launchpad

As far as I know the launchpad is officially only able to program the value line processors G2xx, there have been some reports around that people are able to program some F2xx devices as well - but so far I've not heard from someone that he programmed a 5xx device with the launchpad.

The Launchpad programs the F5529 with no issues at all.

http://www.43oh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1631&hilit=f5529&start=60#p13100

Hmm there you have it, it's hard to follow all the people around the net - thanks for that info.

Well, the user there uses MSPDebug, which AFAIK directly implements some oiof the low-level JTAG stuff, such as device identificationetc.

Normally, the MSP430DLL (which was not easily available under Linux) lets teh FET identify the device, which will result in a 'device not found or unknown device' error on a 5x MSP. Teh LaucnhPad FET only knows the G2 and F2 series.

However, if you identify the device with you rown low-level JTAG access, or just ignore the error form the DLL and comntinue, things might work. As long as you the device under test is really the one you configured MSPDebug for (so it knows where ram and flash is and how to program the flash controller).
It uses the LaunchPad as a dumb SBW interface.

However, most other software will access the FET through MSP430Lib using the provided high-level functions. And there is no support for th e5x devices in teh LaunchPad FETs firmware.
At least not according to the last information I got.

With CCS or IAR and LaunchPad, you won't get a 5x device running.

Actually, I am using CCS v5.1 and it worked from CCS v4 as well; system is Win7 64bit. Never had an issue. There is also a user there that does use MSPGCC.

Greg Whitmore said:

Actually, I am using CCS v5.1 and it worked from CCS v4 as well; system is Win7 64bit. Never had an issue. There is also a user there that does use MSPGCC.

Jens-Michael Gross said:

Interesting. So the LaunchPad FET firmware has been expanded.

I've never updated launchpad's firmware, I've found this page with google

but it's not updated since July 2011 and seems dangerous to update launchpad firmware so it

is necessary in order to program MSP430f55xx devices or not?

Thank you all for the help!

Max

Officially, the LaunchPad only supports the G2 devices.

That's it. Everything beyond is not officially documented and based on user experiences. If someone reports that it works, it may well be it really works with his version. But if he doesn't state what version of LauchPad he has and which firmware, it is of no help answering your questions.

So an answer must be 'maybe, may not be'. Maybe the currently sold LaunchPads have a more recent firmware than available for updates and does support 5x devices while the firmware available for updates doesn't (but is required for support of all G2 current devices).
I didn't find any resource which gives exhaustive information about this. All I know is that normally, the FET firmware needs to explicitely know the MSP it shall access. There is no 'forward compatibility'. So new devices aren't supported without firmware update.
Which existing devies are supported is unknown.

So if someone claims that it will work, I cannot confirm nor deny it.

The Launchpad is a v1.4 about 8 months old and has never had the firmware updated. Also, the ez-FET on the MSP-EXPFR5739 programs the F5529 as well. Since the MSP-EXP430F5529 has the same ez430 usb emulator, I assumed all SBW devices were compatible.