Programming of Chronos watch ( CC430F6137 ) with eZ430 is not possible

Hi Dung,

as mentioned in my original post 4 devices are showing up:

1. Ports / MSP430 Application UART (COM22)

2. Human Interface devices / HID-compliant device (translated from German OS)

3. Human Interface devices / USB-HID

4. USB controller / USB composite device (translated from German OS)

Names can be different because of translation errors...

From my point of view every driver is installed.

I have only one FET connected (from the Chronos development kit).

When I start the debug in CCS without the connected FET it says:

Error initializing emulator:
No USB FET was found

When I start the debug in CCS with the connected FET but without the watch it says:

Error initializing emulator:
Could not initialize device interface

This is exatly the same error message like I have the watch connected.

I think the watch has a problem with the programming interface. The watch itself works witch the installed software and it shows the standard display while connected to the FET.

If nobody can help me further I have send the watch back for replacement...

Thanks

Timo

Timo,

 To help you solve the problem, try different computer.

We had a similar problem with eZ430-RF2480 (same error) not working on some computers.

We have try many things, including loading different operating systems, spend a lot of time and nothing could be done.

In most cases it is the USB drivers problem, but there are computers not working with eZ430 emulators, despite using proper drivers.

If the problem is with USB hardware on PC,  the firmware for emulators or application software (CCS, IAR) is a different story.

Jan 

I have similar problem using IAR.

I used everything from the eZ430-Chronos CD (the IAR-IDE and the 915MHz Limited Edition Debug Project).

When the eZ430 is not plugged in, I got the error “Fail to initialize…” (understood)

When the eZ430 is plugged in but not Chronos, I go the error “Communication Error…” (understood)

When the Chronos is also there, I got the error “The debugger session could not be started…” (why?)

Examine the Windows-XP Device Manager, I found eZ430 USB\VID_0451&PID_F432\… appears in:

(a) Ports (COM & LPT) shows MSP430 Application UART (COM6) with that VID/PID
Texas Instrument, 12/11/2007, Driver version 1.3.0.0

(b) Human Interface Device shows three entries with that VID/PID
One HID-compliant device, and two USB Human Interface devices

(c) Universal Serial Bus controller also shows one controller with the above VID/PID)

Was this a driver issue? Or, was the IAR Project options wrong? I did not change any of the settings as unpacked and installed from the eZ430-Chronos CD.

Should I open a support ticket?

Jan,

I have tried it now on an other computer...

Same behaviour!

Couldn't it be some hardware problem?

Timo

I had this problem.The key words in Dung's statement are: "if more than one programmers (FET or eZ430) are connected, CCS might pick the first one it sees, which might not be the correct one. Make sure only the eZ430 is connected."

I have an HP wireless keyboard/mouse (USB ID: 03F0:050C). If this is attached, Code Composer, IAR, and SmartRF Programmer fail to see my eZ430. If I unplug my keyboard/mouse, it works fine.

I'm going to find a PS/2 Keyboard and mouse and do development using that. Try unplugging any USB keyboard and/or mice you have attached.

Timo,

 When I said another computer I meant different (different hardware, OS, etc.)

From my experience, the drivers work on WindowsXP SP3 and Windows7 (and possibly Vista) and the newer PC hardware  the better.

Virtual machine with Linux host and WinXP guest seems to work fine, too.

My guess is that TI people, who create the software drivers test it on one computer with multiple boots (different operating systems)

and they have close to newest PC hardware. Out in the field there is a jungle and it doesn't work 100%

As you see many people reporting similar problems, you might hope that TI will acknowledge the problem and fix it.

So - "Texas, we have a problem"

In your case you might have a faulty eZ430 hardware. Find someone in your neighborhood who has working set and fix yours by elimination.

Jan

Jan,

do I have to buy a new OS? I don't think so...

I have tried it with my eee-netbook and my Quad core deskop computer, which are not brand new but also not old in computer definition. I can't remove any USB-keybord from my netbook.

I don't understand why ti has changed the driver anyway. In the .inf file I can see some other driver definitions which won't collide with a keyboard!

Maybe ti are good in hardware, but speaking from my first and probably last experience with their development tools I dont like the msp430...

Timo

Timo,

 Solving problems is an important part of engineering.

I do not suggest you to buy a new OS and do not give up too easy.

If you are not happy with TI software try Crossworks for MSP430 http://www.rowley.co.uk/ fully functional evaluation version.

I had an older version, but it never had problems with drivers (unlike TI and IAR)

good luck

Jan

To add to the confusion:

1) From my own and others experience it seems that HP machines are especially vulnerable to driver issues with the ez430 sticks, resulting in connection failures etc.

2) The ez430 drivers also seem vulnerable to USB driver confusion. My main work computer (Vista OS) is abused with countless installations for different hardware debug solutions for different targets from different vendors.  In a not so distant past I had the ez430 drivers working OK and now (yesterday) when  I had to return to the msp430 project it did not work and no amount of uninstalling/installing of drivers or magic hand waving could get it to work again. Finally I despaired and installed a fresh XP Pro on a VMWare workstation partition, installed the dev tools and it suddenly worked...

old cow yellow said:

I have similar problem using IAR.

I used everything from the eZ430-Chronos CD (the IAR-IDE and the 915MHz Limited Edition Debug Project).

When the eZ430 is not plugged in, I got the error “Fail to initialize…” (understood)

When the eZ430 is plugged in but not Chronos, I go the error “Communication Error…” (understood)

When the Chronos is also there, I got the error “The debugger session could not be started…” (why?)

Examine the Windows-XP Device Manager, I found eZ430 USB\VID_0451&PID_F432\… appears in:

(a) Ports (COM & LPT) shows MSP430 Application UART (COM6) with that VID/PID
Texas Instrument, 12/11/2007, Driver version 1.3.0.0

(b) Human Interface Device shows three entries with that VID/PID
One HID-compliant device, and two USB Human Interface devices

(c) Universal Serial Bus controller also shows one controller with the above VID/PID)

Was this a driver issue? Or, was the IAR Project options wrong? I did not change any of the settings as unpacked and installed from the eZ430-Chronos CD.

Should I open a support ticket?

I finally got it to work (at least at this moment). I did not switch to another computer. Do not ask me what did I do to make it work, because I do not know. Mushrooms manage to pock their heads out of a heap of maneuver in total darkness. Do not ask them how they did it.

I think you have the same problem as me. Here is a description of it, and a kludge to fix it.

http://e2e.ti.com/support/microcontrollers/msp43016-bit_ultra-low_power_mcus/f/166/t/18596.aspx

So far the problem persists, since nobody at TI even acknowledged it. Despite me posting it here, and at http://wiki.davincidsp.com/index.php/MSP430_JTAG_Interface_USB_Driver

One of the steps I took to fix my problem was to follow your advice, to no avail - So there are certainly other issues with these drivers, that cannot be fixed by replacing the high-level IDE related drivers. What's more, after installing the tools in a fresh XP virtual machine on my computer it worked, *with the original msp430 and hil dll:s*... 

Interesting. Replacing the 2 dlls with the older versions solves my problem every time, in a perfectly reproducible manner.

You may have opened a whole new (but related) can of worms.

The Subject: "Programming of Chronos watch ( CC430F6137 ) with eZ430 is not possible" is not quite accurate.

It is possible. But we are left in the dark and there are many cans of worms everywhere.

Hi,

have you messed around with different dll versions?

Thanks

Timo

Well, it nice to hear Im not the only one with this problem. I am just getting back into doing some code and jumped into the MSP430 ring. My confidence level is low and attribute many of my problems to pilot error.  I have the Chonos, Remoti, and the ez430rf2500, a vista 64bit and a xp32bit machine. I have not been able to play with code much because am spending most of my time getting the tools working (and learning to steer them). I have already updated the drivers, went to the older dlls etc. etc etc just to get these tools to work. The old driver is on the XP machine and the new one on the 64bit. (with the old dlls on both).

The Chornos will not recognize the device all the same errors as above. Im thinking there is a mechanical (solder??) problem. Initially my Altitude(pressure) was reading "err". I attempted to reload the program using IAR. Im not familiar enough yet with CCE etc. I am able to download the Chronos programs in the simulator mode and debug. I think this tells me my USB stick is being addressed correctly. When I attempt to download to the watch the communication and device not identified errors pop up. This happens on both XP and Vista machines.

I did have an additional error once. It stated that "the target device did not match the MSP430F6137 do I want to continue?"  I said yes, and the original "cant identify device and comm" errors popped up.

After reassembling the watch lo and behold the Altitude was working! I took the watch back apart to see if it would communicate and as soon as the module was in hand the Altitude was back to ERR and as expected it (IAR) would not id the device with a comm error.

My 40 years or so of troubleshooting experience tells me this is a "Bad Connection"  somewhere. It would be interesting to see what serial #s these watches have. Bad solder run (as in batch) maybe???? I looked with a microscope, being the pressure sensor is in the vicinity of the debug connector, but saw nothing amiss.

I have also purchased a couple of the AMB8423 boards from Amber. Does anyone have any sample code or experience with these? I would like to set on up with simplicti and the other with BlueRobin.

On another note, can someone point me to a forum dealing with the CC2531 dongle and Packet sniffer? Im unable to sniff anything out yet. I attempted flashing the dongle to make sure it has the correct firmware but it stops short telling me that to bootstrap loader is going to overlap my code. Packet sniffer just come up blank. The docs say its preprogrammed to work with Sniffer but it also says I may have to pre program it myself. Again I may just need to be told to turn something on thats right in front of me.

Thanks to all

Bryant

All,

We've an seen the issue that the eZ430 emulator is not working on certain PCs as well. We've taken care about this issue in the next IDE release, which will be available beginning of next week (IAR and CCSv4.1.2).

Please try the new versions and let us know in case the same issue should still be present on your machine!

Regards,

Markus

PS: In case "err" is shown on the Chronos LCD, please reset your watch. In case the issue should still be present, please return your Chronos to TI for a replacement. 

Thanks for the heads up Markus. Is this update mainly a driver update or will it be a whole new installation?

Is there any chance that it will address some of the other driver issues such as the EZ430RF2500 problems that came about with the last driver update? In Vista 64 I was able to run the 2500 demo but not program/debug the device. With the newer driver I could program/debug but the demo and virtual serial interface no longer worked.

Currently Im attempting to run the "wireless uart exercise" http://e2e.ti.com/support/low_power_rf/f/157/p/17254/66797.aspx#66797 that Brandon Elliot alerted me of . He has been very helpful.  I can program and debug the target boards but the vista 64 bit machine will not connect to run the program. There is no traffic on the com port via the EZ430 emulator usb stick. I can take the target boards that were programed on the vista 64 bit machine and run the exercise on the xp32 bit machine. It appears that the VCP is not being implemented with the last driver. I am using that mix of the newer driver and the old dlls from IAR.

This same problem exists with the Zaccel zigbee target boards.

How might this effect the CC2531 dongle and the CCDebugger pod?

As far as the Chronos goes, TI is sending me a new one. There was definitely an intermittent hardware problem. It was showing the err on the altitude and IAR would not recognize it. When I screwed the cover back on the watch sometimes the err would clear.

Happy Trails

To the O.P. (Original Poster)

Not sure if you got it figured out but I also had that issue. I just fixed it like 5 mins ago. What I did was I downloaded the latest version of IAR kick start (reason because they have the FET drivers that you need) in the directory that you installed, there should be a folder called drivers it should have all the drivers from xp to win 7. Now what you have to do is force windows to use those drivers by going to your device manager and under the "Universal Serial Bus Controller" there should be a device called USB Composite Device (or something to that affect), right click on it to do a update and select browser my computer->let me pick...->have disk, locate the driver as mentioned above and it should show the MSP 430 Fet being installed.

A way to determine if you have the right USB selected is to go into it property and under detail select hadrware id. It should show something like usb\vid_045&PID_F432 <-this is the id of the MSP430 USB.

Now all this can be resolved if TI just give us the package drivers instead of installing it for us and letting windows find it. Everyone know windows have enough issue with it.....

Let me know if that helped.