CCSv6: MSP430G2553 "Could not find device (or device not supported)" Error Message. Help!

Hi Stephen, 

I have a suspicion that your issue may be due to not having the proper capacitance and resistance necessary for programming via SBW. Check out the first response to this previous E2E post: MSP430G2553 Does Not Recognize MCU

Also, if you could provide schematics that would be very helpful. 

Best regards, 

Caleb Overbay

Hello Caleb,

The board was actually designed with that in mind, I've included screenshots of the relevant schematics below. I also thoroughly tested each capacitor and resistor before soldering it to the board, so I am relatively certain that is not the source of my error.

-Stephen

Hi Stephen,

It's good to see you anticipated this when designing the board, and everything appears as if it should work.

Let's try some more debugging to try to find out whats going wrong:

1. Do you have any other boards that are exhibiting this behavior or is it just this one?
2. Is it possible VCC is dipping during programming?
3. We typically use a 1.1nF cap in place of C33 to enable high speed SBW communication. The 2.2nF is the upper limit when using current tools. You could try reducing this capacitance and see if anything changes.
4. Your capacitance on DVCC looks a little low. Can you try using a 10uF and 100nF for C32 and C31 respectively?

Best regards, 

Caleb Overbay

Hello Caleb,

1. This is the only board exhibiting this behavior, the other board has the same capacitor values and works fine consistently.
2. I looked at Vcc through an oscilloscope during power-up and an attempted debugging and did not see any significant change in voltage.
3. Unfortunately I don't think I have any 1.1nF capacitors with the same footprint as the 2.2nF, but I can see if I can jury-rig something with a through-hole instead.
4. There is actually a 10uF attentuating capacitor located by the 3.3V regulator for this circuit in addition to the 220nF and 1uF capacitors shown above. I've included a picture of that part of the schematic below.

The LM1085-3.3 is the power supply for the MSP430G2553 in this case.

-Stephen

Quick update, I used a different LaunchPad to attempt to program a different through-hole packaged MSP430G2553 with the blink LED program found on the TI wiki. The chip is mounted on the LaunchPad, the project specifications have the 2553 as a target, but I still get the same error message from CCS when I attempt to debug

Hi Stephen, 

Just so I'm understanding you correctly, you aren't using the original device/hardware you were having issues with, or the original LaunchPad you were using to program it with either?

Does this mean any MSP430G2553 you try to program is not working properly?

As far as next steps for the original hardware, I think it's time to investigate whether this is a soldering issue. Is it possible for you to take one of the "carbon copy" working boards and replace the '430 on it with the one that is not being detected correctly? Then place the remaining '430 on the board that was having detection issues. Just swapping out the two MSP430G2553s. Then retry programming both boards.

This way we can see if the issue follows the device, the board, or disappears in which case it was most likely a soldering issue. 

Best regards, 

Caleb Overbay

Hello Caleb,

Yes it seems that any MSP430G2553 I try to program is not being recognized by CCS except for the one working board containing a chip that already had some code on it before it was commissioned. Unfortunately because the working board has been commissioned, I will not be able to get my hands on it again for a while and I am not sure I want to risk de-soldering such a small chip from my only working device.

I can say that using my remaining two new G2253 chips and boards, I fully populated one while only populating the essentials for the other (R1, C1, C2, C3). I again checked the trace continuity of the Vcc, TEST, and RESET pins on both boards. I also inspected both G2553 chips under a microscope to ensure that all pins had good connections to their pads.

Even after this I was still getting the same error when trying to debug both chips. After this I tried using a coworker's LaunchPad (same model) with my boards and with the through-hole chip, with no luck. I tried a fresh install of a previous version of CCS (6.1.3) and that also did not work.

Any advice from here? I am befuddled :(

-Stephen Mee

Hi Stephen,

I'm starting to get befuddled too! :(

Do the chips you're attempting to program already have code on them? If so, it could be a scenario where the part is constantly resetting.

How are you supplying power to the MSP when programming it? Is it coming from the LaunchPad or are you supplying it externally? The LaunchPad does not support external VCC during programming. This could cause communication issues when programming the device.

Best regards, 
Caleb Overbay

Hi Stephen,

Did you make any progress on this that you'd like to share?

Best regards,
Caleb Overbay

Hello Caleb,

Not quite. Sorry for my late response.

My two boards have brand new chips with no prior code on them. In the design they do actually receive a 3.3V supply from a voltage regulator on the board itself, not the LaunchPad. However this is also true for the third working board that I can still debug.

-Stephen

Hi Stephen,

I highly suggest supplying power from the launchpad instead. Even though it works for the other boards, doesn't mean it will work all the time. I think this is the next step you should try out before doing anything else.

Best regards,
Caleb Overbay

Hello Caleb,

I wired a connection from Vcc on the Launchpad to the Vcc pin of the G2553. After running another debug session I am still getting the same error. I also recently tried to re-install a previous version of CCS (6.1.3) and now when I try to debug, I get ~50 errors from the lnk_msp430g2553.cmd file saying that "memory range overlaps existing" and "memory range has already been specified". These errors were not occurring before the re-install.

Does this shed any more light on this issue?

-Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Did you ensure the ground was also connected when you attempted this?

I wouldn't recommend returning to an older version of CCS. If anything, I would update to the latest. If you're still getting the same errors after updating post a screenshot of them and provide you're linker file and I'll take a look at it.

Best regards,
Caleb Overbay

hi stephan,

                         i had developed a customized msp430 g2553 board  few months ago for my college project. At that time  i was using msp fet debugger to program(spy by wire) the device and i too got this problem first . in your circuit diagram shown where you have connected 2.2 nF on reset pin, i had 10 nF   on my reset pin and i was getting error could not find the target device. then i changed it to  1 nF and it worked later on i tried  to program with launchpad  it also worked.  try this if this help.

                                                                                                                                                                          

Hi Stephen,

I'm closing this thread, but if you still have questions feel free to post and I will respond.

Best regards,
Caleb Overbay