MSP432P401R: MSP432 Timer infinitely interrupting when stepping through debugging

Lunatic911

Part Number: MSP432P401R

Hi all,

I'm working on a project with the MSP432 and I've gotten the TimerA0 and TimerA1 modules to generate interrupts simultaneously at different frequencies. At some point last week in my development, something must have happened and now whenever I debug step through the code, I get into the TimerA1 interrupt and never get out of it. Rather, it interrupts, finshes it, clearing any and every flag related to the TimerA0, then it exits, and immediately goes back to the top of the interrupt and starts again. This happens forever when I'm stepping through it.

The strange thing is that when I free-run the code, I can see it working at the right frequency when I XOR an I/O pin and look at it on the oscilloscope. And what frustrates me even further is that I've made sure that the buttons to Disable Interrupts for Single-Stepping in the Project Properties is selected. I've been trying different things with my code and nothing is fixing this.

I believe this started when I moved the code to a PCB we made for the project. I've been prototyping this same code on the red Eval-board for the MSP432. I've been trying to think if something on the board could be affecting this, but I don't have any ideas. This problem is seriously impeding my ability to debug code, though I think the code may still work when its running without the debugger.

If anyone's seen this problem before and know of something I may be missing I'd really appreciate the help.

Thanks,

over 8 years ago

0 Dennis Eichmann over 8 years ago

Guru 74080 points

Hi Lunatic!

What is the timer interval? Is it very short? Interrupts can definitely interfere a debug session ;) Very annoying sometimes.

0 Lunatic911 over 8 years ago in reply to Dennis Eichmann

Intellectual 820 points

Thanks for the reply.

I have it set up to be a 1ms timer.

Yeah, I get this problem from time to time, but I can't seem to remember what I've done to get around it.

Thanks,

0 Lunatic911 over 8 years ago in reply to Lunatic911

Intellectual 820 points

Do you know how they can interfere with a debug session or what I can do about it?

I've also tried the original code written for the Eval board again on the Evail board and I don't have this problem. When I disconnect, change the target from the XDS110 Default debugger to the USB1 MSP-FET and compile and immediately run the code on the PCB board with the MSP-FET, I see this getting into the timer interrupt and never getting out unless I free run to another breakpoint.

I'm about to try this same setup on another computer and debugger to see if its a debugger issue.

Thanks,

0 Ilmars over 8 years ago in reply to Lunatic911

Guru 46710 points

Lunatic911 said:
When I disconnect, change the target from the XDS110 Default debugger to the USB1 MSP-FET and compile and immediately run the code on the PCB board with the MSP-FET, I see this getting into the timer interrupt and never getting out

So you shall take closer look at debug interface or debugger in general, options/settings.

0 Lunatic911 over 8 years ago in reply to Ilmars

Intellectual 820 points

Yes, but I don't really know what I'm looking for right now. In the debugger options, my two biggest suspects are already checked, "Disable Interrupts when single Stepping through source/assembly" are already checked.

Ethan

0 kazola over 8 years ago in reply to Lunatic911

Guru 18545 points

Hi Lunatic911 (4049685) ,

I cannot assure it will help you at all but I had some valuable info from TI regarding MSP432 interrupts in some of my old threads, which I do not even remember but I post here. Hope they help you in some way! Bye!

MSP432 P3.3 IRQ when NOT debugging - MSP low-power microcontroller forum - MSP low-power microcontrollers...

e2e.ti.com

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: ENERGYTRACE Good afternoon, my code sleeps and wakes up upon a rising edge interrupt on P3.3 pin :) The code works when debugged

Debugging and understanding MSP432 pcm_go_to_lpm3 example - MSP low-power microcontroller forum - MSP...

e2e.ti.com

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: ENERGYTRACE Good morning! I have just started with my MSP432 launchpad. I may be assuming some things wrong from my past experiences

0 Lunatic911 over 8 years ago in reply to kazola

Intellectual 820 points

Thanks for the references. They're pretty good.

Unfortunately, the problem still exists. I think I'm going to start another thread about this problem because I've found that the root of the problem is actually that the MSP-FET is breaking the debugging capabilities when TimerA's are used. The XDS110 Debugger doesn't have this problem.

Thanks for the help though,

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