Launchpad USB->UART Misery (TUSB3410VF)

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: TUSB3410

Hey all,

I've worked with the FT232RL (FTDI), the MCP2200, and the TUSB3410 usb to serial chips... and I gotta say, i've never had more problems with anything in my life than getting the TUSB3410 to work consistently. I'm attempting to write GUIs for the MSP430 launchpad and have just about given up because of the complete randomness and crappy performance of this chip. I'm developing on 4 different W7 machines and have tried multiple launchpads rev 1.4 and rev 1.5. All will randomly fail to program as well as randomly fail to send data consistently while the same GUI code will run on MCP2200, FT232RL for months. Hardest part is establishing the initial connection. Once that is done, it seems to work fine for awhile after that but never long term.

Regarding my hardware wiring.... its whatever the msp430 launchpad has by default. Regarding my software, here is an example of what I'm using to open the comm port in c++ and it doesn't seem to give me any complaints when I use it with the mcp2200 or the FT232RL.  Any help regarding this would be greatly appreciated!


static unsigned OpenSerial(wxString identifier, unsigned int bps) {
   int pstatus=0;

   if((com_port = CreateFile("\\\\.\\" +identifier, GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE, 0, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, NULL))==0)
   {
      fflush(stdout);
      CloseHandle(com_port);
      wxMessageBox( _("Error: Could not create"),
      _("Comm Port"),wxOK | wxICON_INFORMATION  );
      
   }

   DCB dcb;
   ZeroMemory(&dcb, sizeof(dcb));
   dcb.DCBlength = sizeof(dcb);
   dcb.BaudRate = bps;
   dcb.ByteSize = 8;
   dcb.Parity = NOPARITY;
   dcb.fParity = FALSE;
   dcb.fDtrControl = DTR_CONTROL_DISABLE;
   dcb.fRtsControl = RTS_CONTROL_DISABLE;
   dcb.fBinary = TRUE;

   pstatus = SetCommState(com_port, &dcb);
   if( pstatus == 0 )
   {
      fflush(stdout);
      CloseHandle(com_port);
      wxMessageBox( _("Error: Could not set comm state"),
      _("Comm Port"),wxOK | wxICON_INFORMATION );
   }



   COMMTIMEOUTS to;
   to.ReadIntervalTimeout = 40;
   to.ReadTotalTimeoutConstant = 40;
   to.ReadTotalTimeoutMultiplier = 1;
   to.WriteTotalTimeoutMultiplier = 1;
   to.WriteTotalTimeoutConstant = 10;

   pstatus = SetCommTimeouts(com_port, &to);
   if( pstatus == 0 )
   {
      fflush(stdout);
      CloseHandle(com_port);
      wxMessageBox( _("Error: Could not set comm timeout"),
      _("Comm Port"),wxOK | wxICON_INFORMATION );
   }

   SetCommMask(com_port, 0);
   if( pstatus == 0 )
      {
         fflush(stdout);
         CloseHandle(com_port);
         wxMessageBox( _("Error: Could not set comm mask"),
         _("Comm Port"),wxOK | wxICON_INFORMATION );
      }


   return 0;

}

void CloseSerial() {
   CloseHandle(com_port);
}

unsigned int WriteSerial(void* data, unsigned int count) {
   unsigned int out; // Number of Bytes written
   WriteFile(com_port, data, count, &out, NULL);
   return out;
}

unsigned int ReadSerial(void* buf, unsigned int count) {
   unsigned int in; // Number of Bytes read
   ReadFile(com_port, buf, count, &in, NULL);
   return in;
}