Guide to Developing for the MSP430 with (Debian) Linux

Install Packages

Make sure you are on the wheezy (testing) suite

• binutis-msp430
  Binary utilities supporting TI's MSP430 targets

• gcc-msp430
  GNU C compiler (cross compiler for MSP430)

• gdb-msp430
  The GNU debugger for MSP430

• msp430-libc
  Standard C library for TI MSP430 development

Paste this command into the terminal to install all of these packages:

sudo apt-get install binutils-msp430 gcc-msp430 gdb-msp430 msp430-libc

Compile the Example

To compile the example, use the makefile

make

Or, the full syntax for the mspgcc command is:

msp430-gcc -mmcu=msp430g2553 launchpad.c -o launchpad.elf

Debugging

Use mspdebug to program the msp430

mspdebug rf2500

You should see it connecto to the launchpad. Once it does, use the following commmands to load and run the program:

erase
load launchpad.elf
run

You should now see the LEDs blinking alternately red and green like it did when you first got it.

Serial Port

You can use the serial port in linux as /dev/ttaACM0

The screen command works well for two way communications

screen /dev/ttyACM0 9600

Converting Code Composer Programs

If you are trying to compile a program written in Code Composer with GCC, you will run into trouble because they use a different syntax for interrupt service routines. Fortunately, it is fairly simple to convert it over.

Code Composer Style Interrupts:

#pragma vector=TIMERA1_VECTOR
__interrupt void ta1_isr(void)
{
    ...
}

GCC Interrupts:

interrupt (TIMERA1_VECTOR) ta1_isr(void)
{
    ...
}