Utilities and hardware for programming the MSP430

[wcontello]

It seems the tools are very Windows centric. Are there any tools people have found for programming the MSP430 from a Mac?

I am willing to spend ime working on a programmer but would appreciate some collaberation.

[pascal]

Hello!

Thank you for coming to this forum.
I beleive there are not so many ready-to-use tools for Mac Intosh.
But I am sure there are many people interested by programming
MSP430 on MacIntosh and that's why I created this forum category.

As for what can be done with minimum trouble:
- mspgcc can be compiled for MacOS-X, and the source code can
be downloaded from source forge;
- an interface for the boot loader (BSL) can also be built and used
on MacOS-X provided you gave a USB to serial interface.
- The parallel interface is used with Linux, so in case of a USB
to parallel interface, there shoud be some ways to use Texas parllel
device with MacOS-X.

Using a TI USB UIF interface is a bit tricky because the source code
of the UIF firmware is not open. However, some people managed to
get the full source code of the UIF from Texas Instruments under NDA
I think.

Beside this, there are other projects involving TinyOS, that are
apparently working on MacOS. But I didn't try this myself.

My intention by creating this sub-forum is to try to centralize information
spread over the internet.

It seems the tools are very Windows centric. Are there any tools people
have found for programming the MSP430 from a Mac?

I am willing to spend ime working on a programmer but would appreciate
some collaberation.

If you could describe your project more accurately and try to report
what you already have, which pieces are missing in the puzzle, I am sure
this would open the way to a broader cooperation.

Thanks again for coming here. I am looking forward to seeing more
information shared here.

Pascal

[tyl]

I went around the internet, found a few website that teach you what to do before you can start to compile. I gotta say it is alot of work just to start the whole programming process. I'll keep on trying to see if anything works. I'll report back if anything...

[pascal]

Hello Tyl!

Thanks for your input.
Yes that's a lot of work to start. And I imagine that many people try
a little bit and then give up because it would take too much time.
However, what we could do here is to centralize reports.
Basically most of the free software on the net is made of great
ideas which work well for people who know how to do and / or have time
to spend doing it. If we can have one cooking recipe for everybody,
that would save time to all newcomers, and they could have a positive
input instead of starting from 0 and stay there.
So if you try something that does not work, it is already a positive
input band you have to report it. Report your system config (mac type,
processor type, memory, etc...) and describe the problem. Probably
many people will see your message and some will reply.

I will be busy for a few weeks, but I will give it a try during the summer.

Stay tuned!

Pascal