MSP-FET430UIF not recognised.

Hi Otuama,

CCSv4 uses VCP driver (DLL v2) for the MSP-FET430UIF whereas CCSv5 uses the CDC driver (DLL v3). Therefore you will need to upgrade FET Tool which has a v2 Firmware.

Can you please provide the information which MSP-FET430UIF version do you have? 1.3 or 1.4x? All 1.4x debuggers have a version sticker on the bottom (V1.4 or V1.4a) of the enclosure. Older v1.3 interfaces don't have any stickers.

It seems that you are using an v1.3 debugger. Older v1.3 debugger require an extra step (manual power cycle) for the upgrade. You probably got the below error message when trying to upgrade:

However this error is normal and belongs to the upgrade procedure.

Please check it here under MSP-FET430UIF interfaces Rev. 1.3 update procedure:  http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP_Debug_Stack#Upgrade_process_to_MSP430.DLLv3

All you had to do was to unplug the FET tool from USB and replug it and pressing the debug button again. I assume that, iInstead you tried to downgrade the FET tool to V2 and it gave you the V2 HAL update error. This is because the FET tool was updated only the half way.

What you need to do:

1) Uninstall CCSv4 completely

2) Install the latest CCv5 version

3) Connect the FET tool with which you got the V2 HAL update error. (You can only have a single MSP-FET430UIF connected for the update)

4) Start CCSv5 and run the debug session

5) Now, hopefully  you will be asked to update the FET tool. Press update

6) That's it. The FET Tool should be updated now.

How to check the current FET Firware version:

You can use the Elprotronic FET-Pro430 Software (it is a free third party tool): http://www.elprotronic.com/files/FET-Pro430-Lite-Setup.zip

Go to Tools-->Read MSP-FET430UIF Firmware version

I hope this will be helpful, otherwise please let me know.

Mo.

Thanks a lot for your reply. It was very helpful. Unfortunately it hasn't yet fixed my problem. 

I'm working with a 1.4a debugger. I'd prefer to stay with CCSv4 for a number of reasons, primarily because others I know are currently working with that release. So I'd foresee fewer difficulties if we all use consistent versions. I never received that message. I have CCSv5.1 installed in another computer, and I can use that if needs be. With this clean install (there haven't been any other CCS installations on this second computer) I attempted the 6 steps you suggested, to no avail. It did indeed want to update the firmware, but it gave a number of errors. It is still attempting the update procedure, but here are what it says

I ran the elprotonic program and it says that the firmware version of my FET430UIF device is 0 (this was before I tried steps 1 to 6)... that seems very wrong. Is there a means of manually resetting the device to its factory defaults? Or is that a last step that shouldn't be taken unless needed! The second FET programmer is still working fine.

And if I try to upgrade the firmware I get: 

   Enter 'y' to confirm: y


   Initialize: done
   MSP430_FET_GetFwVersion()
   Firmware Version: 0
Status: Starting firmware update with built in image!

   Initializing bootloader...
   Erasing firmware...Error, firmware update returned an error


  Press any key to close this application.

Hi All, 

I am experiencing the same problem, somehow I succeeded to restore to V2 firmware, however, additional try to update to V3 from V2 once again was not successful.

Any thoughts?

Same problem!  But I can't restore the firmware to any version.. How have you restored to V2?

Thanks

Hi zoster, 

Actually, I had two jtags  so I updated the second one to V3 and the first one downgraded to V2. The downgrade to V2 was done on other machine with clean install of older drivers.

Your problem might be related to the Windows USB driver. Make sure the device is properly installed by reviewing the Control Panel / device manager window. If you have one of those yellow exclamation points you will have to update the driver:

Right click on the device and select to update the driver, which can be downloaded from the wiki page:

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_JTAG_Interface_USB_Driver

Make sure you do not allow windows to select the driver.

Once the USB driver is properly installed, you should see a vitual comm port (VCP) item in the list of devices. After that, allow CCS or IAR to update the debugger firmware appropriately.

Hi Lenio,

Even I am facing same issue, I have two debuggers and one of them not respond to upgrade or downgrade or downgrade of firmware versions.

The debugger retuns following error.

Firmware version: 0

.

.

 .

Ereasing firmware .... Error, During V2 HAL update.

Please let me know what can be the reason.

Thanks & Regards,
Anoop

Hi Anoop,

have you checked the Control Panel to verify the status of the USB?

Hello Anoop,

there might be a VCP assignment problem when using more that one Debugger on the same machine.

Is it possible for you to do the upgrade/downgrade of the debugger on a different PC?

Let me know,

Thanks,

Mo.

Hi Mo,

Thanks, for your response. However the device is not working in any PCs.

I could downgrade and upgrade another MSP-FETU430IF on my PC. Also i could see the device on the device manager under ports section -MSP-FET430UIF-CDC (COM4).

Will it be some hardware error on the debugger?

Regards,

Anoop

Hi guys,

We are using in ours company a few FET devices, and one is dead during downgrading. I would recommend to not do it if you do not need it.

Problem in my case was:

1. Someone borrow my flasher and upgrade it to OCD with CC5.

2. I tried to use with my older IAR, there was some problems and I found the downgrading procedure.

3. Downgrade tool wrote me that flash is written ok, both leds was off, and I should unplug and plug the device. I repeated that few times and I waited in between a few minutes.

4. After power cycle device is found in windows as VCP, but both leds are permanently off, and there is no application which can flash any chip. Downgrading and upgrading tool wrote me that FET is not found (IAR and CC the same).

I encountered the same situation here, had a FET tool with v3 firmware as I had been using with IAR Kickstart v5.40. Needed to use FET tool with IAR v5.10 and it wasn't compatible with the FET firmware.

So I ran the TI FET downgrader to go from V3 to V2.

It ran and failed half way through, where it repeatedly asked me to disconnect and reconnect the FET tool. There were no LED's and running the downgrader again resulted in it exiting with error as it could not find a tool.

So after trawling through the forums and seeing lots of people in a simlar situation I started experimenting. I found that I was able to recover the FET tool using the following convoluted method.

• Open windows 'device manager'. Most likely you will see the FET tool listed with a yellow exclamation.

• Right click and 'uninstall device'
• Unplug the FET tool.
• Download the correct driver for your computer, I'm Windows 7 so used this http://processors.wiki.ti.com/images/6/6a/TUSBWINVCP_Win7-32.zip, otherwise just look on http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/MSP430_JTAG_Interface_USB_Driver
• Extract these somewhere convenient.
• Plug in the FET tool and guide it manually to the drivers you just extracted. That should update the drivers and at least sort out any VCP enumeration issues.

• Now the next bit may have different ways to do it, but I had Elpotronic LiteFETPro30 installed, so I used it to do this.

• Download it at http://www.elprotronic.com/files/FET-Pro430-Lite-Setup.zip
• Within this tool there is a firmware updater tool under 'Tools' menu.
• Open that and start the process, it may list the current firmware version as '0'. 
• Let the process continue and hopefully the firmware will get upgraded to the latest, LEDs will be back on and FET is recognised.

• Now I ran the IAR V3 to V2 downgrader again

• This time it was successful and took much longer as well as there was an extra programming stage that did not happen first time round.

• I ran up IAR kick start v5.10 and used the FET, now it detected an out of date firmware but it updated the FET tool itself and worked fine.

David Caskey

I also realised that on the first attempt which failed, I had a FTDI USB - serial converter cable plugged into my machine, perhaps this confused things, I don't know, but I ensured it was out second time round as well.

Very good point. I think this might be the main problem here.

For all those who have problems with downgrading/upgrading the FET Tool, please make sure that only the FET Tool shows up as a VCP device in the Device Manager during the downgrade/upgrade process.

If possible, please do disable/remove all other VCP devices during the downgrade/upgrade process.

BR,

Mo.

Hi Mo,

I have tried all these methodes, During the firmware upgrade I am observing follwing message and errors.

Please let me know is this error due to some issue in the flash. We have another debugger so is it possible to flash the firmware directly.