Using EnergyTrace with Energia

[chicken 630]

For those that don't follow the 43oh Blog:

 

@@Fmilburn published a great write-up about how to use EnergyTrace to measure and improve power consumption and battery life of an Energia sketch. The article includes a nice demonstration of the effectiveness of sleep() vs. delay().

http://43oh.com/2015/09/how-to-measure-an-energia-applications-power-usage-with-energytrace/

 

He also shows how an EnergyTrace compatible LaunchPad (e.g. FR5969) can be used to measure power consumption of an older LaunchPad (e.g. G2553). This probably works for standalone projects as well.

 

[Fmilburn 445]

@@chicken, thanks for the mention. 

 

 

EnergyTrace compatible LaunchPad (e.g. FR5969) can be used to measure power consumption of an older LaunchPad (e.g. G2553). This probably works for standalone projects as well.

 

You are correct that this works with standalone projects.  I've used it on my own prototype boards and I also tried it with the Sensor Node from @@Lgbeno.  It is necessary to account for any efficiency losses that might not be accounted for when using direct power from the LaunchPad to the project - perhaps a a voltage regulator or something like that - in estimating battery life. 

[veryalive 49]

@@chicken

@@Fmilburn

 

or anyone familiar with the energytrace hardware on Launchpads ........

 

 

Hi,

 

 

A big  'Thank You'  to Fmilburn for your clear and useful tutorial on energytrace with CCS and Energia.

 

 

I'm very interested in energytrace and want to purchase a Launchpad with that capability.

I use CCS mainly, and find energia invaluable for fast prototyping.   My chips of choice are 5529 2553 2452 2252 2271.

 

 

But I want to try the 432 ARM Launchpad, (with its ez-fet and energytrace) instead of buying another  xx5xxx type launchpad.

So, here's my question:

 

 

>>>> can I use the 432 ARM Launchpad to power / program / energytrace / backchannel async standalone MSP430F/G chips <<<<<   ?????

 

 

I've looked into it, and, on paper, it appears that its possible, but I just wanted to check with you guys to make sure.

 

 

Many thanks !!

[tripwire 139]

>>>> can I use the 432 ARM Launchpad to power / program / energytrace / backchannel async standalone MSP430F/G chips <<<<<   ?????

 

The MSP432 launchpad can't program MSP430 chips, it's only set up to program ARM Cortex MCUs. Power/EnergyTrace and backchannel UART work just fine, though.

 

By the way, the MSP432 launchpad has a 3.3V supply voltage rather than 3.6V as used on the MSP-EXP430FR5969. That doesn't cause problems as the MSP430F/G chips run happily at either voltage, but it's sometimes important for other components if you're using a custom board.

[veryalive 49]

thank you,   @@tripwire.

 

 

I overlooked that the 432 LP xds emulator is for arm devices.       432 LP manual excerpt below.

 

I only spotted the serial debug from the emulator onboard the 432 LP (table 1 in the document mentioned immediately below) and hoped it supported sbw.     It appears to be jtag.

 

But, nevertheless, thanks for sparing me an incorrect purchase.

 

 

cheers

 

 

 

 

 

================       excerpt from 432 LP user guide   ---  SLAU597A

[p2baron 11]

Just tried this.

I received this error when I tried to start energytrace: A firmware update is required for the MSP430 Debug Interface

 

You can solve this by downloading the MSP430 flasher from the TI website and running the command "MSP430Flasher.exe -s:

 

i.e.

C:\TI\MSP430Flasher_1.3.7>MSP430Flasher.exe -s

[zoomx 0]

 

 

>>>> can I use the 432 ARM Launchpad to power / program / energytrace / backchannel async standalone MSP430F/G chips <<<<<   ?????

 

I bought a MSP430FR5969 kit and a MSP432P401R kit.

The first one works in standalone as decribed above but I was not able to run in standalone the second one.