One of the most influential products TI has made that is popular in Education is the MSP430 LaunchPad. 

If you aren't familiar with the LaunchPad, take some time and go over to our resource page for LaunchPad and learn some more.

Since the LaunchPad came out two and a half years ago- over a quarter million have been bought and a large portion of those LaunchPads are in Education.  So the purpose of this post is to address the #1 Question I receive from Educators across the country. That question is as follows:

Q: What was TI thinking when we decided to put Male Headers on the MSP430 LaunchPad?

After all, it’s harder to breadboard with male headers, all of the “starter” kits that are on the market today use wires or male cables… it’s just not convenient!

Answer:


Originally when we released the LaunchPad, TI was targeting existing engineers. As such, in version 1.4 the LaunchPad shipped with no headers and required the Engineer to solder them onto the board.


MSP430 LaunchPad v1.4 (no headers)

Based on the feedback the MSP430 team received when they were deciding to revise the LaunchPad, the decision was made to take the need to solder away and to include the headers on the LaunchPad. Male headers were selected based on the feedback which included:  


1.) the only BoosterPack that was available at the time had female headers (Capacitive Touch BoosterPack) and
2.) the Engineers that provided feedback preferred being able to use regular probes (logic analyzers, scopes etc.) 


LaunchPad with standard clip test lead 


Without too many opposing opinions heard, version 1.5 of the LaunchPad was released with the male headers.
(This is why Feedback is so critical for the University space, to make sure our needs are met!) 


LaunchPad V1.5 - With Male Headers pre-soldered on

Do I think that we'll change the headers in the future?
Since the new version, V1.5 with the Male Headers, the LaunchPad has increased exponentially in popularity and over 30 new BoosterPacks have been developed to create a LaunchPad Ecosystem. The addition of the C2000 LaunchPad and the Stellaris LaunchPad… has now made the male headers on the LaunchPad… most likely here to stay. So to answer the question: 
It will be highly unlikely that we will change the gender of the LaunchPad anytime soon. 

However, we do have a few "work-arounds" that I've observed while traveling to Universities which I'll cover in the below sections.  


LaunchPad Starter Bundle with the CapTouch BoosterPack 

Work Arounds- What are some things that can be done to make prototyping and breadboarding easier? 

Since the male headers appear to be staying. It's best that we find some solutions to still be successful. I've divided this into two sections- Buy vs Make. 

  1. Buy- No Soldering

          i.       Male to Female Jumper Wires


 I find this solution ideal because it doesn't require any modifications.
However, these wires aren’t usually readily available in most labs and their non-standard issue in kits such as the SEEED Studio companion kit can be a little off-putting.
Below are some places that I have found them and use:

  1. Pack of 100 from Mouser Electronics- Schmart Board >$10.00 
  2. Sparkfun sells them in small qty’s: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9385

   ii.      Female jumper wires These are a slight bit more common than M/F ones and come in many kits. I find you can adapt them easily to have a male terminating connector. The most important thing is to make sure to have a solid connection.

  1. Using standard breadboard wire connectors

     
  2. Using break-away header pins
      
  3. Using extended headers (0.6mm above board at least) to make male headers on the breadboard.
    Samtec has free samples of these. https://www.samtec.com/connectors/standard-board-to-board/100-inch-square-post.aspx
      

                iii.      Male jumper wires or regular AWG wire: By far this is the most common type of breadboard wire. We find these in kits, but also you can just use shielded wire 18-22AWG to breadboard.

  1. Adapt the LaunchPad Pins with female headers-

This was a trick that I watched one of our Application Engineers show me.
It does require 2 sets of the headers that can be found in the original LaunchPad box. This is an issue because we only include 1 set today. You will need to either find another LanchPad box to get the headers out of or purchase additional ones. in the box. 
The header pins that are inside of the LaunchPad (I am sure other ones will work, but these particular ones seem to work best).
With these header pins-- you can make a stacking female header that will change the male pins on the LaunchPad to breadboardable female headers!

  
It's simple to do.
Once you have your two packs of female headers you stack them back to back. 
 The pins are slightly off centre and it's because of this you can actually take the pins of the other header pin and use the extra space to pin it in. Match the pins so they are interlocking (two different sides). The headers should stay together.


 

Squeeze them together until they make one piece.
  

Now, you're done and  you have an adapter for the LaunchPad rows!
Although slightly tall and strange looking, it DOES work and doesn't require a lot of extra prep or training to do. 


  

I looked extensively on Mouser, DigiKey, Newark, Pololou, SparkFun, AdaFruit to find either gender adapters or back to back female connectors and wasn’t able to find anything. If anyone finds one, I would be VERY interested in getting a sample.

Make- Soldering Required

  1. BoosterPack Adapters: There are a few BoosterPacks that are on the http://store.43oh.com community that are “prototype” boards that require headers to be soldered onto them. This give you the ability to change gender of the board.
      
    1. Desoldering the existing pins and re-soldering new ones: In the teaching material repository there is a contribution by one of our Application Engineers that shows the best way to de-solder pins so you can re-solder female headers. This is a VERY intensive process- How to Remove Headers from your LaunchPad

       
    2. Making your own breadboard wires- this is a little bit intensive and only is cost effective if you are doing something unique. Otherwise I would suggest buying. However, this website by BasicX Robitics: http://www.basicxandrobotics.com/tutorials/jumpers/index.html tells you how to make your own Female jumper wires, male to female ones as well.

       

This is useful if you need to control things such as colour or custom lengths.
I did this for my girls in programming course where I picked only pinks, greens, whites and purples for the wires.

 


I’m positive there are a lot of other solutions, but these are just a few that I’ve seen so far.
If you have any to add, or suggestions please make sure to let us know. Also, I’ve looked through many of the Starter Kits , but have found most of them are targeted for the Arduino (which has female headers). If anyone finds or makes a starter kit that includes the option to choose different breadboard wires we would be VERY interested in hosting your product on the University Web Page!

Lastly, please give us feedback, this is how the decision to change the headers from V1.4 to V1.5 was made. Make sure you are heard! Posting your feedback on our product pages helps us review the needs/concerns as we decide to design, revise or release a product.

If you wanted to know why we chose Male Headers and what to do about it… hopefully this post was helpful for you.

Summary of ideas:

Anonymous