MSP-FET

Hi Kissn,

The same document you show above describes it - you use "Activation commands". These are done by setting the baud rate in the terminal program on your PC to a specific value. So for doing the I2C BSL activation command as shown in Table 4 in your picture above, you would just set the baud rate to one of the values listed (100000 or 100001, or 400000 or 400001).

Please note, if you are doing this for I2C BSL support, the BSL scripter also mentioned in the document you link software-dl.ti.com/.../MSPBSL_Programmer_Package.zip already implements these activation commands, so by simply specifying I2C in the script BSL scripter will automatically do this activation command for you without further effort needed by the user.

Regards,
Katie

Hi Kissn,

If you want backchannel UART only (not I2C or UART BSL) then these are the options:

If you do no activation command at all, the part will start up with default settings: backchannel UART set up 3.3V and no flow control. You don't have to do anything special and can simply open the COM port with your desired baud rate. (you could also set the baud rate to 9621, but this is already the default startup behavior as noted in the user's guide you showed above, so you don't have to do it if you've just powered up the MSP-FET)

If you need UART at a different voltage than 3.3V (e.g. 2.0V) and no flow control, set the baud rate to 9623 in your terminal software. Then you can set it to 9600 or other desired baud rate before beginning your communication.

If you need UART at 3.3V but you need flow control, set the baud rate to 9622 in your terminal software. Then you can set it to 9600 or other desired baud rate before beginning your communication.

Basically, when you change the baud rate in your terminal software on the PC to a particular baud rate, the PC sends this baud rate change to the MSP-FET (this is just part of how the PC works). THe MSP-FET software has been designed so that if it receives a baud rate change to these specific settings, it does something else (like enable flow control, or doing BSL entry sequence) instead of just setting the baud rate.

Does this make things clear?

Regards,
Katie

Kissn Liu said:

1)  I can use  MSP-FET  for UART communication  with dedicated baud rate ,such as 4800, 9600,etc.The following chart shows the baudrate  have some limits when the Target MCLK Frequency differs.

So what is the Target MCLK Frequency refferred to? Does it refer to the MCLK Frequency of the MCU inside the MSP-FET?

if so,how can i configure the MCLK Frequency?

The baud rate limits are actually referring to the MCLK frequency of the target device that you are trying to program, not to the MSP-FET itself. E.g. if you are trying to program an MSP430G2553 and the G2553 MCLK frequency is set to 8MHz by your code, that is the limiting factor. It would mean you should look at the 8MHz column of the chart to determine your max baud rate supported by MSP-FET.

Kissn Liu said:

(2) From the doucument that TI released, i know MSP-FET can be used  for UART or I2C BSL communication, could i used it for program download via BSL interface?

     I have used the "bsl-scripter-win.exe" software on the PC  combined with MSP-FET to download the program to F6736 via UART BSL,but  failed?   Can you tell me why?

Yes you can use the MSP-FET with the bsl-scripter to program your device over BSL. There are a couple of considerations when doing this:

1. You must ensure that you have the correct connections between the MSP-FET and the target MSP430F6736 device. If you are using the target board for the MSP430F6736, this is an older target board and doesn't have the BSL connections included on the 14-pin FET tool header. Therefore you will need to use some wires to connect RST, TEST, RXD and TXD on the MSP-FET to the correct pins on the target MSP430F6736 device for BSL. The MSP430F6736 datasheet has a table in it that lists the pins on the F6736 that should be used for BSL, and the SLAU647 document also shows which pins on the JTAG connector of the MSP-FET should be connected to for UART_TXD and UART_RXD, and RST and TEST. Those are also shown in the picture on the back of the MSP-FET tool itself.

2. The BSL Scripter software requires you to provide a script file with the BSL commands that you want it to execute. Inside the folder MSPBSL_Programmer_Package/BSL_Files/BSL_Scripter, you will find a PDF BSL-Scripter3010_UG that describes the usage of the BSL Scripter - I would strongly recommend reviewing this in detail. In addition, in the folder ScriptExamples/6xx_uart you'll find an example script_6xx_uart.txt that you could reference when reading the user's guide.

Basically, when you run the scripter you'll need the script file (.txt), and a code file (a TI-txt format file generated by CCS or IAR). http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Generating_and_Loading_MSP430_Binary_Files#Using_CCS_v6.x

I hope this helps to make things clearer.

Regards,

Katie

Hi Kissn,

For MSP432, there is no hardware BSL entry sequence via the TEST/RST pins. For a blank device, by default the device will enter BSL mode polling for about 10 seconds looking for a character that the MSP-FET will send - this is why it probably worked the first time for you. However, once you have code loaded into the part, this won't happen by default because the part is no longer blank. So, you need to either 1) do the factory reset via JTAG to mass erase the part before you can do BSL again, or 2) make sure that the program that you are loading into the device over BSL provides for BSL entry. It can either do a software BSL entry based on whatever criteria you want or it could use the flash mailbox to configure a hardware pin (perhaps attached to a button on your board etc) to trigger BSL entry. Please see the MSP432 BSL user's guide www.ti.com/.../slau622 for more information.

Regards,
Katie