Fred

MSP-FET arrived here in the UK. TI are bloody awesome, aren't they?

@@chicken Did you not see the sign? They're hiring! If you get the job you might get a staff discount. Or maybe get to use it during your lunch break.

There's a middle ground. Timers are a key part of working with the MSP430 and worth getting to know your way around. However, using OUTMOD_7 to directly toggle a pin in hardware is not the only way. Try using the timer to fire an interrupt. Then your interrupt handler code can switch whatever LEDs you like on or off. You've let the timer do the core of the work (and left you in a position to use low power modes) but done the detail yourself. Sorry I can't give you any example code as I'm at work at the moment.

I get what the comparator does. It's just limiting if you do actually want to know the input value. For instance, the comparator would do for disabling my laser of it's overheating, but it might be nice to be able to display the temperature too.

@@chicken I'm still trying to work the ESI out. I tend to flip flop back and forth between "Ah - I get it" to "WTF is this crazy peripheral about?". However I'm pinning my hopes on the section below. A lot of the ESI seems to be based around making it easier to use the more difficult sensors like LC for which you need the complicated excitation and AFE. Maybe for your touch screen you don't - although it worries me that the input seems to go direct to a comparator rather than to an ADC. Of course I could well be totally wrong about this as I've not really started doing anything practical yet.

@@asgard20032 I think there's always a few posts a day. It's just that you were the first of the day (rather than the only one in 24 hours). Your post shows as 12:05 AM for me but as @@igor said I'm not sure what timezone is used - maybe the server or maybe the individual user's.

That sounds right.

How can it not cost more than that for just the postage?

@@bluehash - Thanks for the offer, but don't worry. I can probably find something equivalent if I look hard enough. It just seems so daft for such a small cheap basic component!

It should be possible. The question is how the toner will react to the temperature when you're soldering. If I had a laser printer I'd have been tempted to try this myself. It's a shame that white toner is so expensive and difficult to get as this would be even better for most silkscreen. (There are a couple of expensive lasers that do white but unfortunately it's not common enough for aftermarket stuff to be available.)

The links above have all that info. Everything can change, but it's more than just rumour. It's called Circuit Maker and will be in beta soon. It's Windows only. The plan is to save to the cloud only although that seems particularly unpopular with the EEVBlog crowd. That could change but it seems core to their idea so I doubt it.

@@simpleavr As it's black, could you get a reasonable silkscreen using the same toner transfer method that's used for home etching PCBs?

Not done much yet. So hard finding the time these days. I soldered on some headers and also added the components for the two unpopulated LEDs. I noticed that JP12 (connects ESIVCC to DVCC) was unpopulated so I added a jumper there as I suspect it might be needed for the ESI. I would have added a user button to SW2 but I don't have a button with the appropriate footprint. I might have to steal one from another launchpad as these seem to be "US stock" and hard to get from UK suppliers without a stupid fee (i.e.

I initially got excited about the DS1102D but found a YouTube review that seemed to show that the analog and digital signals weren't in sync and that seemed like it would be annoying. Also the DS1000D/E series seems to be pretty much "end of line". There is a MSO1000Z Series (like the DS1000Z but with Logic Analyser) which might be worth considering. For all things scope related EEVBlog seems to be the place for good info. http://www.rigolna.com/products/digital-oscilloscopes/mso1000z/

I know this is an old topic but thought it deserved an update. I'm happy with my DS1074Z although I've not had a chance to use it as much as I'd like. However, it seems there's a new "hobby level" version - the DS1054Z at a really good price. Same but 50MHz rather than 70. No idea if it can be hacked in the same way as the DS1074Z (alledgedly) can but if you're considering a low end scope it looks like a good option.

I'm now imagining you as the worst student ever. "Well Mr. Greeeg, I'm afraid you've failed yet again. You'll have to repeat the year. And why are you smiling?"

I'm sure many of you keep an eye on the EEVBlog forum and may know already, but it looks like a free version of Altium is coming. http://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/free-altium-is-coming/ http://circuitmaker.com/ tldr; The model is that you can rent extra features temporarily. The catch is that your board files are stored online only - no local saving. I've not used Altium but look forward to giving it a try if I have time.

No problem. That didn't sound condescending, but did sort of just repeat what I'd said. I know how to get the chip out because... well guess how I found out that those two large dots aren't for pin 1! I can also confirm that putting it in the wrong way round doesn't damage it. Not tried upside down. I must admit I don't get the whole Energia thing. I feel you lose (breakpoints and debugging) far more than you gain. Grace can be a bit of a timesaver though. That definitely doesn't support bigger stuff or the ESI either. However if you depend on either of these then the FR6989 might be a bi

My TS430PZ100D target board arrived today. All seems to work OK with the older FET430-UIF. I used to wonder with those ZIF sockets were so expensive but having seen one up close it seems a little more reasonable. Some tips if you're also using one: You press down to open the ZIF socket, drop the IC in and the let it spring up to grip. If you've not worked up close with LQFP before, the pin 1 marker is the smaller one in the bottom left, so this lines up with the arrow on the ZIF socket. Text is printed in different orientations on everything so ignore that completely. Also ignore the two la

Wow. That delivery was enough to make you feel depressed. I almost expected to hear him say "Kill me. Kill me now. You'd be doing me a favour."

Same as @@greeeg - the TS430PZ100D arrived here in the UK. I was glad to see that it came via the Netherlands as was listed as an engineering sample (which I suppose it is) so there was no hassle with customs. I might have got caught by the LOCKLPM5 issue but I decided to test it out with the blinky code that CCS can create for you which includes clearing this.

If the forward voltage of the blue LED is say 2.9V that might be keeping Vds at 3.3 - 2.9 = 0.4V. I don't know enough to say this is definitely happening, but it's worth adding the resistor and seeing if that fixes it. I think it's good practice to use a resistor even if you get away without it.

Abecedarian's diagram is missing the current limiting resistor for the LED. Is that how your circuit is also wired? That could certainly damage the LED but might also cause what you're seeing.

Same here. A few years ago (before I had kids) I'd have probably jumped on a plane from London to meet up. I've had the odd random weekend in Boston for a party in the past. Not these days though I'm afraid.

Surely a FR5969LP would be a worthwhile investment? It will definitely work for programming and debugging your existing board, and if you want to try anything else out you have something ideal for doing some prototyping.