Re: [Mspgcc-users] MSP430F54xx programming under windows

[Piotr R. <p.r...@wp...>]

Have you tried to ask TI for help (MSP-FET430UIF is provided by TI)?
They refer MSPGCC in their WWW site, so they appreciate this project.
Maybe they will help if are not limited by agreement with IAR.

Piotr Romaniuk  

-----Original Message-----
From: JMGross [mailto:ms...@gr...] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 8:15 PM
To: MSPGCC mailing list,
Subject: [Mspgcc-users] MSP430F54xx programming under windows

Hi!

I know similar (not excatly identical) questions have been asked before, but
maybe someone has succeded since - or a different suggestion.

Has anyone succeded to program a 54xx (18/19/37/38) from an mspgcc compile
binary under windows?

Yesterday I got the demo kit for the 5438, together with the MSP-FETU430IF
USB programmer.
After installing the included IAR kickstart, I was able to program it -
using the IAR compiler, which is restricted to 8 KB of code.
Unfortunately, there was no way to use the IAR suite or the debugger for
putting a IHEX or TI hex (or ELF) file onto the MSP. Only the internal
format is supported.
Bad luck.

Then I deinstalled the kickstart and tried CodeComposerEssentials.
Also limited (and of course would also require rewriting our existing
codebase) and it has also no support of .hex, .txt or .elf (the linker
produces .out files and the debugger won't accept .elf, even if it is
mentioned in the 
c++ settings somewhere).
In addition, the included USB driver for the FET are different and
incompatible/exclusive. So I cannot setup both, IAR and CEE.

I experimented with putting the included MSP430 and HIL dlls into the MSP430
toolchain.
Using so with the IAR dlls, msp430-jtag did access the USB FET and reset the
processor, but was unable to detect it (let alone program it, which is
almost impossible due to the changed FLASH controller)

Using the USB drivers and DLLs from CCE, things were even worse.

In a sidenote about CEE I found that there is a conversion tool to produce
TI Hex files to be used with a Gang programmer. I guess, this programmer
could do the job, as it should make no difference where the file comes 
from (mspgcc and not cce). But didn't find any further reference. And of
course, I'll surely fail to raise the funds for yet another programmer (and
a probably expensive too), even more if I cannot be sure it will work then.

If I could convert the mspgcc output to any of the file formats used by CCE
or IAR debugger, I could at least use them to upload the data using the
FETU, while waiting for a 'real' tool to come along.

We'd really like to switch to the 5419 for our next project. Not because of
the 430X architecture or the increased flash (64K/16bit is just fine and
should work on the 54xx transparently) but for its increased I/O and 
hardware modules.
But the project has to start soon and if there is no solution to put it
smoothly into the same production chain as the other MSP based devices, I'll
have to look for a different processor :( 
(currently we're using the 1611 and 1232)

Has anyone a working solution (and again, I need it for Windows, not Linux
or anything that needs to be built first)

And no, unfortunately the BSL is not a desireable solution, as 
1) the password needs to be known to update the firmware but not the config
mem, and when updating the firmware in the field, the current state is not
always known, and
2) the existing hardware structure with ist connectors (the systems are
modular, the 54xx being only one module) does not support the required lines
for using the BSL (and the pins are usually already used on the 
existing hardware). So in the production process things BSL and JTAG would
require constantly connecting and disconnecting of the modules and
programming hardware.
3) to get the additional benefit of the BSL code protection, we'd need to
blow the JTAG fuse and therefore still need a JTAG connection and a capable
programmer (we didn't use that feature anyway until now)

Maybe I'll end up developing my own jtag device with serial connection and
my own jtag firmware/frontent?
I don't need to debug, just upload the code.

JMGross

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