INSTALL PLAIN OLD MECRISP ON A MSP430-EXP430G2 LAUNCHPAD¶

Msp430-exp430g2 Launchpad Option Jumpers¶

Set them like this:

Flashing the MSP430-EXP430G2 LAUNCHPAD¶

On Linux or FreeBSD using https://sourceforge.net/projects/mecrisp/files/mecrisp-2.0.7.tar.gz

Target chip 430G2553
Install mspdebug on the PC. It will be in your repository.
Connect USB cable between the Launchpad and the PC
Enter:

mspdebug rf2500

It will enter the mspdebug shell, in that enter the following:

(mspdebug) load forth-mecrisp-msp430g2553.hex

Writing 4096 bytes at d400...
Writing 4096 bytes at e400...
Writing 2886 bytes at f400...
Writing   32 bytes at ffe0...
Done, 11110 bytes total

(mspdebug) exit

Remove and replug the USB cable to reset the power to the board once it finishes and there are no errors.

Serial Terminal¶

use “Picocom” as the serial terminal
in a xterm, run the following command, NOTE you will need to change /dev/cuaU0 for whatever it is on your PC. This will be a “virtual com port” as it is created over the USB by the Launchpad.

picocom -b 9600 /dev/cuaU0 --imap lfcrlf,crcrlf --omap delbs,crlf --send-cmd "ascii-xfr -s -l200"

press the reset button on the Launchpad and you should see the following greeting on your terminal”

Mecrisp 2.0.7 for MSP430G2553 by Matthias Koch

The Launchpad is now running Mecrisp and is ready to use. See http://mecrisp.sourceforge.net/ and the mecrisp-2.0.7.tar.gz for readmes and notes on using Mecrisp on MSP430.

Problems¶

No greeting message, terminal is blank.¶

Possibilities¶

The MCU (430g2553) didn’t program properly or is faulty (very rare)
The Option Jumpers are not set correctly (see above)
The serial terminal isn’t working

Testing the Serial Terminal¶

Put the launchpad in serial “loopback”, and anything you type will be echoed back to the PC. You will need a ‘Dupont female to female jumper cable” to do this as the following pictures illustrate.
Remove the two “option jumpers” that are providing “HW UART” connectivity and install the cable as shown. Run the serial terminal as shown above and hit any keys, if the terminal is working you will see each key repeated as it is typed. If your serial terminal is not working, you will not see anything.
Try another terminal, or maybe it’s a permissions problem ?
Once you have the serial loopback working, remove the cable and set the Option Jumpers

Loopback pic 1¶

Loopback pic 2¶

Dupont Cables¶

These are advertised all over the place, very cheap and total rubbish being made in China. These are only good for several uses as the sockets which should be made out of silver plated spring steel, are just made out of copper or copper coated steel which soon loses it’s ability to grip the pin. But one can’t buy quality cables of this type, so what do you do ?