MSP430F5171 JTAG initialisation error

Hi Tom,

Sorry to hear of your difficulties.

What is the specific error message that the elprotronic FET-Pro430 software is giving you? You can give a screenshot of the error if that would help.

Which TI hardware are you using to program the part? Is it the MSP-FET (which is a black box), or MSP-FET430UIF (which is a grey box), or something else like a launchpad?

I also wanted to confirm - are you talking about loading the code into the MSP430 device, or are you talking about updating the firmware of the hardware MSP-FET430UIF tool? Because if you have a different firmware version in your FET tool, it will ask to update the firmware and I was wondering if this was maybe what you were referring to. Screenshots again might help here to see which part of the process you are talking about. This picture is of prompts when it's updating the FET tool firmware - this is different from actually programming the MSP430 device, it's just updating the hardware tool:

I a little bit doubt that you have accidentally programmed the F5171 device you are using with the device set to something else. There is a warning message to help prevent this: if I open my FET-Pro430 software, and try to program an F6736 device for example, with the dropdown set to something else, like a G2553 device, it will not let me program it - instead should pop up a warning that looks like this:

It will only continue if you then clicked yes there. However I also haven't seen the software default to ".1x,F4x" like you mentioned either, so maybe that is different than a normal device selection. As a note, I was using the latest version of the Elprotronic software, version 3.3.

Finally, if it did somehow manage to program the MSP430 device with bad code - if it wasn't any of the above, you could potentially have an issue where the MSP430 is resetting very quickly making it hard for the JTAG to get access to the part. If this is the case, you can use the MSP430F5171 BSL to erase the device. If you have an MSP-FET (the new black one) this supports BSL access, and you can use it with the BSL_Scripter.exe to do a mass erase on the device: www.ti.com/lit/pdf/slau319 www.ti.com/lit/zip/slau319 Alternately, if you have an MSP-EXP430G2 Launchpad available with a G2xx device on it, you can use this as a PC interface to your F5xx part and use it with the BSL scripter as well: www.ti.com/lit/pdf/slaa535 www.ti.com/lit/zip/slaa535

Regards,

Katie

Hi Katie,

thanks for your quick response. To answer your questions...

What is the specific error message that the elprotronic FET-Pro430 software is giving you? You can give a screenshot of the error if that would help.
[Tom] - Unfortunately I am away on business for the next week so can't get to the lab PC. Used a spare 5 mins to create this post...However, I know it is definitely to do with JTAG initialisation

Which TI hardware are you using to program the part? Is it the MSP-FET (which is a black box), or MSP-FET430UIF (which is a grey box), or something else like a launchpad?
[Tom] - the grey box so the MSP-FET430UIF

I also wanted to confirm - are you talking about loading the code into the MSP430 device, or are you talking about updating the firmware of the hardware MSP-FET430UIF tool? Because if you have a different firmware version in your FET tool, it will ask to update the firmware and I was wondering if this was maybe what you were referring to. Screenshots again might help here to see which part of the process you are talking about. This picture is of prompts when it's updating the FET tool firmware - this is different from actually programming the MSP430 device, it's just updating the hardware tool:
[Tom] - I am talking about loading the code in the MSP430 device, firmware update is fine

I am using V3.3 too and i have never seen that warning message...although i have never ended up picking the wrong device; it is either the correct device or this strange .1x,F4x setting

Sounds like I should probably try buying the "black box" version and doing a mass erase as I think it does sound as if I have programmed it with a strange code configuration...

Thanks

Tom

could you confirm whether the MSP-FET has the same connector and pin-out as the MSP-FET430UIF please? The user guide for the different programmers is not that clear and I'd like to know if they are compatible with one another before buying one as I have my MSP430 soldered onto a custom PCB that I don't wish to change the layout on...

Thanks

Tom

Hi Tom,

Yes the MSP-FET uses the same connector and pinout as the MSP-FET430UIF - we wanted to make it be a replacement and be compatible for everyone that was already using the previous tool. Connections for JTAG/SBW should still follow the diagrams in chapter 2 of www.ti.com/lit/pdf/slau278 The only differences/additions are on pins that were unused on the MSP-FET430UIF - we have added BSL functionality to the MSP-FET, and it uses a few of these unused pins (pins 12 and 14) to provide the BSL TX/RX connections. So for BSL programming, you may have to use some jumper wires to connect these as your existing board probably doesn't have these BSL signals routed to the JTAG header, but for normal JTAG or SBW programming the connection is exactly the same and you should have no issue if it was working with MSP-FET430UIF.

For your issue now - it is great to update to MSP-FET anyway as it is our main tool going forward (you can see MSP-FET430UIF is listed as NRND and being replaced by it) and it has a lot of new features like BSL support as well as EnergyTrace technology to measure and track current consumption in your application. However, in the meantime you may additionally want to try reaching out to Elprotronic support on this issue as well, either by email or phone. The reason I mention this, is I've never seen that strange device setting at startup of the software like you mention, and they may have an idea of why this is happening for you since they develop/own this software - I have found their support to be very responsive in the past: http://elprotronic.com/contact.html 

Regards,

Katie

Hi Katie,

Thanks very much for your help, I'll contact Elprotronic and see what they say and also get hold of an MSP-FET device too.

Thanks

Tom