ez430-RF2500 UART

Would there be a way to connect the ez430-RF2500 to a serial-to-bluetooth adapter? After reading through the guides and manuals, I am still unclear as to how the drivers play a role with serial communication. It was always my assumption that serial devices will stream data at a certain rate, then you can configure software like hyperterminal to receive and display. What's stopping me from plugging in an ez430-RF2500 to a Mac and opening up a hyperterminal type application to watch the serial data stream in (like the Texas Instruments splash screen that comes with the ez430-RF2500 Sensor Monitor Demo)?

For example, something like this:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=bluetooth+serial+adapter&oe=UTF-8&cid=2308671128351522668&sa=title#p

Hi kpbr,

in principle you're right: the eZ430-RF2500 should be recognized as a virtual COM port, the you open a terminal software, make the changes regarding baud rate, parity, stop bits, etc. and then you can see the data that is send via USB.

But that's only half the truth! The firmware in your MSP430 must have the possibility to send data via UART to the TUSB3410 (which is located on the eZ430-part of the tool) which then sends it via USB to the host. So, you need to take care of the data processing on the MCU part of the stick yourself.

Have a look at the MSP430 wiki page here: http://wiki.msp430.com/index.php/Category:Mac_OS_X_Support_-_MSP430 and the related tread in the forum. At the moment the TI only supports Windows OS, so there is no guarantee that the eZ430 will work with your OS (i.e. MAC OS X, Linux, ..). You have to take care on this point too.

Regarding the Bluetooth-to-RS232 adapter: Somebody pls correct me if  I'm wrong, but - as far as I know - the CC2500 uses 2.4GHz but it is not Bluetooth compliant (use CC2540 i.e.).

Rgds
aBUGSworstnightmare 

As I understand it, the RX and TX pins on the RF2500 board are connected to the UART on the MPS430 and can be connected to a serial port using a serial to USB converter chip or other serial converter device, like a serial to bluetooth converter. The TI driver is only needed if you have the RF2500 connected to the USB programmer board, which then serves as a serial to USB converter, limited to 9600 baud because it was implemented as a software UART using GPIO on the TUSB3410 part.

So if I were to use just the RF part of the kit (non-usb board), I could program the USCI of the MSP430 MCU to output serial data without the need for drivers? So the drivers are needed when passing data through the TUSB chip? I do not need to even use the CC2500 chip...I just want to get standard RS232 data out of the MSP430  with out the need for special drivers.

Hi kpbr,

could you pls explain in detail what you intend to do? It is a difference if you're asking if one can connect a eZ430-RF2500 kit to some Bluetooth compliant device or if your asking if it is possible to connect (any) MSP430 devices UART to the RS232 input of such a device!

Yes, you can implement UART data handling into your MSP430 application to send whatever data (i.e. from the integrated temp sensor) over it to another device (PC or whatever) without the need of a driver. But, pls notice that UART does not imply it is RS232 compliant! RS232 communication uses a different voltage level. Because of that you need to connect your MSP430 to i.e. a TRSF3232E (http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/trsf3232e.html) which then connects to the RS232 interface of your bluetooth tranceiver.

Rgds
aBUGSworstnightmare 

As they've said before, the firmware is fixed and so is the hardware I hear.