We are working on a small MSP430F149 project and are having a heap of grief
getting the basic hardware going.

We continually get inconsistent results when attempting to connect and
download to the msp430. Initially the JTAG will not connect but this problem
appeared
to rectify itself. It then had trouble writing to memory at address 0x1100 -
the start of the program flash. Reseating the msp430 in the ZIF socket
seemed to fix this problem. We initially tried restarting the debug proxy
and the debugger and cygwin without success.

We finally managed to download to the device about 3 times. When the code
ran it always stopped at the reset vector. We though it may be some problem
with the RTOS and the timers. The watchdog is switched off.

We then tried one of the examples supplied with mspgcc LED flashing code. We
built the code without any problems but when we attempted to download the
memory write error reappeared. We tried re-seating the micro in the ZIF
socket etc without success.

We are using the a homebrew JTAG programmer and a TI development board
pwered by 2 x D cells and driving this via the mspgcc-20041112.exe software.

So many questions!!
Where do we start debugging the system?
Could the problem be timing related? Is the PC we are using too slow/fast?
How can we check if everything is okay with the software setup/hardware
setup?

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thanks
rob

On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 14:56:05 +0800, "Rob" <rdsfal@iinet.net.au> wrote:

We never program the MSP430's when the supply voltage is less than 3 volts,
preferably 3.3V. An LM317 regulator with an output set to 3.3V works well.

You say that you're using a homebrew JTAG programmer. Where did you get
the circuit diagram? Olimex has a circuit (and cheap kit) that works well.

"Rob" <rdsfal@iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:42da0038$0$18770$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...

I don't know anything about the TI board, but with my Softbaugh/FETP setup
the board is powered through the JTAG. If I have external power attached at
the same time as the JTAG adaptor then I get unpredictable results.
Whenever I have the JTAG attached I remove external power, then everything
works consistently well.

Regards.
Richard.

http://www.FreeRTOS.org

"Rob" <rdsfal@iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:42da0038$0$18770$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...

0x1100 is not on a 512 byte page boundary.. you might
like to move this to 0x1200.. or you may have trouble with the info memory
area as well
also do the flash load at > 2.7 Volts..

"Rob" <rdsfal@iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:42da0038$0$18770$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
try hooking a 3V --> 3.3V variable supply up and see if things improve.
regards
rob