MSP430F5438A: 4-wire JTAG, Device not supported (IAR)

Hello,

sorry for the trouble you're experiencing. It is not possible for me to trace down your debugger - F5438 board connections. Just from the impression of the photo, you seem to have too many connections, means there must be some unnecessary. At the same time you seem to have the USB connector connected too. Please try to check the JTAG connections with the MSP-EXP430F5438 documentation, and try the setup first without the USB connection.

Please check also the proper insertion of the device in the target socket.

IAR also tends to lockup the USB debug connection, if there is a disconnect for whatever reason and then you need to disconnect the debug tool, restart IAR and connect the tool again.

In addition, please keep in mind you're using a non-TI debug tool. Thus if the issues should be related to either IAR or the Elprotronic tool, you need to get in touch with their support.

Best regards

Peter

As it is said in the edit section of my first post, YES I did manage to get the device up but only once. On the "successful" test, I cleared all the useless wires which could cause some bugs. 

Hi Clement,

I very well saw your initial statement about the one successful attempt. My question was not related to this point, but asking you kindly for the latest status. I assume, as you not stating this in your last post, you've not yet managed to resolve the problem.

Now please let me summarize the situation from my point of view:

1. You're still experiencing issues with connecting to the MSP430F5438A device (actually here your post is already not perfectly clear, as in the headline you're mentioning the F5438A version, while in your post you speak about the non-A version), which you once have been able to access and I assume to program. Thus I would assume the device has been functional at that point of time.

2. You're using IAR as IDE.

3. You're using the FPA FlashPro430 from Elprotronic as debug interface.

Now as you could download code once, the Experimenter's Board HW should be fine. As you have been able to download code once to the MSP430, the MSP430 can be assumed of initially having been functional. At further attempts it does not work anymore.

Thus my conclusion on this would be, either, the MSP430 device has been damaged in some way, or the code you have downloaded for some reason blocks the JTAG communication. This could be ESD damage, this could be erroneously blowing the JTAG fuse, this could be resulting from a code, which generates repeatedly resets quickly after release. This could be expiry of the WDT or other reasons.

Thus my recommendation is, to get a new MSP430F5438A sample. Try downloading a tested most simple code example from us, like the blinking LED, to verify once again your setup. With this code example the repeated downloads and debugging should work. In case you will experience the same issues, I would recommend starting to search for the issues in an other area. If e.g. for whatever the Elprotronic tool is applying wrong signals or voltage levels, it might be damaging the MSP430. That might be an explanation, why after 1st download your setup does not work any longer.

Best regards

Peter