Fred

I was literally just about to pull my older 4D display out of its current home (a reverse geocache I made for my nephew) to go in a new project monitoring water flow and temperature for my laser cutter. And to disable the laser if it's not running so I don't burn a hole in the back of my hand again. If I'm eligible then can I throw my name in. I was intending to prototype on the LP but then make a custom G2553 board but after my etching problems today maybe it might stay on the LP for now. If this is a booster then all the better.

I've spent a lot of today experimenting with PCB etching as it's not something I've done before. To be honest the day has been pretty much a waste of time. I've CNC milled PCBs in the past without a problem but etching has been winding me up. I'm using pre-sensitised UV resist board and I've had some success. It turns out that sticking the board on top of my van under some fluorescents works better than UV exposure though. However, it's the etching that killing me. I tried a Ferric Chloride and sponge technique and it hardly etched at all. I tried some Sodium Persulfate that came with

There's nothing wrong with a bit of percussive maintenance when it's required.

I've got a clock with a similar mechanism which keep poor time. I was going to replace the mechanism but I'm tempted to make one of these. Than again, I seem to be able to annoy my wife quite enough with geeky stuff without doing it on purpose! I was also wondering whether the MSP430L092 would be a better fit for working with the existing 1.5V cell and coil. The cost of the dev kit ($149) compared to the LaunchPad kind of kills that idea though.

It's also worth mentioning to anyone who doesn't already know, that MSP430 Microcontroller Basics is also an excellent resource for the processor in general. Oh - I've only just noticed Developing Embedded Systems Applications on the MSP430. Does anyone have an opinion on that one?

White on green definitely looks right. Although with it on silkscreens, acrylic and now stickers it'd be nice to see the design in it's "proper" place as a PCB track. I wonder if anyone could shoehorn it into a working design with the tracks actually used for signals rather than just for show?

I agree with dannyboy that the unevenness should be more subtle. That was the point of the clock I believe. Maybe have a switch for a subtle and a demo mode. Very nice build though.

Odd. That URL gives me a display of HTML source in Chrome and "page not found" if I try IE.

Sorry if I'm covering the obvious (and I've not got a 2995 to test it myself), but are those of you using CCS on the 5.4 beta version? The notes say "New in this release: supporting Windows 8 host, GCC Compiler for Sitara/Cortex-A8, MSP430G2xx4 and MSP430G2xx5 series." http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Code_Composer_Studio_Beta_Downloads

There's definitely a lack of a community for the ST ARM devices too. The STM32Fx discovery boards are really nice and a great price for the hobbyist. It'd be great if there was a community that was as good as 43oh. (I know there's a sub-forum here that doesn't get that much use - maybe because the site is primarily TI focused.)

The target board don't have a regulator - just a F2012 and an LED. I only recently found out that you can use these target boards with the cheaper LaunchPad if you populate a 0.05" header.

They've obviously got a huge pile of unsold Chronos watches. Maybe TI should just stick them permanently on sale until they're gone. Or pile all the boxes up and build a fort. Maybe we need to put our heads together and work out a killer use for them? Or could they be hacked and repurposed into something else entirely? The watch is pretty neat but once I'd played with it for a bit I sort of lost interest.

I think you'll find that I got it first - about a week ago. ;-) http://forum.43oh.com/topic/3681-how-to-make-ez430-chronos-868-working-on-915mhz/?p=33126

And today's deal is..."Error establishing a database connection" OK - so who's repeatedly hitting refresh then?

Sorry - I appear to be unable to do simple multiplication this morning! @@roadrunner84 is right. I've edited my post above.

I'm sure many of you got the same email - another deal due today (17th April 2013). Maybe a similar $5 deal on the Tiva Lauchpad that there was on the Stellaris? Actually, it mentions tools so maybe that's a clue.

Those look really good. It's hard to get an idea of scale from the photos - I assume the ones in the column marked 0.2mm have a pixel size of 0.2mm and the whole QR code is just over 2cm 5mm in size. I'm especially surprised at the resolution of the solder mask. How did the track-style 43oh.com logo turn out? It looked OK on the protoplates I did but I'd imagine it looks much better on a PCB. Coincidentally I was experimenting with home UV curable solder mask over the weekend and managed to get reasonable quality with some simple text. I only tried it because I forgot to engrave the te

I don't think it was user error. I carefully went through the process of ordering another Tiva Launchpad yesterday and noticed a small message about "order amended due to stock levels" but the order didn't appear to change. I dropped TI support an email so if there's a problem then I'm sure they'll get onto it. My LaunchPad just arrived and as expected it's the usual Stellaris (revision A3) not a Tiva.

Well my Tiva LaunchPad order is now marked as a Stellaris LaunchPad shipped. So either I'm going to be one of the first people with a Tiva or more likely I'll get another Stellaris just before they're superseded. I suppose that does confirm that TI considers them to be equivalent, but if you're thinking of preordering a Tiva them I'd suggest you don't.

I wonder if we'll see an update to CCS too? The beta of CCS 5.4.0.00048 added support for the latest MSP430s and a few others but obviously no mention of the Tiva. I suppose coding against the equivalent Stellaris part will probably work.

So it's more like a new name now the device is out of beta. I wonder when you'll actually be able to order the chips as I don't believe you ever could with the Stellaris. Obviously some idiots will click "buy" without even knowing what they're ordering. I just got an estimated ship date of 30th April. I always liked ArmHQ! It'll save you having to change it again anyway.

Almost - no floating point. I had to order one too. We're going to feel a bit daft if they do a $4.99 deal like they did with the Stellaris!

I'd just keep an eye on TIDeals. It'll probably be the Chronos again sooner or later and you can buy the 915MHz version.

Looks good. What are you using the laser for? I'm thinking about a controller for my CO2 laser. Nothing too tricky - just monitoring coolant flow, temperature and whether the stepper motors are moving. The idea is to prevent it overheating or sloppy gcode causing the laser to stay on once it's finished. (I've got a nice burn on the back of my hand as right now the laser defaults to "on" if the cable to the PC is disconnected! :? )

The protoplates are now in the post to @@DanAndDusty, @@Tribes and @@bluehash. I can't take the credit for the logo. @@JWoodrell created it. You'll find the PSD for it in the 43oh PCB logo thread here.