Changing Baud Rate on the eZ430-RF2500

Hello there

I was also trying to change the baud rate on the Access Point. So the baud rate cannot be changed even if the UCA0BR0, UCA0BR1 and UCA0MCTL are tampered with??

You can actually configure the USCI channel A to higher baud rates but the 9600 baud for the EZ is a limitation of the hardware. If you wanted to use the battery board pins (i.e. not the USB backchannel) and channel through an RS232 you could definitely configure the UART to operate faster.

I would hope the limitation is software, not hardware.[;)] If you rewrote the USB interface code so that all it did was the serial transfer, and no debugging, I bet it would work at 920kbaud. The limitation is the fact that you can't debug and transfer serial  simultaneously any faster than the 9600 baud rate. I have done a USB to serial translator myself, with a less powerful hardware setup than what is on the EZ USB interface board.

Hey all,

i'am facing exact the same problem as inakizi. By reading this, i became a little bit confused.
Adrian says it's not possible, which i doubt because there are table in the datasheet
that says that you can change the baudrate from 9600 to an other speed.

The only problem is the TUSB i think. Just Like inakizi wrote. So maybe the main question again: is it possible to change the settings in the TUSB. I saw that there is a special tool that converts a .conf-file to a hex-file which you can put into the EEPROM. In the .conf-file you can possibly change settings.

But where can i get these files, where can i download the necessary tools? And can anybody tell me this is the real problem? Because it's just my guess as well:-)

Best Regards

driesione said:

i'am facing exact the same problem as inakizi. By reading this, i became a little bit confused.
Adrian says it's not possible, which i doubt because there are table in the datasheet
that says that you can change the baudrate from 9600 to an other speed.

The prior posts have basically stated the UART baud rate is not necessarily limited by the MSP430 device itself.  Rather it is the combination of the TUSB device and the type of functionality the TUSB device provides.  It is not simply implementing a USB-to-serial conversion, but also has functionality to implement the necessary JTAG signaling to perform debugging/emulation.

driesione said:

 

The only problem is the TUSB i think. Just Like inakizi wrote. So maybe the main question again: is it possible to change the settings in the TUSB. I saw that there is a special tool that converts a .conf-file to a hex-file which you can put into the EEPROM. In the .conf-file you can possibly change settings.

But where can i get these files, where can i download the necessary tools? And can anybody tell me this is the real problem? Because it's just my guess as well:-)

The files to do this are not available.  As stated above, the TUSB implements functionality to provide emulation debug capabilitiy to the MSP430 as well as the USB-to-serial communication.

As one of the posts above indicated, you could intercept the UART RX and TX signals of the connector between the eZ430 USB board and the target radio board (ie. RF2500T).  You would need to go through a RS-232 Transceiver device, but could get access to the UART signals.  Then it would be possible to configure the MSP430 for a faster baud rate and achieve that speed to the PC.

EDIT : Although I am picking on the TUSB device, there is also another MSP430F16x device that is actually connected to the MSP430F2274 target radio device via the USCI interface.  This would also have the a role in the limitation of the baud rate.  The proposal above is still valid.

Hey Brandon, thanks a lot for your reply!

Now it's quit clear for me. There remains still one question for me about your solution:

you say that it's possible to have a bigger baudrate by picking up the TX and RX signals with

an external RS-232 transceiver?  But if you implement something like that, will the hardware still

be recognized by your computer and don't you need the TUSB also to program the MSP430?

Kind Regards

The UART signals are pins 1 and 6 of the connector between the eZ430 USB board and the RF2500 radio target board.

From what I understand, programming of the MSP430F2274 on the RF2500 radio target board is done through the Spy-Bi-Wire interface on pins 3 and 4.

Hey Brandon,

thanks again for replying! And i agree what you said because i already checked the datasheets.

But for emulation and debugging, people still need the TUSB3410?
So, what i equally mean, i need two board to do what i want. 1 board with an external RS232 to USB convertor and without the functionality of emulation. The second board is the eZ430 with the TUSB3410 on for emulation/debugging and programming of the MSP430? Is this correct or did i still missed something?

Best Regards

driesione said:

But for emulation and debugging, people still need the TUSB3410?

For emulation, you still need the functionality provided by the TUSB3410 + MSP430F16x on the eZ430 USB board.

driesione said:

So, what i equally mean, i need two board to do what i want. 1 board with an external RS232 to USB convertor and without the functionality of emulation. The second board is the eZ430 with the TUSB3410 on for emulation/debugging and programming of the MSP430? Is this correct or did i still missed something?

Yes, you would need two boards.  One with a either just an RS-232 transceiver to connect directly to an actual COM port of the PC (if you still have a DB-9 connector) or a USB-to-Serial converter that can accept TTL voltages.  The other is the same eZ430 USB board to provide emulation.

Thanks Brandon!

You really helped me a lot!

Kind Regards

Hey Falingtrea,

you said, in one of their posts, that the baud rate could be altered modifying the firmware of the eZ430 USB. Well, did you get this? could you supply us such solution?

 I also believe that the subject is only of software. Because it exists, in the application report slaa276a - msp430 usb connectivity using tusb3410, a project of an interface usb using same CIs of the eZ430 USB, that are configured to 460800 bps.

Hi,

I don't think that the firmware of eZ430 USB is available! Furthermore, the design is based on the MSP430F16x which is in fact 'responsible' for the UART. Maybe this UART ist a software implementation because that would be a good explaination for the low baud rate (9600).

If you need a higher troughput make your own design based on the TUSB3410 or wait for the coming MSP430F552x which has a USB interface integrated (refer to http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/msp430f5526.html for details).

Kind regards
G**Kbuster

Dear B**kbuster ,

Initially would like to thank for the comment.

I'd like to explain that in the tool eZ430-rf2500 the msp430 of Target is a 2274 and the msp430 of the usp is a 1612 that it is used in one of the solutions of the application slaa276a.pdf identified as "Standard Solution".

The subject is:

                          because to develop a new project and to spend some dollars if I can simply reprogram the tool that already exists????

Hi brighenti,

yes, you're right! One can program the eZ430U with the software from slaa276a.pdf (standard solution) but then you only have a very expensive (US$49) version of a serial-to-usb converter and you still need a second MSP430 to communicate with (and do the application; because I think you want to have more than only four I/Os).

Furthermore, you will not be able to undo this because the original firmware of the eZ430U is not available.

Rgds
G**kbuster

Certainly G**kbuster!

We have two options: to reprogram the eZ430U when necessary, or to have two eZ430U one to record and other to run the application. I particularly have two.

See that the original firmware of the eZ430U is available in the community in the link http://e2e.you.com/members/67610/files/eZ430U.zip.aspx

Rgds

Brighenti

excuse me for the previous post. the link was wrong!

Certainly G**kbuster! We have two options: to reprogram the eZ430U when necessary or to have two eZ430U one to register and other to run the application. particularly I have two.

See that the original firmware of the eZ430U is available in the community in the link http://e2e.ti.com/members/67610/files/eZ430U.zip.aspx

would only like to know how to reprogram the eZ430U because I didn't get to reprogram my eZ430U not even with the firmware of the application report. It happened a synchronization mistake when I executed the command line: bsldemo2 - cCOM4 - bF16XDEMOFIRMWARE.TXT

do you know how this to solve?

which application do you use to do BSL?

 Rgds

Brighenti

Hi Brighenti,

well, have you had a look at the schematics of the eZ430U? The BSL pins are pin 13 (P1.1) and pin 22 (P2.2) - these pins are unconnected on the eZ430U and because of that you're unable to re-program the device using BSL.

You can only re-program the MSP430F1612 on the eZ430U by using a JTAG interface like MSP-FET430U (connected to TP1 to TP7)

Rgds
G**kbuster 

Hi, 

have a look at old_cow_yellows profile (http://e2e.ti.com/members/67610/default.aspx) ! This is not the firmware for the tool which came with eZ430-RF2500!

Rgds
G**kbuster 

Hi,

G**kbuster

see the link http://events.ccc.de/congress/2008/Fahrplan/events/2681.en.html

for that I still insist on substituting the firmware of the eZ430U....

also see in my post files, the connections that I did for BSL.

Rgds

Brighenti

Sorry I took so long to reply. After looking at the design of the USB interface for the ez430-RF2500, I have changed my mind about baud rate changes being a "simple" software only change. The board has two processors, a TUSB3410 and an MPS430F16x. It looks like the MPS430F16x is being used as the JTAG engine for debugging whatever board is plugged into the SPYBiWire port. The TUSB3410 is handling hardware USB to serial communication to the MPS430F16x. In addition, the TUSB3410 is running a software UART on two GPIO that connects directly to the outer pins of the 6 pin debug connector. This software UART is what is connected to the directly to the UART of the MPS430F2274 on the RF2500 board. So the big question is whether the TUSB3410 has enough horsepower to run a software UART at high speed as well as manage USB communication for both serial devices it is connected to. And it is the TUSB3410 code that would need to be modified in order to be able to run at a faster baud rate.

Hi Falingtrea,

the code of the MPS430F16x has to be modified, not the firmware of the TUSB3410.

Rgds
G**kbuster

Well, actually it could be either. Both the MPS430F16x and TUSB3410 are connected to the nets BRXDI and BTXDI.

If it were being done in the MPS430F16x part, I would think that all the data would be going through one USB interface and the debugger software would have to split out the debug data from the serial data.

Since the TUSB3410 creates two seperate USB devices, I was assuming that the TUSB3410 was handling both interfaces directly.

Hi Falingtrea,

yes, your right; BRXDI and BTXDI were connected to the MSP430F16x and the TUSB3410. P3.0 to P3.4 of the TUSB3410 are general purpose I/Os (of the internal 8052 MCU), so the second UART (Endpoint) may be integrated in the TUSB3410 firmware too.

I'm sorry to say, but I would not bother in re-writing the firmware of the TUSB3410 only to have a higher baudrate on my eZ430U. I would do my own USB implementation either by using an MSP430Fx + TUSB3410 or by using an MSP430F551x or MSP430F552x (MSP430 derivatives with build in USB interface).

Rgds
G**kbuster 

Too bad they didn't run a 4 wire serial connection from the RF2500 board. Then the TUSB3410 could have used the RTS/CTS lines to put the UARTs on "hold" so that it could switch between the two MPS 430 parts. That would have taken less software resources and given them the capability of running faster UART speeds. And then just added a HC244 to isolate the two MPS430 UARTS from each other, controlled by the GPIO on the TUSB430.

I am also looking into upping the baud rate of the USB backchannel but I highly doubt that is possible, except if you have JTAG facility.

Basically the USB signals are arbitrated by the TUSB3410VF chip. The USB chip controls a MSP430F16x through a UART interface at SIN/SOUT. The SIN/SOUT is connected to USART0 channel of the MSP430F16x, and the USART1 channel connects this chip to the MSP430 development board. So the MSP430F16x simply acts as a serial port forwarder. Hence in order to increase the baudrate, you will have to change the baud rate on USART0/1 on the MSP430F16x, as well as the SIN/SOUT baud rate on the USB chip.

I don't think the USB chip adopts a software approach in doing serial comms through P3.0 and P3.1 (BRXDI/BTXDI), my guess is that it acts as some form of carrier detect.