PTB

I'm writing a tutorial on getting the MSP432 Launchpad working with the SDcard reader with full fatFS. I'm almost there. 
 

http://forum.43oh.com/topic/3980-reflow-oven-booster-pack/

So I made a API to help use the Tiva time capture mode with the timers. So I decided to port it to Energia.

For now it only works with the wide timers.
I will try in the future when I have more time to get more info on it.
But for now I will leave this notes:
The possible pins to use are PC4, PC5, PC6, PC7 and from PD0 to PD7, including making a total of 12 inputs. Unlike pulseIn() you can't simply use any pin. 
The functions need to know the pin as parameter. The parameter should be for example "PC4" and not "PC_4".
There are functions to get the direct reading, the reading in nanoseconds (precision of 12.5ns) and reading in microseconds (precision 1us). 
There are functions with timeouts also.
There are also non-blocking functions. An examples shows how to use them.
The time from when the functions are called to the time the end of the pulse should be less than 53 seconds. Like pulseIn() it waits for the pulse to rise (in positive pulse readings) or fall (in negative pulse readings) and then measures the time it takes to change back.

I hope it helps some peeps
Time_Capture.rar <- V1.0
Time_Capture_V2.0.rar <- V2.0 fixed problem described here
 

I'm not sure if this quite counts as "mailbag" as it's a bit big, but this was delivered recently. A nice new workshop for the end of the garden that I'm currently busy kitting out with workbenches, power, ethernet, etc. It obviously also required the purchase of some more power tools to do the job.
 

Thought I would post an update on this project to help paint a picture with my other questions in other threads.
Hardware
========

 
I have gone to a new board layout which utilises the following new features.
a) ULN2003 Darlington arrays to drive the leds. The old arrangement didnt have enough grunt to drive the leds off the mcu.
Separated the bi-colour LEDS into separate discreet leds. Blue for Focus and Red For Shutter.
c) Returned to 3.5mm Audio jacks instead of RJ45 jacks. Easier to get off the shelf cables.
d) Added an extra booster pack set of pins in parallel.
e) Moved design from Eagle to KiCAD
    Schematic Iridium Schematic.pdf
e) I added a digital pot in an endeavour to make the light sensor auto-ranging for light levels. I failed on many fronts here.
    Firstly I screwed up big time on the chip socket. I somehow got a 18pin part in the board layout from a 16 pin part in the schematic.
    I only found out when I went to plug in the chip and the socket was too big. Nice work on my part.
    I am looking into making a small adaptor board to use the 16 pin chip in the 18 pin socket.
    Secondly, my thoughts of desensitising the phototransistor via programmable resistance appears futile anyway because the problem
    is actualy the phototransistor saturating. Adding resistance as per the circuit isnt going to help on that front.
      Did a bit of research on professional lightmeters and it would appear they cope with the problem by putting different strength filters
    on their light sensors and then you read off a different scale depending on which filter is in there.
f) And lastly but certainly not leastly. @@Fred made me some awesome laser cut panels for the new design. These are sensational.
   I added some infill to the laser engraving and it looks better than the photo appears.

Software
========
Lots of minor tweaks and improvements. Code updated to Energia 15.
One of the really annoying things was misbehaviour of Some of the GPIO's
It appears wire.begin(); screws up GPIO PD0 and PD1
I can turn pins PD0 and PD1 on and off at will until wire.begin(); is executed.
After that PD0 is stuck Low and PD1 is stuck high.
Fixed with info from this thread.....
http://forum.43oh.com/topic/7421-new-energia-release-0101e0012-03202014/?p=60448
Thanks to @reaper and @@spirilis for that thread.
And thanks again to @L.R.A for getting fast analog read back for me in Energia 15.
Current Version 0.40 Here Iridium_v0.40.zip
This code is very much a work in progress with lessons constantly being learnt.
 
Still Working On
==========
Investigating using timers instead of loops to trigger sequences.
 
 
Cheers
PTB

Thought I would post an update on this project to help paint a picture with my other questions in other threads.
Hardware
========

 
I have gone to a new board layout which utilises the following new features.
a) ULN2003 Darlington arrays to drive the leds. The old arrangement didnt have enough grunt to drive the leds off the mcu.
Separated the bi-colour LEDS into separate discreet leds. Blue for Focus and Red For Shutter.
c) Returned to 3.5mm Audio jacks instead of RJ45 jacks. Easier to get off the shelf cables.
d) Added an extra booster pack set of pins in parallel.
e) Moved design from Eagle to KiCAD
    Schematic Iridium Schematic.pdf
e) I added a digital pot in an endeavour to make the light sensor auto-ranging for light levels. I failed on many fronts here.
    Firstly I screwed up big time on the chip socket. I somehow got a 18pin part in the board layout from a 16 pin part in the schematic.
    I only found out when I went to plug in the chip and the socket was too big. Nice work on my part.
    I am looking into making a small adaptor board to use the 16 pin chip in the 18 pin socket.
    Secondly, my thoughts of desensitising the phototransistor via programmable resistance appears futile anyway because the problem
    is actualy the phototransistor saturating. Adding resistance as per the circuit isnt going to help on that front.
      Did a bit of research on professional lightmeters and it would appear they cope with the problem by putting different strength filters
    on their light sensors and then you read off a different scale depending on which filter is in there.
f) And lastly but certainly not leastly. @@Fred made me some awesome laser cut panels for the new design. These are sensational.
   I added some infill to the laser engraving and it looks better than the photo appears.

Software
========
Lots of minor tweaks and improvements. Code updated to Energia 15.
One of the really annoying things was misbehaviour of Some of the GPIO's
It appears wire.begin(); screws up GPIO PD0 and PD1
I can turn pins PD0 and PD1 on and off at will until wire.begin(); is executed.
After that PD0 is stuck Low and PD1 is stuck high.
Fixed with info from this thread.....
http://forum.43oh.com/topic/7421-new-energia-release-0101e0012-03202014/?p=60448
Thanks to @reaper and @@spirilis for that thread.
And thanks again to @L.R.A for getting fast analog read back for me in Energia 15.
Current Version 0.40 Here Iridium_v0.40.zip
This code is very much a work in progress with lessons constantly being learnt.
 
Still Working On
==========
Investigating using timers instead of loops to trigger sequences.
 
 
Cheers
PTB

+1 to what cubeberg said. I had a noisy wall wart that would make my analog readings look like an earthquake seismograph.
 
Might be that. Might be something else.

Thought I would post an update on this project to help paint a picture with my other questions in other threads.
Hardware
========

 
I have gone to a new board layout which utilises the following new features.
a) ULN2003 Darlington arrays to drive the leds. The old arrangement didnt have enough grunt to drive the leds off the mcu.
Separated the bi-colour LEDS into separate discreet leds. Blue for Focus and Red For Shutter.
c) Returned to 3.5mm Audio jacks instead of RJ45 jacks. Easier to get off the shelf cables.
d) Added an extra booster pack set of pins in parallel.
e) Moved design from Eagle to KiCAD
    Schematic Iridium Schematic.pdf
e) I added a digital pot in an endeavour to make the light sensor auto-ranging for light levels. I failed on many fronts here.
    Firstly I screwed up big time on the chip socket. I somehow got a 18pin part in the board layout from a 16 pin part in the schematic.
    I only found out when I went to plug in the chip and the socket was too big. Nice work on my part.
    I am looking into making a small adaptor board to use the 16 pin chip in the 18 pin socket.
    Secondly, my thoughts of desensitising the phototransistor via programmable resistance appears futile anyway because the problem
    is actualy the phototransistor saturating. Adding resistance as per the circuit isnt going to help on that front.
      Did a bit of research on professional lightmeters and it would appear they cope with the problem by putting different strength filters
    on their light sensors and then you read off a different scale depending on which filter is in there.
f) And lastly but certainly not leastly. @@Fred made me some awesome laser cut panels for the new design. These are sensational.
   I added some infill to the laser engraving and it looks better than the photo appears.

Software
========
Lots of minor tweaks and improvements. Code updated to Energia 15.
One of the really annoying things was misbehaviour of Some of the GPIO's
It appears wire.begin(); screws up GPIO PD0 and PD1
I can turn pins PD0 and PD1 on and off at will until wire.begin(); is executed.
After that PD0 is stuck Low and PD1 is stuck high.
Fixed with info from this thread.....
http://forum.43oh.com/topic/7421-new-energia-release-0101e0012-03202014/?p=60448
Thanks to @reaper and @@spirilis for that thread.
And thanks again to @L.R.A for getting fast analog read back for me in Energia 15.
Current Version 0.40 Here Iridium_v0.40.zip
This code is very much a work in progress with lessons constantly being learnt.
 
Still Working On
==========
Investigating using timers instead of loops to trigger sequences.
 
 
Cheers
PTB

Thanks guys ! So foolish of me to not suspect the power source ! It was the power adapter in fact and was insanely noisy. I replaced it with a Li-Ion battery (to remove all doubts of stability) and it has started rhyming again.
 
 
I have shared the code and video in a github repo if anyone needs it.
https://github.com/IndianTinker/FM430 
 
Thanks!

+1 to what cubeberg said. I had a noisy wall wart that would make my analog readings look like an earthquake seismograph.
 
Might be that. Might be something else.

Went ahead and check my Tivaware version, the latest, and there isn't a SysCtlADCSpeedSet() function!



I really don't know what is the idea with the second register it changes:
    HWREG(SYSCTL_SCGC0) = ((HWREG(SYSCTL_SCGC0) & ~(SYSCTL_SCGC0_ADCSPD_M)) |                            ui32Speed);

It's setting to 0 a reserved area, somehow it must be "leaking" into bits 16 and 17 of that register. Either way, avoid using that function. Instead use for ADC0:

    HWREG(SYSCTL_RCGC0) &= ~SYSCTL_RCGC0_ADC0SPD_M; // change if you want ADC1     HWREG(SYSCTL_RCGC0) |= SYSCTL_RCGC0_ADC0SPD_1M; // change for the desired speed with the macros and the ADC module      

Hum weird.

Basically you are directly changing the register values. I usually don't do register programming but sometimes it's needed.
 
 For some reason setting the ADC speed that way causes problems. If you remove that line I told you to add the code should run. The register I said to change is a legacy register, there's actually a better, new way to set the ADC rate.


I really can't find a Tivaware function to set the max sample rate . So I can't really give you a solution without using HWREG. Try what's bellow, right now I can't test it out.
It seems the right register to change, that isn't legacy, is: Register 55: ADC Peripheral Properties (ADCPP), offset 0xFC0


HWREG(ADC0_BASE+0xFC0) &= ~0xF;
HWREG(ADC0_BASE+0xFC0) |= 0x7;

 

This is my first attempt at a booster pack design.  The design is inspired by the TI/Element 14 Fuel Tank Booster Pack.  I wanted to improve on a few of the aspects of the Fuel Tank as well as add a few features to it.
 
Fuel Tank Cons:
Non-standard pinout.  The I2C pins are not brought out to 9 and 10 as they should be on the BP standard Not solar friendly.  The charging IC on the Fuel Tank supports solar charging, but it's not easy to add it. Battery is in parallel with load.  The battery is always powering the LP, even when charging current is available Not low-power friendly.  The regulators fitted on the board have a PowerSave mode, but it required soldering a resistor to enable it.  Also, LEDs cannot be disabled Fuel Gauge is not configurable for a different sized battery.  The FG IC used requires a new "golden file" to uploaded to the IC to change any LiPo cell parameters (design capacity, etc). Solar Cell Changes:
Change I2C pins to comply to BP standard Add DC jack to make connecting solar panel easier Change charging circuit (credit to Adafruit for the charging circuit http://www.adafruit.com/product/390) Add breakouts for the PS and EN pins for both regulators, add jumpers on all LEDs, add the ability reroute I2C (more on that below) Change FG IC to a more configurable one.  BQ27425-G1 is used which uses a generic LiPo impedance curve, and has a configurable design capacity Solar Cell Cons:
Use of QFN and BGA IC packages makes it impossible to hand solder More to come...  
I use a CC3200 launchpad and one of my biggest annoyances is that the green and yellow led are shared with the I2C pins.  I wanted to add the ability to move those signals on the booster pack to an alternate location.  This way, no power needlessly wasted on these LED's when not in use.  I also added an INA219 high side I2C current monitor which would give similar abilities to measure current and voltage of the solar panel as the FG IC gives on the battery side.
 
I wanted to get feedback from the community on the design as well as make it open source so I have placed my entire KiCad project on GitHub.  At the moment, I don't really have any plans to manufacture them or sell them.  This was essentially a personal project for me, but I wanted to share.  I look forward to hearing thoughts on the design!
 
Schematic:
SolarCellBoosterPackSchematic.pdf
 
GitHub repo:  https://github.com/svcguy/SolarCellBoosterPackHW (The docs folder contains pdfs of the schematics if you're not a KiCad user)
3D renderings:


 
Thanks,
Andy
 
 

Added
Added! ~$3.50

actually doesn't matter anyway.
 
Sign me up

MSP432 version of my Universal Graphics Library.
Works with my latest Color LCD BoosterPacks, 2.2" and 2.4" (320x240)
Touch support will be added in late April.
 
ugl432.zip
 

 

Check my review of the LaunchPad MSP432: RTOS for everyone!

Here are the pins maps for the new MSP432 LaunchPad!
 

 

After a few busy months, I've managed to get back to this project.
 
I've tidied up the layout and added in useful silkscreen information.
 
I have also renamed the board to Hydra: One Wire DataLogger because it has eight One Wire Master bus ports.
 
It also has a split personality: It can be either a BoosterPack or a LaunchPadXL.
 
I say this because I've added jumpers to flip the MSP430 UART between DTE or DCE mode. In one setting, the MSP430 is a DTE (LaunchPad mode). In the other setting, the MSP430 is a DCE (BoosterPack mode). So, I can mate this board to either my Dev support board or to a CC3200 board and it will be able to communicate in both scenarios.
 
This is what it looks like tonight.
 


 
Now I just have to get this board fabbed and get cracking on the firmware. That should be an adventure.

Ain't she pretty?

 
 

So last year I made a Christmas Ornament - figured I'd do something again this year.  It's an MSP430 powered Christmas tree!  It uses 2 PCBs that slide together.  There is a button and a motion sensor (cheap spring-based motion sensor).  It uses 12 leds - broken into two sets of 6 that are charlieplexed (so 6 pins total used).  
 
I managed to score some cheap MSP430G2152's off of Newark for $0.50 each (although the $5 shipping cut into it a bit), but the 10 trees cost well over $100 in total (including $25 shipping to get them here before Christmas).  
 
For those interested, gerbers and eagle files are attached.  I'll post some code as well - it's just very basic right now.
 

 
 
Quick video (might put up a nicer one later)
 


 
It turned out so great - I actually got my wife to solder one!
tree_v1_part2.zip
tree_batt_v1.zip
christmas pcb eagle.zip

Please refer to LaunchPads and BoosterPacks Pins Maps for the updated and maintained pins maps.
 
Thank you!

---- 
 
Please find two new LaunchPads and two new BoosterPacks Pins Maps
LaunchPad with MSP430F5529 LaunchPad with MSP430FR5969

Sorry for the mega post but as you may have already noticed, lately I

My apartment complex sent me a message that I had a new package delivery!
 
Thanks USPS!!
 

 
Luckily everything inside was intact.  30 RocketBadges from @@cubeberg!
 

 
 
I'll be using these to teach some high school kids where I volunteer as a robotics mentor how to solder.  Hopefully I'll be back later with photos from the lessons.

Project description can be found here.
 
http://forum.stellarisiti.com/topic/1815-stellaris-launchpad-camera-flash-timer-and-measurement-tool/
 
 
Very slow moving project.
 
@@bluehash @@Fred