MSP-EXP430FR5994: macOS 10.14 Mojave — Upload to MSP430FR5994 ezFET Fails

Rei Vilo

Part Number: MSP-EXP430FR5994
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: ENERGIA, UNIFLASH, MSP-EXP430FR4133

I can no longer upload to the MSP-EXP430FR5994 when running on macOS 10.14 Mojave. Uploading to ezFET used to work fine with macOS 10.13 High Sierra.

DSLite used with Energia fails to upload to the MSP-EXP430FR5994 LaunchPad.

DSLite version 8.2.0.1400
Configuring Debugger (may take a few minutes on first launch)...
Initializing Register Database...
Initializing: MSP430
error: MSP430: Error initializing emulator: No USB FET was found
Failed: MSP430: Error initializing emulator: No USB FET was found

the selected serial port
does not exist or your board is not connected

The issue has been reported as macOS 10.14 — Upload to MSP430FR5994 Fails #69.

Command line MSP430Flasher fails to detect the ezFET.

$ ./MSP430Flasher -i usbmodem*

* -----/|-------------------------------------------------------------------- *
*     / |__                                                                   *
*    /_   /   MSP Flasher v1.3.16                                             *
*      | /                                                                    *
* -----|/-------------------------------------------------------------------- *
*
* Evaluating triggers...done
* Checking for available FET debuggers: 
* Couldn't find any connected USB FETs!
* Powering down...done
* Disconnecting from device...done
* 
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Driver      : closed (MSP DebugStack not initialized)
* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/

Same result with CCS Cloud.

An error message appears about El Capitan on macOS 10.12, which is two year old. macOS 10.14 Mojave has just been released.

Finally, UniFlash fails as well.

Any solution? Thank you!

over 5 years ago

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago

TI__Guru 60361 points

Hello Rei,

I'll have to reach out to tools team to get you an answer for this one.

0 William McHargue over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 250 points

Dennis,

Thanks for picking up the baton on this. Let me add my voice to the request--I'm experiencing the same problem. CCS 8 under macOS 10.14 will not find the FET probe, nor will MSP430Flasher (v1.3.18) no matter what name I try: usbmodemNNNNN, tty.usbmodemNNNNN, or option "-i DETECT". Nothing wrong with the hardware as I can connect with MSP430Flasher on same setup with Windows under a VMware virtual machine (which I will use to download my firmware, but not to run CCS 8).

Hope there is a workaround...

Regards,

Bill.

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to William McHargue

TI__Guru 60361 points

I'm still waiting for a response from our tools team.

0 Rei Vilo over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Guru 23915 points

macOS 10.14 Mojave has changed the way USB ports are enumerated and named.

With macOS 10.13 High Sierra

$ ls /dev/tty.*
/dev/tty.usbmodem00000001
/dev/tty.usbmodem00000004

With macOS 10.14 Mojave

$ ls /dev/tty.*
/dev/tty.usbmodemM4321005
/dev/tty.usbmodem32

I hope this helps to solve the issue.

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to Rei Vilo

TI__Guru 60361 points

Hello Rei and WIlliam,

According to our tools team, they are aware of this issue. Apple has changed some fundamental policies regarding hardware access. Our tools team has been trying to get more information from Apple. It was pointed out to me that the code examples did have a notification that they were outdated, but unfortunately there is no reference to new documentation / examples at this time.

And to help explain why William's attempts to connect to the device by "name", it was explained to me that the driver code does not rely on the name, but rather searches for the debugger devices using the vendor ID and product ID, so the naming is irrelevant.

So I suppose, stay tuned until we get a resolution from Apple.

0 Rei Vilo over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Guru 23915 points

Dennis Lehman Thank you for the update. Working with Apple hardware and software has never been easy. Good luck with finding a solution.

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to Rei Vilo

TI__Guru 60361 points

Hello Rei and WIlliam,

The tools team has informed me that have a solution. It needs to be fully tested and complete of regression tests before it can be released. They are targeting a release of the updated MSP430x support stack the second week of Nov.
Stay tuned.

0 Rei Vilo over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Guru 23915 points

Thank you for the news.

0 William McHargue over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 250 points

Dennis,

Although it sounds like the tools team has it well in hand, if they need any field testing I'd be glad to help. And thank you for helping us "Mojave Early Adopters". ;-)

Bill.

0 Rei Vilo over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Guru 23915 points

Dennis Lehman I'd be glad to take part on the beta-testing too. Feel free to PM me.

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to Rei Vilo

TI__Guru 60361 points

Hi William and Rei,

Let me check again with our tools team to see if this is possible.

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

TI__Guru 60361 points

HI William and Rei,

I just finished up a meeting the tools team on this issue, so here is the update.
The issue is Apple changed the naming convention of the usb device category from a "modem" to "RS232 device" in Mojave, so the debugger is now longer recognized.

Our tools team has successfully corrected the issue and is finishing up regression testing this week.
The next step is for our CCS team to integrate the fix into the next release of CCS, which is 8.3 scheduled for Nov 12, 2018.

Hope this helps.
BTW, thanks for help for identifying this problem.

No need to respond unless you have further questions. I'll mark this issue as resolved.

0 Rei Vilo over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Guru 23915 points

Thank you for the update. Any possibility of having the updated DSLite before the release of CCS 8.3?

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to Rei Vilo

TI__Guru 60361 points

Hi Rei,

Unfortunately no. Our tools team has told me they have a policy that they don't provide software before an official release. Sorry about that.

0 Rei Vilo over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Guru 23915 points

Is there a confirmed date for the release of CCS 8.3?

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to Rei Vilo

TI__Guru 60361 points

Yes Rei, as mentioned in the previous posting, it is scheduled for Nov 12.

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

TI__Guru 60361 points

Hi Rei,

I'm going to close this issue since it has been resolved. If you additional questions regarding this topic you can 're-open' the issue.

0 Andrew Dai28 over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 50 points

Hi, just checking in to see if there is any update to the release date of 8.3.

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to Andrew Dai28

TI__Guru 60361 points

Hi Andrew,

My understanding was it would be released on Monday, Nov 12. Let me check with that team for an update.

0 caglar durmaz over 5 years ago in reply to Andrew Dai28

Prodigy 50 points

I could not see the download link of CCS 8.3 in the download page. Can you help me if the new version is available?

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to caglar durmaz

TI__Guru 60361 points

Ok, here is the update.

Sorry to inform everyone, but I'm being told CCS 8.3 has been pushed out to Nov 30.
Apparently there are several other updates to CCS, the Mojave fix is only one of them, that require time for regression testing, sign off, etc.
The original plan was for a Nov 12 release, so something must be holding up the release process.
I'll update as soon as I hear anything.

0 Rei Vilo over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Guru 23915 points

Thank you for the update.

0 user4041982 over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 30 points

Hi Dennis!

Do you have some news for us regarding an updated stack (for MacOS)?

Best

Mirko

0 Rei Vilo over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Guru 23915 points

Dennis Lehman Even if CCS 8.3 is delayed till Nov 30, 2018, could DSLite with the fix for macOS 10.14 be available separately and before the revised ETA?

I am not using CCS 8.3 due to stability issues on macOS, but embedXcode instead. However, upload is performed by DSLite.

As a matter of fact, I can no longer work with the MSP430 MCUs and LaunchPads.

Having the DSLite fixed for macOS 10.14 as a separate download would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

0 Spencer Whyte10 over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 10 points

+1 If you need any help testing this, let me know, I eagerly await this release. :D

0 user5880552 over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 10 points

Hi, Dennis,

I'm fresh to the TI board with the MSP-EXP430FR4133. I'm now running macOS Mojave 10.14.1 on my laptop, and using the latest version of Energia. I found I just can't upload the program onto the board.

Here is the error messages:

Energia: 1.8.7E21 (Mac OS X), Board: "MSP-EXP430FR4133LP"

/Applications/Energia.app/Contents/Java/hardware/energia/msp430/cores/msp430/atof.c: In function 'atof':
/Applications/Energia.app/Contents/Java/hardware/energia/msp430/cores/msp430/atof.c:71:9: warning: floating constant exceeds range of 'double' [-Woverflow]
Sketch uses 918 bytes (5%) of program storage space. Maximum is 15360 bytes.
Global variables use 20 bytes (0%) of dynamic memory, leaving 2028 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2048 bytes.
DSLite version 8.2.0.1400
Configuring Debugger (may take a few minutes on first launch)...
Initializing Register Database...
Initializing: MSP430
error: MSP430: Error initializing emulator: No USB FET was found
Failed: MSP430: Error initializing emulator: No USB FET was found

the selected serial port
does not exist or your board is not connected

This report would have more information with
"Show verbose output during compilation"
option enabled in File -> Preferences.

I've tried to use some drivers, but according to the official website, 4133 does not need one. I have no idea what the problem is and how to get it solved.

Could you please help me to solve the problem, otherwise I cannot begin my first step?

Thank you.

Wei Lan

0 Andrew Dai28 over 5 years ago in reply to user5880552

Prodigy 50 points

Hi Wei,

The debugger/programmer will not work with Mojave. We are all awaiting the release of CCS 8.3 (eta Nov 30th), which will update the drivers, etc, so that Mojave will be able to recognize and interface with the debugger properly again.

0 caglar durmaz over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 50 points

Another delay?

0 Dennis Lehman over 5 years ago in reply to caglar durmaz

TI__Guru 60361 points

Hi everyone, yes, I'm being told now that CCS 8.3 will release Thursday, Dec 6.

However, there was an update already released for customers and should be available as an update to existing CCS installations.

You can check for updates under the Help menu.

The new version of the package is 8.3.0 as shown below.

Select the following:

0 user4041982 over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 30 points

Hi Dennis,

in CCS for MacOS there is no new update for MSP Debug Probe Drivers available. The Version is 8.2.xxx at this moment, not 8.3 as in your picture.

Also UniFlash has no update, that works with the debug interface yet.

Any workaround?

Best

Mirko

0 William McHargue over 5 years ago in reply to Dennis Lehman

Prodigy 250 points

Hello Dennis,

I'm up and running with CCS 8.3 under Mojave--thanks. However, I very much need MSPFlasher to detect our FET probe(s). I rely on them to do Mathworks MATLAB directed programming of our devices (we leverage Simulink/Embedded Coder and have a whole build system deployed using them).

I have searched all over for any mention or update to MSPFlasher or UniFlash that has the fix inherent in CCS 8.3 for Mojave<-->FET detection.

Help! ;-)

Bill.

0 user4041982 over 5 years ago in reply to William McHargue

Prodigy 30 points

Hi Dennis!

I also need an update for MSPFlasher or UniFlash. Please help!

Best regards

Mirko

0 Retokid over 5 years ago in reply to user4041982

Intellectual 560 points

The way TI handles this case is extraordinary lousy. I already requested official status about Mojave months ago, there has never been a clear commitment. I waited the release of CCS 8.3 to update my Mac and now I'm stuck with UniFlash not working.

So, Texas, WHEN are you releasing an update of Uniflash for macOS Mojave ? Do you realize there are people stuck in the sh.. because of this ?

Incredible.

0 Peter Hauser over 5 years ago in reply to Retokid

Prodigy 10 points

Yes, this is frustrating. I just downloaded what I believe is the latest version of Uniflash for macOS (vs. 4.5.0) only to find that it is not working. There is no mention of the incompatibility with Mojave in the release notes as far as I can see. It would be great if the people at TI could inform the users on their download site and fix the problem ASAP...

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MSP-EXP430FR5994: macOS 10.14 Mojave — Upload to MSP430FR5994 ezFET Fails