Compiler/MSP430F5529: COM port error

Hello,

If it worked on your laptop then at least we know  the EXP-MSP430F5529 does work.

So, let's take look at what the differences are between your laptop and this computer that is causing you the grief.

Both machines Win 10 or other?

Are you connecting the EXP-MSP430F5529 directly to the computer or is it connected to an USB HUB?

Do you have any other Launchpads that you can try on this computer to see if get problem?

Hello,

Both are running on Windows 10 with the same version of CCS. I'm using an USB hub on the laptop and connect it directly to the desktop, that's really strange.

It's the only launchpad I have, sadly.

Thanks for your help.

Hello,

Unfortunately I have not been able to find any additional information that might help resolve your issue.  The tools team is suggesting it is most likely a USB driver issue and suggest re-installing CCS or connect to the cloud version of CCS, upload your project and build it there.  Then when you attempt to program the target, it will download and install a version of the driver to support control from the cloud.  If this works, try again from your local installation of CCS.

Hello,

I tried both solutions. re-installing and using the cloud version showed me the same error message again (Error initializing emulator: No USB FET was found).

I also tried the OSX version on a Mac and same error as on the Windows 10 desktop...

That is the error I have when I try to auto detect my board in the Resource Explorer. Could that help you any further ?

Ok.  I have reached out to our development tools team in Germany to see if they can provide any guidance on this issue.

Is this a work desktop? Could IT have locked your USB ports?

Both are personal PC's.

I have feedback from our development tools team:

Regarding the issue below, we took some time to check the E2E and this is what we suspect as reasons behind the issue the customer is having:

1. First the back channel UART is not the right interface to choose. The customer should select the debug port.
2. There might be another program on the machine that is accessing the debug port of the device, therefore preventing the customer to connect to it.

To be able to further analyze this issue, could you please check again with the customer and ask them to send us screenshots from the device manager in addition to the error messages they are getting?

Another thing that I noticed is that in the first post, the customer mentioned getting this error “Could no find MSP-FET430UIF on specified COM port.”

The EXP-MSP430F5529 has already an eZ-FET on board. Could you ask if the customer is using an MSP-FET430UIF or the eZ-FET on the Launchpad?

Thanks for your answer,

1. After checking the common target configurations website, the connection I should use is TI MSP430 USB1. It's the default connection used by my PC. Is this the debug port mentionned ?

2.                                                                                                                     CPU                MEMORY       DISK               NETWORK    GPU

Hope this can help you.

And for the eZ-FET, I'm plugin the USB cable in the eZ USB port and set the POWER SEL switch to eZ on the board. (All the jumpers are plugged in as explained on the user handbook)

Thanks for your help.

Here is some additional comments from our development tools team:

Please install the  Stand-alone Driver Installer for USB Low-Level Drivers available in http://www.ti.com/tool/MSPDS?

And try again and report your findings.

Hello,

Thanks for your answer.

I tried to install the drivers but the issue still remains. As mentioned in an other post, if I try to detect my board in the Ressources Explorer it still shows me that error.

I tried on my Windows 10 and OS X Catalina machines and on both it's showing me that message. But If I use Windows 10 with Parallels (virtual machine software) and a dongle (no way that should work) it actually works fin. I only had to download the latest updates, once CCS9 installed, to resolve the issue. So I tried to install the same update on my other machines, but no success.

Ok,

I have notified our tools team.

Just to make sure I have the configurations straight:

USB works on

WIN 10 (Parallels VM) = YES

WIN 10 (native, no VM) = NO

OS X Catalina = NO

Is this correct?

Yes, that’s it

You mentioned it only works with a dongle.  Which dongle?

" But If I use Windows 10 with Parallels (virtual machine software) and a dongle (no way that should work) it actually works fin"

I send you the link to the product : satechi.net/.../satechi-type-c-pass-through-usb-hub-with-usb-c-charging-port

I received some final thoughts regarding your issue from our development tools team:

Summary:

1. The error message seems to indicate that the serial port which is used by the debugger is being used by another process.
2. The user mentioned that with Virtual Machines it does seem to work.

So the theory I would postulate is that either the customer is trying to use CCS while the VM is still running, or the VM does not exit cleanly and leaves a process behind that keeps the serial port hostage.  Typically the way VMs work is that you have to manually “attach” and detach a USB device to the VM – at least this is how VirtualBox works – not sure about Parallels.  Either way there are devices which allow multiple access (like a webcam for example) but it obviously does not make sense for the debugger to be accessed by multiple processes at the same time. 

Furthermore, the board he is referring to (EXP-MSP430F5529) has the ez430 emulator which is only supported in Windows – not macOS or Linux.

Other than that it is difficult to determine what the cause could be without having further insight into the customer’s operating system. In general we’ve had lots of issues with using our debuggers with virtual machines so in general we discourage customers to use our tools with VM.