In this MSP430 Launchpad used as a programmer tutorial, the MSP430 Launchpad board will be used to program a MSP430G2230 microcontroller. The MSP430G2230 is an 8 pin microcontroller and comes in a Small Outline Integrated Circuit package (SOIC), so offers the developer the chance to reduce the overall footprint of the project on a budget. As the MSP430G2230 comes in a SOIC package, for prototyping it’s often easier to increase the package size, which allows more conventional and off the shelf components to be used during the development stage. Texas Instruments sells a Dual In-Line Package or DIP adaptor PCB, the image below shows the board and it can also be found here.
It is also possible to buy these from other vendors or even make them yourself, the next few images shows the MSP430G2230 soldered on to the Texas Instruments SOIC to DIP evaluation PCB. Also shown is a PCB I manufactured for an ADS118IDGST 16bit ADC, which is a Micro Small Outline Package (MSOP-10), this was covered in an earlier Stellaris tutorial which can be found here.
So once the MSP430G2230 is more accessible in a DIP package, it can be easily used on some vero-board or even a breadboard set-up.
The nest step is setting up the MSP430G Launchpad board so it can be used to program the MSP430G2230, this is a very simple process and involves the removal of the existing microcontroller. There are only four pins used for programming and I used some breadboard which allowed easy wire connections. The next image shows the four GPIO pins used and the corresponding pins on the Launchpad board.
As the image shows the DIP converted MSP430G2230 pins don’t directly align with the Launchpad, hence the need for the bread board. So once the MSP430G2230 is wired up to the Launchpad board, a programme can be flashed from Code Composer Studio (CCS). I wrote a small program to flash an LED which I connected to pin two on the MSP430G2230 or GPIO P1.2, this allowed me to verify the set-up so further development could progress. The video below demonstrates the whole set-up in operation, the code has already been downloaded at this stage.
MSP430G2230 Simple Blinky Test Code
The link below contains the zip file with the full example C code.
can ir remote be built using this msp430g2230 and how to start i.e, the libraries related to ir. where to find those ?
Hi Krishan,
Yes it should be possible as in its simplest form you could turn a GPIO on and off to simulate a IR pulse output, you will need a transistor to drive the IR LED though as the MSP430 GPIO cannot handle much more than ~6mA. As far as where to find code try the TI E-E forums, 430h and Google. If you know how to use the MSP430 on a basic level a tutorial fro another microcontroller could be used and then just port the code.
Cheers,
Ant