PROGRAMMABLE MICROCONTROLLERS WITH APPLICATIONS: MSP430 LAUNCHPAD WITH CCS AND GRACE

Der Autor führt in die Hardware des MSP430 mittels Assemblercode und C-Code auf Grundlage des MSP430 Launchpad ein. Dies ist von Vorteil, da sich z.B. das MSP430 Buch von Davies auf teurere und nicht leicht handbare Boards bezieht.Zusätzlich (im Gegensatz zu fast allen anderen Büchern zum MSP430 außer den Workshop-Unterlagen von TI) erläutert er für die einzelnen Hardwarekomponenten die Benutzung von Grace. Aus meiner Sicht für MSP430-Interessierte eine lohnenswerte Anschaffung.

I started reading this textbook a week ago and so far I have read the first 9 chapters of this book. I am learning the material on my own and I will base my review of the text on what I have read so far.The book is easy to read. It is intended for undergraduate engineering students but you should be okay if you have knowledge of digital logic, C programming and Assembly language. I like how the example code is explained in detail and the layout of the textbook is nice too. The code is inline with the text and it makes it easy to read the text and look at the code without having to flip pages.I am a recent BSEE/MSEE graduate and I had some knowledge of microcontrollers and assembly language prior to buying this textbook. When I took my course in microntrollers, I did not understand the subject too well. That is why I decided to buy this textbook along with the Launchpad so that I could be a better engineer and hopefully it will help me get hired. Previous knowledge of C and Assembly programming will help a lot. This being my second time around learning microcontrollers, I feel comfortable with the material so far.The textbook uses TI's Code Composer Studio IDE. It is easy software to understand. It has a debug window and you can see the disassembly and monitor the values in the registers. There is an entire chapter dedicated to the IDE and it is helpful to get started with the software. Example code is available on the companion website and that makes it easy to follow along with the textbook while at the same time programming the board with the provided code. Each chapter contains problems but solutions are only available to faculty. It would be nice if solutions had been provided at the end of the book (like math textbooks) but I guess that would add several pages to the textbook. It is fun to work on the problems anyway. So far I have been successful with the problems I have attempted. Right now, I am stuck on a question that deals with Interrupts and Assembly language. Hopefully, I get it working within the next few hours so I can move on to the next question. I recommend doing the problems at the end of the chapter. They have not been too difficult yet but it will help you learn and better understand the material.I want to mention that if your Launchpad is Rev.1.5 you need to enable the pull-up/pull-down resistors in each example code. The author mentions this in the text but it is easy to forget. I struggled for one day with my push button thinking that it would not work because it was always low. The solution was to set the bit to 1 in the P1REN register and set the appropriate bit in P1OUT to 1 as well. After that the code worked with my board. It appears that the code will work with the Rev.1.4 Launchpads without trouble. Some of the code does not take into account the switch bouncing (for Rev1.5 Launchpads) so the code might not work as is. For example, if I press the push button once, the MSP430 might see it pushed two or three times because of the switch bounce. The author also mentions that capacitors (used for hardware switch debouncing) were removed in Rev1.5 boards and that software delays can be implemented to deal with switch bouncing. Most of the example code does not contain delays to deal with this so you will have to work on that. I believe Rev.1.4 boards should have no issue with switch bounce because of the installed capacitors (low pass filters). The author explains this in chapter eight but I would guess that the example code is intended for Rev.1.4 boards. To summarize, if your board is Rev1.5, enable the pull-up resistor (push button is active-low), and implement software delays to deal with switch bouncing.I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn microcontrollers. Some previous knowledge of microcontrollers and C-, Assembly-language will help a lot. I didn't mention this earlier but some knowledge of digital logic will be helpful as well. Don't forget to check if your board is Rev.1.5... you will probably have to modify some of the example code (add a line or two of code). The code will compile and run on your board but the switch bouncing kind of ruins it so try to implement a delay in the code to get around this. Sometimes I press the push button once but the microcontroller will register it being pressed more than once so that is a bit inconvenient.I never thought I would be this excited about programming until this textbook! I recommend it!

Excelent to start with CCS, Grace, basic MSP and real code samples. Avoid download and read a lot of App.Notes from Texas.

This book is a rare gem. Most MCU programming books fall into one of two categories: the first is the general undergraduate sophomore/junior level digital design or embedded systems textbook which does some hand-waving at various MCU architectural aspects then shows some incomplete snippets of code related to accessing and manipulating those features. A good example would be "Embedded Systems, An Introduction Using the Renesas RX62N Microcontroller", it has some interesting info but not very practical for application or implementation of a product or design. The second category, which I find generally unhelpful, is a book like Jonathan W Valvano's Arm book which might be useful in conjunction with his course but has incomplete coding examples and a bunch of generic info that look like it came right out of the data sheet. In addition I dont like seeing pages of Assembly code examples. I dont know many engineers that spend much time writing in Assembly for real life applications. Older academics seem to love assembly coding as it reminds them of their old glory days.What this book does so well is applying practical C programming to the MSP430 rev. 1.4 and rev 1.5 showing complete programs in C, and yes some assembly, and then explaining how the code works in the Code Composer environment. While Keil doesn't make non-Arm based free IDE's you could probably use IAR's free version of their IDE if you dont fancy CSS (but another Eclipse based plug in). The book also takes time explaining how to use the different features of the CSS IDE, that is very rare in itself, you are usually on your own with the IDE.Some especially good points about this book are its one of the few teach yourself books suitable for the working engineer (or advanced Hobbyist who has moved passed the Arduino or Energia environments. While both authors are Turkish the English diction is fine with just occasional, innocuous, non-standard verbiage which doesn't really affect the overall quality of the book. Another outstanding feature is how meticulous and diligent the authors have been with providing functional code for version 1.4 and 1.5 of the MSP430. Unlike many books, their code works and compiles consistently and I've seen very few errors. The authors have obviously spent a lot of time making a very high quality, useful book of original material that is very useful in gaining competency in programming the MSP430, it's one of my rare engineering books thats done so well done I plan to read it cover to cover.

It's a decent MSP430 intro and reference. I used it as a textbook, and I'm still keeping it.