MSP430FR5739: Interfacing MSP430FR5739 with microSD card for data logging in 2023

So far as you are concerned, there are two sizes of SD card. Those that use byte addresses or block (512 bytes) addresses. (High Capacity) It is easy to write code to be compatible with both.

You do not want to write a line of text per second as that is power hungry. Better is to buffer the data until you have a full block (512 bytes) and then write the block.

Writing code to interface with a micro-SD card via SPI isn't that hard to do. The SD (Simplified) specification has everything you need to know. A version for the MSP430 that I wrote can be found here: http://davesrocketworks.com/electronics/msp430/eforth/index.html

Thanks David for responding.  Allways appreciated.

Hi Preetham - David really knows his stuff so follow his advice ;)

There is a microSD library that comes with the MSP430FR5994 Launchpad "out of box experience".  Don't try to order this Launchpad because as of 2022, we discontinued populating the microSD.

Since you are asking about the MSP4303FR5739, I copied the section of the users guide related to the microSD.  This shows you the required connections, but you will need to determine pins on your MCU.

You download all the documentation for this device and the Launchpad, including the PCB files and schematics (if those are helpful to you) from the TI resource explorer.

This is what you should see.  Click on the "out of box experience" to see the example and note the SDCardLib is there just below it.

Dennis,

Thank you for your reply! I will def take a look at the out of box demo for the 5994 and see if I can't port it to work for the 5739. Since I did not specify it in my primary post, we are utilizing a MicroSD card breakout board from Adafruit [ADA 254] that offers SPI interface.

I will spend the next few days attempting to fiddle around with the software side of things. Currently waiting on some further components to arrive including the actual microSD card we decide to use. Would you happen to have any advice as far as the TI SD driver library compatibility with todays microSD cards? For my use case, I believe a <= 2GB standard SD card would suffice, however like I mentioned earlier nowadays almost everything is SDHC and higher capacity (such as the 32GB one I have on hand right now).

Once again, thank you for your response!

Preetham

David,

Thank you for your response! Dennis commended your skills so I'll def try to pay attention. That is good advice regarding the frequency at which I write to the card. I will wait until I have the full block of data to be written before writing it. I have taken a look at your msp430 project you linked to, however I must admit that I have difficulty following through with the assembly. Would you happen to have a rough idea of the power consumption of a typical microSD card being written to with a full block of data? Like I mentioned to David, we are utilizing a MicroSD card breakout board from Adafruit [ADA 254] with our MSP430.

Once again, thank you for your response

Preetham

I don't know about the minimum power consumption since my use tends to be toward the high speed of things. A couple of examples of that are on my web pages. First (in C) for the SparkFun Logomatic which also has a rump FAT16 system. Then (in eForth) the most recent for a Teensy 3.6 (ARM) that skipped a file system. The eForth isn't easy to follow even if you understand Forth. But as I said, everything you need to know is in the SD specification. (the SPI section of course)

For really slow data rates you would want to power down the SD card between writes. But that would be a trade with the long time required to initialize the card each time.

Hi Preetham,

It's been a while since we have heard from you, so I'm going to assume you were able to move forward with your project.
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Hi! So I've been working on this project on and off for the last month or so, however, I'm still running into issues. When debugging my project, it always seems to freeze up. Any assistance with debugging would be greatly appreciated. The code freezes within the initFileSystem function, specifically when it hits the f_open routine.

https://github.com/ECE4805-Fall22-Group9-NAVAIR/sdCardMSP430