NatureTM

I saw touch ported some rfid reader code to msp430, and so I thought I'd share what I've got for the Parallax RFID reader. The code is a bit bloated and inefficient, but it seems to work well. It compiles from about 1300B to 1500B program size in CCS, depending on if optimization is used, and uses 60B RAM. Most of the work is done in software, so TimerA and the USI are free. I couldn't get it to run at 1MHz, so you'll need an MSP430 with calibration constants or a clock source. It works fine at 8MHz or higher. I used a voltage divider to bring the reader's 5V data line down, and p

Hey CM, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can. So far I've only used MSP430G series, but I think the answers should be relevant to other MSP430's. 1.The output volatage from the port is Vcc at high and ground at low. That seems to be true of most digital chips I've worked with. 2. You can check the datasheets for max current from the ports. Generally, a couple LED's are fine to be driven directly by the chip, but I think you'll need a transistor to switch a relay or motor. I believe the individual pins have a relatively low current limit as well as the port as a whole. I

Hey Geek, yeah, when I go to "The Shack," I usually just say "I'm going to the parts drawers" and they leave me alone, aside from some cell phone/battery sales talk. I used to respect Radio Shack employees, but not any more. About the Parallax RFID reader, I picked up a few myself, and I have code for the MSP430 for them. It's just that my code is always so ugly I rarely share it, but if you just want something to start from, let me know, and I'll post/pm you it. I wish I wrote cleaner code... I have so much just sitting on my HDD!

Wow, I would have died several times.

Yeah, answered well. I'd think your effort would go a long way in an interview. Hopefully they can appreciate it. Good luck!

This seems interesting, but I guess I don't have the experience to know how and when it would be used. So you attach this to the 1-wire bus and basically say, "is accelerometer here?" "Here!" "Is there an rtc here? "Here!" Could you use this for salvage or repair, or do you have a specific application in mind?

Old Fart! Nice! Welcome.

I just wanted to give you a little warning since you might search "dco calibration" and come across a tool in the forums for calibrating the dco presets. That tool is for the value line and shouldn't be used on your chip or you could mess up your ADC12 calibrations. This warning is on that thread too, but just in case.

HaD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://hackaday.com/2011/02/13/launchpad-midi-synth/ Today is a good day!

I saw this on seeed the other day: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/sensors-power-measurement-c-144_154.html I wouldn't know how to use them though, but maybe it's along the lines of what you want?

I'd love to see my code be part of something like that!

I made a square wave synth that has a standard MIDI interface with launchpad. I think I should make the midi stuff into a library so the code isn't so hard to follow, but clean and polished has never been my thing. I seem to always have trouble using the USI with serial that doesn't have a clock signal. [E]rr from IRC told me I should use a state machine. I just had sort of a general idea of what that was when I coded it, so I'm not sure "state machine" is the proper term for what I'm using, but I think it's something like that. Here's the BOM: 1x TI Launchpad or another MSP430

Hi JMLB! It looks like I missed my 100th post. I guess I have to wait for 1000 now... Congrats on the family!

Hi ech0s. Nice projects!

So I'm starting to write up my stroboscopic guitar tuner project. I downloaded eagle, and went to add my first part, an hef4794bp shift register/led driver. I searched through eagle's built-in libraries, and googled a bit, but couldn't find the part. I'm completely new to eagle, and I'm not sure where to go from here. Should I just try to find a similar IC in the library and use that? Could it be that the part is out there and I'm just not finding it or I need to select a different library?

Wow, that stinks. I hope it gets worked out. Very nice of TI!

I think I might enter something. I have a levitating magnet and a stroboscopic guitar tuner working. Any opinions on which I should enter? If you're wondering what a stroboscopic guitar tuner is, it works by strobing an RGB led at the frequency of the string being tuned. It strobes red, then green, then blue repeatedly. If the string is in tune, it looks white. If it's out of tune, you see 3 strings, one of each color. Just wondering if anyone thinks one has a better chance than the other.

not me

I guess it might be wise to have a header file with the calibration defines separate. That could then be included at the top of main.c. I don't know how to deal with the linker files though. I just had the user copy and rename the linker file in the tutorial. They could then edit the copy and preserve the original. Maybe we could create profiles for the calibrated chips in CCS so they could be selected in the new project wizard. I don't know how involved that would be. I imagine the gcc people just type the names of the files in the cli so they wouldn't need anything special. By the

That's just awesome zeke. Let me know if you ever need a roommate!

I had a permanent magnet suspended under an electromagnet using launchpad awhile ago. The problem was, it would start to oscillate after awhile and fall. In trying to fix the problem, I broke the program and didn't have a backup. Luckily I got a vid, but by that point I didn't feel like trying to figure it out again, so I gave up. Anyway, I think the piccolo's fancy adc's and floating-point stuff will be perfect for getting it going again. EDIT: here's the link to the vid of it working with LP, too bad I don't have source code for you guys:

I thought someone did, but you made me a little nervous there for a second. I checked back over to this thread: http://www.43oh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=234 and sure enough, simpleavr had dumped the flash and confirmed that they were missing.

- I do often use the dual screens. The second monitor is on an arm that I can extend. I think I pushed it back a couple days ago when I was messing with something that took up a lot of space. I usually keep the my IDE on the main, and documents, etc. on the second. - About the air blasters -- bought one, realized it didn't have the red tube, so I just figured I'd buy another with a tube. Then, the gf's parents got me one as part of a christmas present. I thought that was a weird gift. I guess they really think I'm a geek! - I've played guitar for a long time, had some electronic

Ok, I am going to "keep it real" with you guys. I am a complete slob. I live with my girlfriend, and she's pretty much given up on cleaning up after me. I'm just lucky I don't get yelled at every day about it. Sometimes I clean and organize, but it looks like this again after a week or so. I could have tidied up a bit, but then I'd be living a lie! So, as promised, things are about to get "real" in this mofo.

Well, I've been using it for a bit now. It's actually pretty useful in several applications I didn't expect. For example, I'm tinkering with an rfid reader. Its baud rate isn't easily divided down to from the default clock settings, so I decided to use something like a state machine to read the data. This involved setting up an interrupt to capture and handle the edge transitions of the serial data. Well, it wasn't working. I had a suspicion that the interrupt was taking too long, and missing some transitions. In the past, I would have enabled Timer A and used it to count the cycles