This Stellaris LaunchPad will be based on one of our existing LM4F series devices and will enable many of the extensions you mentioned and more by the nature of its design. We’ll be making all the features ‘public’ on August 31^st – so stay tuned to www.ti.com/stellaris-launchpad for more details.

Re: "Secrecy - lack of clarity" - few more closeups of 0.1" headers and passives may have rendered video "ad" even more enticing!  Content-Free - Good grief...

Thanks for not "plastering" the over-contrasted photo-ad on each/every of your forum posts...  (most here "almost" know what header, passives look like...)

Well I am looking forward to getting one ( or ten ).  The Stellaris LM3S9B96 was my first Cortex M-3 experience.  I have used other M-3 since then, but none compare the Stellaris in terms of documentation, examples and support.  I am hoping that this intro to the M-4 will be just as good.

Is there a limit on the number of Launch Pad boards an individual can pre-order?

Thanks,

greenja said:

am looking forward to getting one ( or ten )

Why not 1K?  You realize that you have just encouraged further use of, "content-free" ads - whose only promotion piece was reduced price.  (and low price had long been offered by dreaded competitors - along w/providing normal/customary, "features, functions, benefits.") 

Can't wait to see new ads from Molex, Phoenix, Samtec - zoomed in on (someone's) MCU - devoid of any/all views of headers/connectors - and content... 

I am not aware of any limitations regarding the number you can pre-order; however, we will certainly be judicious in how many we ship to any one individual when other individuals' orders are still open. With this said, there will be several channels you will be able to go through to buy these kits.

Thank you for your enthusiasm... I look forward to see what you and others can create!  :-)

It said you could register once. So I did.

It will cost $4.95 USD ( 5 new and unused bills with a nickle change?) I guess a lucky few will get a freebie.

Beyond that -- nothing. I'm sure it's worth it... ;-)

Just to clarify: The introductory price is $4.99 USD.

Get your name in the drawing to win a free one, but if you don't win, you can't go wrong at this price.

I'm eagerly waiting for the Stellaris Launchpad too, also already entered the drawing. This thing is loaded according to the slide here. There is also a Stellaris community coming up at  Stellarisiti. It's small, but slowly growing.

Hi there,

Mouser hosted a small picture of the Stellaris Launchpad EK-LM4F120XL, so - here it is:

Look's like the USB is available (the interface on the side), two buttons, some small LED (Mouser says it's an RGB LED)  and nothing special though (Accelerometer, ..). But will be a good platform for low volume products. 

EDIT: Here's some more info on the board, founnd while searching the internet:

aBUGSworstnightmare

I hope you are wrong about it being a LM4F120.  That one doesn't have PWM, which wipes out 90% of my requirements. Oh well, can't beat the price.

Our LM4F controlCARD module is intended to directly address higher-end motor control applications. Please don't forget that the LM4F GPTs are capable of producing PWM outputs as well.

JF

Hello Joe,

The first thing I did was look at the peripherals available and from the data sheet, the above mentioned LM4F does not support PWM or have QEI.  The timer specs say that the PWM is based on the LM4F model.  So hopefully you are hinting that the Launchpad doesn't have the above mentioned model.

What I interpreted from his response is that while the LaunchPad does not have PWM, there are other LM4F kits that are targetted for motor control (and will have different LM4F modules in them more appropriate for such use).  Of course, I could be mistaken.

You are probably right. 

To further add to the speculation and frenzy, what if  he meant that this LaunchPad accepts a "controlCARD"...

Hi,

the LM4F120H5QR is an entry-level  LM4F device which only has timers capable of outputting a PWM but no dedicated PWM modules. If you think about doing motor control you should opt i.e. for LM4F211H5QR or LM4F211E5QR. The tool of your choice could be the controlCard http://www.ti.com/tool/mdl-lm4f211cncd .

And: NO! The Launchpad will not accept a controlCard! This is a different form factor which is used for C2000 i.e. too.

aBUGSworstnightmare

greenja said:

Is it possible to get the specs on just which Stellaris M-4 chip will be in the Launch Pad? 

What is with all the secrecy anyway?  Does it have Bluetooth Low Energy, Wifi, Zigbee and Ethernet all rolled into one????  I guess that's the marketing department has to have some fun every once in a while!

Hi,

I think here's all you need to know: http://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/stellaris_arm_cortex-m3_microcontroller/f/471/p/207944/738978.aspx#738978

I don't expect it to be too different. 

aBUGSworstnightmare

From "high atop" the just released product intro: "EK-LM4F120XL also features programmable user buttons and an RGB LED for custom applications."

Be still my heart!  (such "features" surely/fully justify earlier, "content black-out...")  Features?...

Be mindful - "marketing fees/charges" add to the cost of every single MCU!  (not just 1-Off campaigns)  Do we not deserve better?

Well, the 'features' won't let us jump off our seats for shure, but as I've already mentioned here the tool comes handy for use in low-volume projects if the 'normal' price stays below the USD10 mark.

And, why fully-load the 'MCU-board' with features if you can sell add-ons (for those who want/need them) and keep the price low.

Nightmare in this scenario was the unnecessary tease - video/photo of "just" header & passives - and not 1 "buggy" MCU pin!  

New (improved?) MKT-101 run amuck...  and we all get to pay for this, "campaign."  (wanna guess what mkt gets paid?  explains chip cost...)

Subsequent use of the board bears not...

I'm fully for the hype. In order for people to explore anything other than the Arduino, you need to do this. Anyway "Go Stellaris!"

Sadly, the LM4F120 does not include I2S, and only USB-D.

I was going to ask whether the Launchpad might ever be sold with different MCUs, or whether it might be set up without the secret lock bit in the MCU that prevents the buyer from using the free version of CCS with an MCU other that what came on the board. (Note the lack of JTAG disconnect jumpers - I guess it's very much not intended as a general programming tool.)

I knew that sadly, none of the 64-pin LM3S parts include I2S, so none of them could be substituted even by TI.

But more surprisingly, none of the LM4F parts whatsoever include I2S. Is it thought that nobody might eve find enhanced FP performance useful for applications involving audio?

I don't understand the reticense to include I2S. While it's quite a hassle to add external parts to try to use an SPI port to produce an I2S output (and if you need MCLK, you're SOL), it really doesn't take much to add to an SPI (or other sync. serial) interface to make it optionally SPI when you're designing the chip in the first place.

But at least some of the higher-end LM4F devices include full H/D/OTG USB, so for that (and PWM, as others mention), it's back to: will the Launchpad ever be sold with different MCUs? Or can the purchaser replace the included MCU without having to buy a $$$$ license?

queirarard said:

I'm fully for the hype. In order for people to explore anything other than the Arduino, you need to do this. Anyway "Go Stellaris!"

Well, besides getting people to buy it via hype and price, it also has to be useable. On one hand, I'm quite hopeful that I'll have a much easier time implementing a bunch of around-the-house instrument/appliance/toy functions (small and numerous, where a regular Stellaris dev board or my own board design would be too much $$) with the Stellaris Launchpad than I had with the MSP430 Launchpad, as I find the MSP430 surprisingly cumbersome in its peripheral use (e.g. the official I2C example has more than a screens' worth of code in the IRQ handler functions for setting up the next transfer. It looks like bit-banging would be simpler, making me wonder when I first saw it why they bothered making dedicated hardware for this function if every obvious and unavoidable step in the "port" still has to be prompted by software.)

On the other hand, the documentation for the Stellaris itself is still quite off-putting. I just read around in the LM4F120's datasheet to see if there's a programmable-high-frequency parallel dat output one can set up (to substitute for I2S, and some other needs), and while the DMA section hints at "GPIO" as an interface it can deal with, it says no more, and the GPIO section only mentions the use of GPIOs as interupt source for e.g. a DMA. There's no example code that does this (if they ever verified it works, why not?), and search the web, and you'll find precisely one TI answer, on this forum, to the "whether and how" question of GPIO DMA, and it is a very brief "yes you can". Maybe I'd be more persistent if I used these as a full-time job (I've been recommending Stellaris MCUs at work since my first positive experience with them in the 2006 contest, but I'm starting to have second thoughts), but I dropped out of the 2010 contest for the same reason: the function in question (USB ping-pong DMA), vital for my project, was documented only as a circular reference (USB: see DMA section. DMA: see USB section) and as part of a huge example that only runs on $$$ boards, and between the two, I could not get it to work (again, it's a commonly needed function if you're going to have USB, so they must have tested it in isolation: why not publish that code?).

I even bought a 9B92 dev board after contest since the contest 9B96 had power-up issues and mine was particularly unreliable, but ever since briefly testing it upon I receipt, it's sat in its box unused: Every time I think to build something, I come upon some void in the documentation (or remember the last time I failed - it does usually involve USB, which simply isn't going to happen for the non-expert if you don't have working example code) and give up without even trying anymore.

I assume the Launchpad price dumping is borne of desperation to have people try these chips - better small-function example code would go a long way towards that goal.

It probably supports off chip programming. See the post at the below link.

http://forum.stellarisiti.com/topic/194-breakaway-jtag-on-the-stellaris-launchpad/

Why is there a separation line(like the other LPs). The MSP430 LP can program other chips, why not this. Why bring out the pins to pads?

Hi,

many people blamed the Stellaris Launchpad Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teZyF1IDtCM&feature=player_embedded

Carefully look at the video, somewhere in the range of 0:13 to 0:16 seconds after starting it. There you will see the silkscreen printing of the solderpads above the 'separation line'. Well, this is just a silkscreen print to 'separate' the emulator part from the 'dev board' and nothing more.

But - as you can see from the video - there you'll find the lables (left to right): TCK/TMS/TDO/TDI/EXT/TXD/RXD

Guessing that EXT is the external Reset then you have what you wanted: a JTAG ICDI interface.

So, why to make it available on a 0.1" header if you can't use it for off-board targets?

aBUGSworstnightmare

Well I placed my order.  I was limited to only 2!!!

Where are the BoosterPacks for this, I want the LCD display but can't find it on the TI eStore?  They all seem to be from third party vendors.  It would be nice to be able to place one order from one place.

Ti should stock some of the third party vendor booster packs.  If they can have the Definitive Guide to the ARM Cortex-M3 in their store, then they should be able to stock booster packs as well.

How did you pre-order? I cannot seem to do that?

Well I added it to my WishList and then added it to my order cart.  I had some other items in my order Cart and now it has 2 Stellaris LaunchPads as well.

Achoox4,

You make some good and interesting points.  Hopefully someone from Ti Stellaris will address your issues.  I don't know what your USB problems where, but as far as communicating with the PC, I didn't have any problems when I used it as a simple Virtual COM Port.  I'm not sure about the HID aspect of it though.  As far as I can remember, the OTG implementation and examples where available since it came with the USB 256 Meg memory stick and cable.

As for the LM3S9B96 and LM3S9B92, how much do you want for them?  No point in having them sit in a box collection dust when I could put them to good use!

Thanks greenja

After I posted the answer, I was thinking I should have waited just in case they ran out!  But I will assume that the 2 piece limit is based on suppling everyone that signed up for the pre-order with 2 pieces.

Did they just take it down? I cannot access  the estore link.