Kerry Wong shows us how to program a MSP430F5172 development board using a launchpad as a BSL programmer:
Fortunately, most of the MSP430 devices can be programmed using the built-in BSL (Bootstrap Loader). And TI’s MSP430G2 Launchpad has a convenient utility which turns a Launchpad into a BSL programmer. More detailed information on the Launchpad BSL programming can be found here.
Since BSL is a feature that people often overlooked and instructions are pretty sketchy on the web, I thought I would give a little bit more detail on this using the MSP430F5172 development kit from SchmartBoard as an example.
Via 43oh.
Wouldn’t it be easier to use the Spy-by-wire connections? They are easily accessible on the Launchpad and the MSP430F5172 has support for it.
Plus the Spy-by-wire supports debugging, while the BSL does not.
@Pedro,
Yes, you can. See the update note at the bottom of the post on 43oh.
There are 5 pin respectively TEST,RST,RXD,TXT and VCC on Launchpad.
I need to know , can I use Launchpad for all MSP430 series? For example , I am designing MSP430f2335 based development board. When I checked datasheet I could not find any TEST pin between MSP430f235 pins ? According to my search on data sheet , it support BSL programming and but I can not figure out it? Which pins I should connect with Launchpad pins.
Best regards.
as long as you have RS232 (either from built in or USB-RS232), you can create a BSL programmer. There is a schematic on TI’s site but it could be simplified further. I am using this method as of the moment with a BSL programming utility that I wrote in C#.
Hi Atakan,
If you want to use the factory default BSL, you can use this document as a reference http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slau319e/slau319e.pdf
there is a schematic as well if you want to create your own BSL programmer
Should be possible also to use the “new” ezfet-lite included in most recent MSP430 lauchpads? Feature expalined here: http://sysmagazine.com/posts/196924/ and here: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ-FET_lite
It would be awesome to be able to program MCUs using our lauchpads. This would make us able to minimize project size and cost.
Thanks in advance :-)