bsl scripter loading intel hex file error

Hello Ryan,

Thank you for the help on this.

Compiler used in CCS 6.1.3  to generate the firmware image was GNU v4.6.3.   Image was built from an Energia project imported into CCS.   

I should have been clearer--the image that was loaded successfully with earlier version Scripter 3.1.0 was not the same image because I could not output the image I needed to load in TI TXT format using GNU toolset.  So I used another CCS project to generate the TI TXT to load.  

I followed the instructions here:

e2e.ti.com/.../148.4-5-attaching-a-file

to attach the Intel HEX file, but I could not see the rich text option selection that the post referred to.  I dragged-and-dropped the file anyway, but it looks like it may have been inserted, not attached--sorry.  Got this error message:

"Only known URLs and the following file extensions are allowed: 123, 7z, aac, ai, aiff, art, asf, asx, avi, bmp, config, csd, css, db, db, dmg, doc, docx, drw, eml, flac, flv, gif, gz, htm, html, ics, jpeg, jpg, log, m4a, m4p, m4v, mdb, mdbx, mid, midi, mmv, mov, mp3, mp4, mpg, mpp, msg, ogg, pdf, png, pps, ppt, pptx, ps, psd, qt, ram, rar, rm, rtf, sit, sitx, sql, swf, tif, tiff, txt, vcf, vcs, wav, wma, wmv, wpd, wps, xls, xlsx, xml, zip, tsc, tsm, ibs, diff, tar, tar.gz, gel, ccs, cpp, asm, sa, c, cc, sch, ini, cfg, cxx, s, asm, pjt, vsd, sch, pcb, lib, cir, mcd, xmcdz, xmct, jmp, jsl, dat, brd, vsm, h, usb. Please select a valid file or enter a valid URL."

Another try..

I found the "Use rich formatting"  option, clicked it, and tried to attach the hex file, but got the error message again.  Here is the Intel HEX file zipped.simulator_scalar_R1_BSL.hex.zip

Hi John,

thanks for attaching the file. I try this file on my side, and will back to you as soon as I found the rootcause.

I just wanted to make sure I understood the implications of your post.   If I understood you correctly, BSL Scripter does not support the "Start Segment Address" record of the Intel HEX format indicated by the '03' in the line line:

:0400000300004400B5

in my .hex file.   I think I understood you to say that firmware loaders (e.g. Energia) would use this line to set the PC and begin execution.     My question is, does this record, and the workaround you suggested, also set the contents of the RESET vector?  Otherwise the firmware could not start after reset, is my understanding correct?

I continuing with trying to load an Intel Hex format firmware image using BSL Scripter 3.2.0, and have encountered another issue.

Energia for MSP430 also creates an Intel Hex format file from the .elf file it produces.  I removed the "Start Segment Address" record from this file.   However, when I try to load this file using BSL Scripter, the load fails with error message (from the log file):

	[72] [69] [70] [74] [69] [6f] [6e] [2e] [00] [51] [75] [53] [70] [69] [6e] [30] 
	[30] [30] [30] [00] [00] [01] [00] [03] [00] [32] [00] [30] [f2] [fc] [ff] [fc] 
	[ff] [20] [a1] [07] [00] [d8] [2f] [07] [00] [30] [fe] [1b] [10] [01] [00] [00] 
	[00] [b7] [c7] 
	<80> 
	[ACK_ERROR_MESSAGE]Packet Size exceeds maximum buffer size!
	Time elapsed of writing 25889 bytes : 41.29 seconds
	Speed of writing data :0.6123(kB/s)
SET_PC 0x4400
	[80] [04] [00] [17] [00] [44] [00] [42] [0f] 

Energia loads this file with no error.  It looks to me that the Intel Hex file produced with Energia tools has one very large Extended Segment Address record that is too large for BSL Scripter.

Could you please look into this?  

Here is the file that fails to load (with the Start Segment Address record removed).

(Sorry, still struggling to attach this file..will follow with the file when I can configure my post for rich text format...

Here's the zipped hex file generated by Energia that BSL Scripter fails to load.
Thanks!

simulator_scalar_R1_BSL.cpp.zip

I uploaded it in my last post as simulator_scalar_R1_BSL.cpp.zip

Forum blocks .hex files.

Thanks,  John Wygonski

Hi John,

John Wygonski said:

My question is, does this record, and the workaround you suggested, also set the contents of the RESET vector?  Otherwise the firmware could not start after reset, is my understanding correct?

The reset vector is always included in the firmware image that is generated, either from Energia or other IDE. The reset vector location is on 0xFFFE. When you reset the device, the address includes on this reset vector, will be executed. So, the workaround using SET_PC 0x4400 should work. if you see the firmware image that you have, you got the reset vector of 0044 (it's flipped because the endianness of 16 bit representation.)

:10FFF0004E6EC66F7644764476447644764400442A

Hi John,

I am sorry it took awhile to investigate this. I try some hex file from Energia, and I found Energia has different form of intel hex file compare to the IDE  (CCS) that I referred as the example during BSL Scripter development. We need to do an update to cover Energia example, including the PC register set that you bring earlier.

Thanksj for looking into this.   Could you estimate when a new release is coming out for BSL Scripter?

Hi John,

the newest Scripter just been uploaded to the Web:

http://software-dl.ti.com/msp430/msp430_public_sw/mcu/msp430/MSPBSL_Scripter/3_02_01_00/index_FDS.html

Please kindly try it on your side and let me know your feedback :)

Thanks for the notice!  I see that the new release has Intel HEX support.   I will try it out with Energia- generated files when I get back to that project.   And the release came out just when you said it would!