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Does anyone have experience using CCSv4 to program for the MSP430 chips? I know msp-gcc is out there, and I'm sort of kicking myself for not using it, but at this point I'm stuck with CCSv4. I was drawn in by the fact that it was built on Eclipse, but I'm uninspired by the level of library/header file support that exists. I've had very little luck in even getting the UART to work correctly, and I won't even go into my struggles with printf. Does anyone have any advice on making the most of CCSv4 for MSP430 work? Maybe it's just me and I haven't tapped into some awesome resource yet... (I've already seen the MSP code examples provided by TI for my MSP430 family, and I've signed up on TI's e2e community...)

Nick Alexeev
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vicatcu
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2 Answers2

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I just got one of those $4.30 MSP-EXP430G2 boards, and, having worked with both Eclipse and CCSv3 (the full license version), I also downloaded CCSv4, thinking that would be the path with the easiest learning curve.

There may be some kind of tutorial on the MSP430 launchpad wiki, but I haven't found it yet. Ideally there should be a how-to that shows, starting from scratch, how to create a project and get it into the device. If I do find such a thing, I'll edit this post to try to include the correct link.

JustJeff
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  • So those boards are shipping already ? My boards are backordered and the expected shipping date is early August :-( What's your first impression on the launchpad ? – JonathanD Jul 15 '10 at 16:45
  • @JonathanD: there was a mad scramble the day that hack-a-day provided the link to the TI eStore; it looked like their server went down from the traffic, so I tacked one on to an order I was making from digikey. But I see digikey is fresh out, now, too. Anyway, windows couldn't find a driver for the board until after I'd installed CCSv4. – JustJeff Jul 15 '10 at 17:35
  • Yea, I feel like I've been really spoiled by how excellent the documentation of avr-gcc is, and it's like another world with TI's compiler - like I find myself unable to find a delay_ms utility function or anything like that... – vicatcu Jul 15 '10 at 17:43
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You have to pay for the software ($150 for a personal license) but I can recommend the Rowley Associates tools for the MSP430. I once tried Code Composer, but didn't like it at all.

Leon Heller
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  • Yea, I'm not in a position to switch IDEs, but CCS costs more than that, I expected a lot more out of the box capability – vicatcu Jul 15 '10 at 15:53
  • there is a version that you can download for free, but the free version has a built-in limit on the size of the images it can produce. – JustJeff Jul 15 '10 at 16:34
  • However, the code size limit is greater than the maximum amount of storage on those chips you get from the kit so you're only going to run into problems if/when you get some higher end MSP430s – pfyon Jul 15 '10 at 19:54