What are /r/MSP430's favorite Products & Services?

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Did you get your MSP430s as a part of the LaunchPad? If not what are you using to program (flash) the with? If you don't have a LP, you probably want to order one -- the current ones come with the MSP430G2553 which is a huge step up from the G2's that TI was offering a few years back.

Personally, I really like the MSP430. It has it's downsides (expensive for the performance, poor availability, limited packaging) but at the technical level it is a great chip. As one of the last 8-bit class architecture designs it is very modern, yet at the same time it is not burdened by the complexities of 16 and 32 bit chip designs. This makes it the perfect chip for learning microcontrollers.

First things first. If your basic electronics knowledge is limited, go to allaboutcircuits.com. This is far and away the best place to learn the basics.

While the amount of information on the MSP430 on the web and in print pales compared to the PIC, AVR, and ARMs, there is still plenty out there to get you started. I put together a fair bit of links about a year ago at: https://sites.google.com/site/msp430ref/

I strongly recommend you purchase John Davies book on the MSP430. It will save you a lot of time getting up to speed, particularly if you have never used microcontrollers.

There is also a great on-line community at: http://www.43oh.com/forum/

Well, you need to start by asking in the right places.

The best is the forums in 43oh.com

If you prefer email, subscribe to msp430-yahoo (yahoogroups)

or IRC #43oh on freenode.net

I have been collecting reference documentation at:

https://sites.google.com/site/msp430ref/

If you are a newb, I strongly suggest TI's video introduction to the LaunchPad.

And I highly recommend John Davies book on MSP430 programming.

Hmm.. but then what is the point of __low_power_mode_off_on_exit() ? This goes counter to what I've read in https://www.amazon.com/MSP430-Microcontroller-Basics-John-Davies/dp/0750682760

(I'm trying it, and if it works, great, but I'm still confused :-/).

EDIT: Didn't work. The SR is pushed onto the stack when waking to service an interrupt then popped back--according to that book, anyway. so the device should go back to whatever mode it was in prior to servicing the interrupt. It seems like LPM0 isn't enabling interrupts. I'll try directly running the intrinsic to set the SR.

This is far and away your best introduction to the msp430:

http://www.amazon.com/MSP430-Microcontroller-Basics-John-Davies/dp/0750682760

TI's datasheets are quite good, and you will be able to understand them easily after reading the Davies book.

TI also provides example code in both C and assembly to demonstrate the basic using of just about every peripheral on every part. Those make for a great rosetta stone.

The SerialPort class is the easiest. The hard part is your computer might not have a serial port! Some motherboards have them on a header or you can buy a USB serial port.

Personally, I have found the USB ones flaky above 9600 baud, but 9600 baud is more than fast enough to query a sensor several times a second. If you need faster, I recommend a serial port card.