MSP430FG4618-Board bring up, no clocks

Did you check whether the GND (and perhaps the VCC, if required) of the MSP side is really connected to the JTAG connector too? The problem with leaving out parts of a design is that you sometimes remove required bridges or connections too, which are not obvious at first.

Cheng-Feng Sze said:

the crystal X2 did not oscillate

Hi Jens-Michael,

Thank you for your reply and answer. Yes, the VCC and the GND are connected. I prepared a screenshot of a portion of my schematic related to the MSP430FG4618 chip for your review. Due to some unknown reason, I cannot attach in this response. Could you email me your email contact so I can send the file to you? Thank you for help.

Best regards,

Bill

My mail address is in my profile.

However, I'm not sure whether I can help you. I don't have that much time to read into the schematics in detail, as I have a normal job to do. But you can try :)

Hi Jens-Michael,

I really appreciate your time and help on answering my question. Thank you very much. Your answer gives me very valuable idea to start debugging the issue. I have one more question on the JTAG to clarify some potential cause. If you have some time to give your though that would be very appreciated. Thank you. My question is

The Pin 4 of the JTAG connector such as the one (JTAG1) in the schematic of the “MSP430FG4618-F2013 Experiment’s Board User Guide” (slau213a.pdf), is for the battery power. If we don’t use the battery power and want to use the power from emulator (MSP-FET430UIF), should we leave the pin4 open or should we connect it to GND?

Thank you for your time.

Best regards,

Bill

I'm no expert for this board and the jumpers. From the schematics I can see that Pin4 of JTAG1 is LCL-PWR1. AFAIK, FET_PWR1 is from the FET while LCL_PWR1 goes To the FET (so if teh board is not driven by the FET, the FET can auto-adjustitself and its signals to the voltage level teh boared is working at.

Which voltage to use is determined by the VCC_1 and VCC_2 pins. However, what I see from the schematics, only one of BATT, VCC_2 or VCC1 may be set and the other two must be left open, or you'll shortcutting different power sources to common VCC.

This is contrary to what the labels say: YOu don't set VCC_1 for th eFG4618 and VCC_2 for the F2013, you set on of them for powering both. And if you don't want one of them powered at all, you remove teh PWR1 or PWR2 jumper. But you cannot run the two MSPs (or thge rest of the board) from two different supplies at the same time.

So if you use BATT, you'll need to set VCC_1 to LCL_PWR (1 or 2 or both, depending on which MSP is connected to the FET, or both), while when you do not use BATT, one of the two must be set to FET_PWR and the other, if you have two FETs attached, needs to be set to LCL_POWER, so it will adjust its signal to the other FETs supply voltage.

It is clearer if you read chapter 5:hardware installation, as it better shows what is connected with what and where it flows.

Hi Jens-Michael,

Thank you very much for your valuable time and answer. It seems I follow what you described and the chapter 5 hardware installation. In my device, I use the MSP430FG4618 only and use either the battery power or the FET power. (Only either one, not both, at the same time.) When I use the FET power, I leave the LCL_PWR of JTAG1 open and connect the FET_PWR to VCC; when I use the battery power, I leave the FET_PWR open and connect the LCL_PWR to the VCC. Therefore, I think my schematic followed what you described. Thank you for helping clarify this point. Although I follow the right schematic, it seems something else that caused the FET cannot connect to the MSP430FG4618. I assume it might be due to the incorrect layout or some issue on the assembling. With your support, I can eliminate one of possible cause. Thank you very much!

One more question if I may ask:

Will the MSP430FG4618 need to be preprogramed before it can be used? Or, we can first installed it on the board and then program it by the MSP-FET430UIF? Thanks.

Best regards,

Bill

Hi Jens-Michael,

Millions, millions thanks to you for your help and so much valuable knowledge! I got all my questions answered. Now, I’ll focus on the layout issue and the assembling issue to see if anything might go wrong. Thank you very much!

Best regards,

Bill