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Problems looking at motorware

Jeffrey Lawton
Prodigy 130 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MOTORWARE, CCSTUDIO

So on a recommendation I downloaded something called "motorware_1_01_00_18.zip" so I could learn about Insta-Spin MOTION. (Perhaps I should preface this to say I'm fairly a seasoned developer in other MCUs and even the occasional DSP environment but haven't done anything with TI tools in quite awhile.) What I was looking for was at least some documents to help me understand how it works, maybe block diagrams, heck if it's in C maybe even flowcharts. I had also read how on these processors there's a "CLA" so apparently there's co-processing (I'm used to seeing that done with multiple assembly instructions on the same line) so I kind of wanted to understand a little more about that. So when it installed I saw things like an Eclipse subdirectory so I thought "oh good, there seems to be an IDE here" but I couldn't find any way to bring it up, in fact except for several PDFs (which really didn't explain anything in terms I was familiar with) and a spreadsheet or two, everything I clicked on brought up something called "TI Resource Explorer" which complained that I hadn't selected anything to be configured but by the same token it didn't give me anything to select from! Then there was all this talk about "packages" and "ccs" and other things that weren't explained anywhere. I ultimately did find some ".c" and ".h" files but they were in "no carriage return" format which is real hard to read in a Windows environment, and they were extremely hard to understand out of context. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to get ANYTHING in terms of software for free that the vendor decides they need to charge me for, but there was SO LITTLE here that was even comprehensible that if asked whether I could recommend this system and environment I'd have to say no, don't waste your time! Can someone tell me how many other tools I would need to buy, and the approximate cost of each, JUST to be able to comprehensibly evaluate this system, and why should I need to spend a single dime to evaluate ANYTHING FROM ANYONE when I don't have to do that for anyone else??

  • 0
    TI__Guru** 119340 points
    Jeffrey,
    There is no charge for any software tools with C2000 MCUs

    CCStudio is the IDE for your code development.
    MotorWare is the set of projects and documentation for InstaSPIN-FOC and InstaSPIN-MOTION for the F2806x, F2805x, and F2802x InstaSPIN enabled MCUs. They are enabled by a special on-chip ROM library. www.ti.com/instaspin

    If you install MotorWare you can run the MotorWare.exe in the directory. This opens a Resource Explorer visual interface which includes block diagrams, links to the tools, user guides, etc.

    For InstaSPIN development you will primarily be using the Lab Guide. This walks you step by step through the different software projects. You will need an InstaSPIN enabled EVM. You can find these on the InstaSPIN site mentioned above or in MotorWare visual interface.

    Best of luck
  • 0 in reply to ChrisClearman
    Prodigy 130 points

    What exactly does "install Motorware" mean? I downloaded the Motorware setup, I can see the application "Motorware" and click on it and "TI Resource Explorer" comes up and expects me to tell it the location of the top directory of the location of the packages so it can configure them for me to view, but if I give it the top directory of the stack of software I just put on the computer and tell it to "scan" it finds nothing at all for me to look at (no options appear in the selector for me to filter from). Are you telling me I have to have additional hardware accessible to the system so this silly ROM is present JUST to enable this "explorer" to do whatever it's supposed to do? Where was that information provided, couldn''t you at least have provided a "readme.txt" like everyone else has been doing for decades? Was I expected to "install" this SW on a particular drive or directory? This is SO disappointing, I expected much better from you guys and here you are playing software rights lockout games like children throwing toys at one another before I even get to look at any documents...!

  • 0 in reply to Jeffrey Lawton
    TI__Guru** 119340 points

    when the Resource Explorer opens it should open a MotorWare screen which allows you to browse the contents of MotorWare in an easier way.

    Seems like there is a problem with your set-up of Resource Explorer.  Perhaps uninstalling / reinstalling?  This isn't a common complaint.

    You can also just browse the content yourself using a windows explorer. For example the lab guide is at:

    C:\ti\motorware\motorware_1_01_00_18\docs\labs

    And the main user's guide for the technology is www.ti.com/lit/spruhj1

    As for your other "comments" there is clearly some confusion.  There are no lock outs with the software....but to practically use the motor control software you will need our TI MCU which is enabled with special libraries.  This is discussed on the /instaspin web site.

    Sorry for your troubles. Have a nice day.

  • 0 in reply to ChrisClearman
    Prodigy 130 points
    I'll try reinstalling it somewhere else. Thank you for all your trouble.