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TI releases Launchpad, a $4.30 (shipping included) microproccessor dev kit
- ErrantX 16y agoBad choice of name IMO considering the market, could easily be confused with: https://launchpad.net/ https://launchpad.net/ On the other hand: So here it is: Launchpad will set you back four dollars and thirty cents. And for now shipping is included. Holy crap, that's an awesome price!
- cmos 16y agoThat is an impressive price point. I've always been a bit surprised at how expensive the arduino is, specifically that as it's become super popular and companies are actually selling decent volumes of it, the price point has not gone down remarkably (or at all?).
- mcantelon 16y agoAs the Arduino design is non-proprietary, there are a number of cheaper Arduino clones and variants.
- sliverstorm 16y agoThe arduino doesn't seem that expensive to me. It's sure no $4, but $29 seems fantastically modest. You say 'thats too much to put in a product', but I don't think it was ever meant to be in shipping products. The whole shields part gets expensive though.
- cmos 16y agoTrue - but imagine if there was one in all your consumer electronics, with a usb port and all the code is open source. I think we'd see the pace of innovation speed up a lot, and electronics would start to be a little bit more personalized and friendly than they are today.
- chime 16y agoAny hardware hackers on HN? I bought an Arduino board a few months ago and ended up blowing out the few LEDs the kit came with because I didn't understand how resistors/volts etc. worked. Can anyone direct me to a guide on electronics specifically for small hardware hacking? I'm certain taking EE classes or reading Physics/Electronics books would help but it would also take a lot of time. I'd rather concentrate on writing neat software once the hardware is wired up. Is there a guide to learning the basics of hardware so I can get started with Arduino and maybe LaunchPad? Edit: Thanks everyone for the links. These are pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully I'll hack up some interesting stuff soon :)
- boots 16y agoLadyada's guide (http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/ http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/) has all of the basics to get you started with the physical parts of hooking up your Arduino. I've glanced at "Lessons in Electric Circuits" (http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/ http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/) by Tony Kuphaldt, and it seems to cover all of the physics that you would need to get started with hardware hacking. Volume I appears to be the most relevant to you, covering the basics of voltage and currents. Once you understand that, you'll most likely be looking at specific parts that perform all of the complicated electronic functions (A/D Converters, H-Bridges, Omp Amps, etc), and don't need to fully understand the physics behind them, although it helps. I'm currently going through "Making Things Talk" by Tom Igoe, whose audience appears to be non-technical, or at least non-hardware, people. It does not cover the physics and math behind the projects though.
- ygd 16y agoThis (LadyAda) is what I used, and I turned out fine.
- KC8ZKF 16y agoYou can read the United States Navy's NEETS modules for a quick introduction to electronics. Module 1, "Introduction to Matter, Energy, and Direct Current" would probably be enough to keep you from blowing LEDs. http://jricher.com/NEETS/ http://jricher.com/NEETS/
- someone_here 16y agoIt is strange that the IDEs are not free.
- mcantelon 16y agoIt says they are free: >two free IDEs; Code Composer Studio 4 and IAR Embedded Workbench Kickstart Kickstart is Windows-only and Code Composer seems to be an Eclipse plugin (so cross-platform, but not lightweight like Arduino's minimalist IDE).
- someone_here 16y agoI meant free as in freedom...
- phsr 16y agoThe IDE's have a size limited version, both of which have a limit larger than the chips that ship with the launchpad
- boots 16y agoExtremely aggressive price for the microprocessor, but there are large hidden software costs. Their proprietary IDE is listed at $445 (http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/ccstudio.html http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/ccstudio.html)
- Tichy 16y agoIs the IDE required? For me, a command line tool (compiler?) would suffice.
- stratomorph 16y agoIt looks like gcc can be used (http://mspgcc.sourceforge.net/ http://mspgcc.sourceforge.net/). I'll have to brush up on my C.
- Tichy 16y agoSame here, but I expect at least C code for those little chips will remain manageable in size.
- plaes 16y agoAlso llvm ( http://www.llvm.org http://www.llvm.org ) has experimental msp430 backend. [edit] Found the real development site: https://www.fooe.net/trac/llvm-msp430/wiki https://www.fooe.net/trac/llvm-msp430/wiki
- 16y ago
- phaedrus 16y agoAm I the only one who can't find a link in the article that actually links to a store where you can buy it? I can't even find it with a Google search; no direct hits and the ones that look like they might lead near it on TI.com time out.
- abronte 16y agoIt's on the wiki. http://www.ti-estore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MSP-EXP430G2 http://www.ti-estore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&... But the store doesn't seem to load :(
- sliverstorm 16y agoTheir entire store seems to be bogged down right now, probably give it a few hours.
- zokier 16y agofew hours seems at this point bit optimistic. 5 hours later and constantly getting 502 Proxy Error. At least earlier it loaded after some tries. This hopefully means also that there will be quite a community when everyone gets their order. edit: I made order from Mouser. Free shipping too, and their website actually works :)
- plaes 16y agoHah.. Mouser wants me to pay 40€ extra for backorder :S
- sliverstorm 16y agoFree shipping? Is that cause you got in the order before they were backordered?
- zokier 16y agoActually no. Mousers checkout page was just buggy (showed 0,00 as shipping costs), but after few emails the truth was revealed; they want 20 for shipping apparently
- surki 16y agoShouldn't we s/microprocessor/microcontroller/g ? It looks like these the are the chips we are talking about http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/msp430g2211.html http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/msp430g2211.html http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/msp430g2231.html http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/msp430g2231.html
- jws 16y agoSummary for Reference: Smaller package, 1/8th the memory of an Arduino. 2k ROM, 128 bytes of RAM, 10 IO lines, 8 ADC inputs on one variant, 200ksps with sample and hold. Very low power consumption (if you make it work that way). $0.75 for the microcontroller in volume. I need to read more about the USB interface. I suspect it can be used to communicate with the serial controller while the chip runs, which with the right software could make it be a nice way to build small USB controlled devices and sensors.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- alnayyir 16y agoThanks for the tl;dr, I'm left wondering about the state of the software to actually program and deploy code to the device though. From what I saw on HackADay, it appears the two supported IDEs are Windows only (utterly unacceptable, for me). (I know, the gcc port is there, but it's pretty incomplete, from my understanding) This leaves me, a relative newbie to embedded dev, what kind of pitfalls I'd run into if I tried to purchase one of these. It's incredibly frustrating, after years of being in a relative comfort zone with the realm of general desktop/server software, to try to learn more about embedded, and then be uncertain as to what materials you even need.
- ganley 16y agoI have the same newbie issues, but it's $4.30. Worst case, it's totally useless to me, and I'm out the cost of a latte.
- mcav 16y agoWhat would you build with this? [genuine question]
- zokier 16y agoBlinking LED's! Blinking blue LED's!
- sliverstorm 16y agoAt $4, I'm going to order one first, and figure that out later.
- access_denied 16y agoSome sort of a dice / random generator for board games.
- Sirocco 16y agoI'd probably start with something like a DIY lucid dream mask. http://cre.ations.net/creation/face-mounted-lucid-dreaming-mask http://cre.ations.net/creation/face-mounted-lucid-dreaming-m...
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y agoHmmm: A complex LED flasher? Maybe one that instead of flashing, smoothly fades the LEDs in or out? Want to run that lawnmower more efficiently and cleanly? Be the first on your block with a mower that has an onboard engine management controller. Of course: robots, robots, robots. A Newton's laws demonstrator that times how long it takes from when you release it to when it hits the floor and uses that to calculate the initial height. Bonus points if it displays G force when it hits the ground so you can experiment with different types of padding. A temperature controller for your overclocked game machine? And that's just simple hobby stuff without even getting into real industrial uses! I love being a hardware hacker!
- 83457 16y agoAm I right that most uses of this would rely on plugging in sensors and other devices for it to monitor or control?
- plaes 16y agoDuh.. tried to order it, but TI's e-store is missing my country (Estonia) :S
- blhack 16y agoTI's site seems to be down. Are there any vendors selling these?
- ganley 16y agoI got through eventually. It took several tries, though.
- rajeshamara 16y agoI don't know if we can buy this from their website. I contacted one of the authorized distributor agent. She said she is going to find details and let me know. I am very excited with the price and ready to buy
- RodgerTheGreat 16y agoI found them on backorder at Mouser for $5.07 plus shipping: http://mouser.com/ProductDetail/Texas-Instruments/MSP-EXP430G2/?qs=CLImetaeaXWH2pYG%252bA%252b4Vw%3d%3d http://mouser.com/ProductDetail/Texas-Instruments/MSP-EXP430...
- ygd 16y agoGetting started with a Launchpad is actually cheaper than getting started with a similarly-sized AVR. The 20-pin ATtiny2313 is $2.88 from SparkFun. The programmer + shipping will throw the cost to about $30. Although I suspect these "value-line" microcontrollers aren't quite as powerful as an AVR.
- fhars 16y agoThe 2313 should be similar in power, it has up to 18 I/O lines instead of 10 and an additional 128B of EEPROM and 2 ADCs, which is two more than the MSP430G2211 and six less than the 2231 [edit: and the TI ADCs might be faster]. But at $2.88 you are being seriously ripped off, I pay 1.10€ at reichelt.de including 19% sales tax, and as far as I can remember, the Euro is still unter US$2.00
- ianium 16y agoOr you could make a programmer with this.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ygd 16y agoUPDATE: Just ordered two Launchpads. Although I believe TI is actually losing money if you order these in small quantities. I estimate shipping is around $10. Even ordering two, TI still loses a few bucks. Watch as this thing skyrockets back to $20 in a few weeks.
- hackermom 16y agoThe specifications of this board detail that it comes with a 32 kHz crystal, but the specifications of the MSP430 micro controller family says that they run at 16 MIPS. Anyone got any details on this? Can the board simply be fitted with a faster crystal? Please, no "it actually executes 500 instructions per clock cycle" jokes.
- mkeblx 16y agoThere's an internal oscillator on the uC. "32kHz crystal increases MSP430 MCUs’ integrated digitally controlled oscillator to real-time accuracy for various peripherals and timers" But even running at 32kHz you can do real work, probably even run a MUMPS deployment.
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y agoI haven't used any TI processors specifically, but most MCUs that run on a 32kHz crystal will only use that clock speed either in very low power operations, or as a timebase for a real-time (i.e., wall) clock. The processor has PLL circuitry inside it that will multiply the 32kHz into the MHz range and use that as the main CPU clock.
- zwieback 16y agoIt has an internal clock source that can be multiplied up to different speeds. You can also connect external crystals or digital clocks.
- zwieback 16y agoWe use MSP430s at work albeit much larger versions with more RAM and peripherals. MSPs are pretty nice processors if you need something really low power and they have some models with built-in USB endpoints, which means you don't have to add an FTDI chip or similar. From the looks of it TI used another micro to generate the JTAG interface via USB. In the past they used a USB chip with built in 8051 to turn USB into JTAG. It's kind of a hassle but just having the USB part on the experimenter board is worth the money since you can use it as a USB-serial converter (I think.) As to the development tools: CodeComposer is great if you already know Eclipse and the code size limit is high enough that you can still do some real work. IAR is good too but the full version is much more expensive than CCS so we're going with CCS. Haven't tried the GCC msp backend.
- mistermann 16y agoA bit off topic, but related....does anyone know of a website for industrial automation parts for bulding custom automated "machines"? Specifically what I am in need of right now is a low cost solution for automatically proportioning (by weight) pet treats. They are an odd shape and a bit sticky so our existing machine can't seem to cope with them, and apparently a proper machine which can handle it is ~ $100k. So in the meantime I thought perhaps a person could take some off the shelf parts and build something from scratch. Anyone have any insight on this??
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y agoThat's not a difficult task unless I misunderstand you. I have a load cell with a weighing platform somewhere in my garage and never got around to using it. What part are you having trouble sourcing? For general electromechanical components, MSC, Small Parts, McMaster-Carr are my usual go-to places. Are you looking to build a machine that can take pet treats from a hopper and bag them by weight? That's a pretty straightfoward task: the 100k pricetag probably has more to do with speed/throughput and low economies of scale than anything else. PM/email me if you need more help.
- joejohnson 16y agoTI just got out of prison too.