Programming the CC2544 dongle

I found the "solution" is to install all the jumpers on P1. Then turn off the RF05 board, unplug the CC2543 EM board, plug in the dongle to the RF05 via the cable, then power it back on. The dongle must be attached to a powered USB cable. After doing that, IAR will recognize the CC2544 on the dongle and list it among the devices to download code to.

It is clear that not EVERY jumper on P1 is necessary, but I've wasted enough time on this already.

Hey TI! Is anyone listening? Your documentation is the WORST. The manual for this chip is full of errors . I've sent mark-ups to you and have had emailed exchanges with engineers to verify the bugs, but you still haven't bothered to updated the online docs. Hey idiots! THE DOCS ARE ON LINE! It costs you NOTHING to update them.

Ditto you user support. What kind of company relies on user-to-user forums to support its products? (The answer: a cheap-ass company who won't spend a dime on having actual engineers provide support.)

Hi Carl,

I am sorry for your bad experience with the CC254x kit. The user guide for SmartRF05EB is located here: www.ti.com/.../swru210 . It explains have to program the EM boards and other devices such as the USB dongles, and it also includes the schematics for the EB.

If you have a made mark-ups of errors in the chip manual I would love to get a copy of it. I have not received any messages from our documentation team that they have received any error reports. Who did you talk to?

We have a huge number of engineers providing support for our customers, however for a company like TI with thousands of customers it is impossible to give everybody direct help. That being said, we want all our customers to have the best experience possible with our devices and kits, and we want everybody to get help when they need it. That is why we truly appreciate feedback from you, and other users. Also we feel that support forums is a brilliant way for TI Engineers to help anybody, for customers to help other customers, and most importantly the questions and answers are then available for everybody else who might be struggling with similar issues.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you out with the kit.

Cheers,
Fredrik

Fredrik-

I just got back from a vacation and can now address this issue.

I don't have a record of who I originally contacted about errors in the manual.

Here are a couple of mark-ups I have:
Document SWRU210A,
* Page 10/38, the CC2543EM is not listed among the EMs supported, even though they are sold together.

Doc SWRU318
* Page 24/37, there are notes about powering the dongle. There needs to be an additional note to this effect: "If the dongle is used, it must be powered on first through a USB cord BEFORE the host board is power on, otherwise the RF-Studio software won't find it."
* Page 37/37, the URL listed for the CC2544 dongle is wrong. It should be www.ti.com/tool/CC2544USB-rd

Doc SWRU283B
* Page 77, section 7.5: The table referenced is 7-1, not 8-1. And while we are looking at the table, this page needs to be reformatted so the table is not split across two pages. If is VERY inconvenient to have to flip back and forth!
* Page 222: In Figure 23-1, the upper address of the Radio XREG block is 0x61FF, not 0x61F7.

The technical docs are all on line, so changes like this should take no time to make. Check it out of configuration management, edit it, check it back in. The document system should automatically update the website. That how it is done in real companies, but having worked at TI three different times in the past, I know there are a half dozen layers of management that will prevent that from happening.

Now, let's get to bigger issues.

Time is money. For me, the customer, I cannot afford to spend days trying to figure out something that the manual should have explained. I should be able to contact someone at TI and ask a detailed technical question and expect an answer in a reasonable amount of time.

You wrote, "We have a huge number of engineers providing support for our customers...". Really? Where are they? How to I reach even ONE of them? Have you ever tried calling TI and asking for help? I challenge you to pretend you are a customer and try to actually TALK to someone at TI. First of all, the automated switchboard is useless for finding technical help. (Just finding a phone number for TI can be difficult.) If you ever reach a live operator, he/she has ZERO knowledge of the products you sell and cannot even forward you to correct department. It is an exercise in futility.

So after giving up trying to talk to an engineer, where is the customer to go? Is there a TI application where registered customers can ask questions and get support from a TI engineer devoted to a product? NO. This E2E board is a perfect example of how bad TI tech support is. It depends on OTHER USERS, NOT TI engineers, to provide help! It is like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it in the ocean and hoping for a reply. And look at your reply. I posted a question on Aug 19 and you didn't respond until September 2. Good thing I found my own solution.

Here's another example: I recently purchased three TI demo boards to evaluate some DC-DC controller chips. Inside each kit was a single piece of paper telling me to go online to get the docs for the board. Really? How cheap is that! TI couldn't afford to include a 15-cent CD? OK, so I go online and guess what? There are NO docs for one of the demo boards! This is just one more example of how TI give the impression that customers don't count.

One more thing: Anyone caught using the pseudo-word "functionality" should have their pay docked $100 for each offense. THERE IS NO SUCH WORD. A device has functions, not functionality! It is like someone saying "irregardless"...it just proves how uneducated they are.

Hi Carl,

Thank you for the feedback on the documentation. I will forward this to the technical writer team.

Obviously I agree that the technical documentation should explain everything you need to know, but as you say, in the end there will most likely be some questions the need answers. It should be fairly understandable that with the amount of customers TI has it is very difficult, if not impossible, to give everybody technical support over telephone which is why we have E2E. Here you will get support directly from TI engineers who are experts on the product they support. You did for example get help from both Helge (hec), our radio FW designer, and Eirik, apps engineer about a year ago.

Additionally other users who are experienced in using the same part(s) are also allowed to contribute if they want to. I am not sure I see the problem in letting dedicated people with high knowledge of a product or SW stack participate in helping others.

According to Webster "functionality" actually is a word. As TI is a global company and a large part of its engineers do not have English as first language, you just have to excuse any minor errors on typos in the documentation.

Please let me know if you have any more technical questions with the CC2544.

Best regards,
Fredrik

Found another doc error.  On page 21 of SWRS107E, the CC2543 document, it shows pin 19 (VSS) attached to power and pin 18 (VDD) attached to ground.  They should be the other way around.  Funny how by revision E nobody caught this.  Oh well, better now than never.

And... I have no doubt "functionality" is in the Webster.  As, I am sure, "twerking" will someday be.  The charter of lexographies is to record usage, right or wrong.  But "functionality" is still is a made-up management-style word, concocted to add syllables so as to make the speaker appear important.  Just ask yourself this;  if you add a new features to a device, which is a cleaner statement?  "I add a new a function." or "I added a new functionality".  Simple is better.