0

I've done my share of C and embedded systems, but that was, scary to say, 20 years ago! I've been a Java programmer since 1999. Suddenly, I've been asked to estimate a simple project involving C and an embedded system, MSP430 processor.

What's involved? I've found that there is a debugging plugin for Eclipse, which may be a good news, for me.

Obviously, nothing can be estimated without knowing the complexity of the project. Let's assume, for the sake of an argument, that this is a "Hello, world!" kind of a thing. What would be an overhead for me for creating an environment, hooking up the debugger, learning to compile and upload and debug, etc?

Beyond that, my rough estimate is, all development would be my Java development time times 5 for the first week. Maybe times 10. Is this accurate? Is there a lot of specialized knowledge, custom libraries, etc?

I was once very good at debugging memory leaks, array and stack overflows and other good things, but now remember it as a nightmare.

Irina Rapoport
  • 1,404
  • 1
  • 20
  • 37
  • Get the toolset installed and a few examples built under the cover of "working up your estimate" – Chris Stratton Mar 07 '14 at 21:13
  • 2
    This question doesn't seem like a good fit for this member of the stack exchange network (though another site within it might be great for this). Stack overflow questions need to be much better defined than what you're looking for - a specific problem that has a specific objective answer. – mah Mar 07 '14 at 21:15
  • 1
    Stack exchange has no great place for embedded systems. Questions get randomly asked and often rehosted to stack overflow, electrical engineering, and once even super user (an embedded boot question asked on stack overflow moved to super user... bleh). – Digikata Mar 07 '14 at 21:23
  • There is hardly a better defined task than "Hello, world!". Of course, estimates are not precise by definition, but since a number of "estimate" tags exist on stackoverflow, I guess estimate-related questions must be allowed then? – Irina Rapoport Mar 07 '14 at 21:36
  • 1
    @ТаняТ. Estimates are hard to make no matter what the situation is. Begin by prototyping with the MSP430 so that you can better understand what you're up against. I don't know the depth of your application, but I'd say it'll take you a few weeks to understand the documentation, run some sample code, and build a few prototypes before you actually start working on your application. – bblincoe Mar 07 '14 at 21:38

1 Answers1

2

The TI MSP430 is an extremely simple device. From a development standpoint, you have a couple options:

  1. Use an IDE such as IAR Embedded Workbench or TI Code Composer Studio (Eclipse-based).
  2. Use command-line tools (msp-gcc).

The User's Guide for the specific MSP430 device will be your friend. Anything that is device-specific will be found in the chip's Datasheet. TI has an abundance of drivers freely available on their website to get you started. They may not be the most efficient methods for performing a certain task, but they can be used as stepping stones to getting your application going. You can find these software examples here.

You'll need a good understanding of the MSP430 peripherals before you can really start getting your hands dirty - how do I configure the clock system? how do I communicate UART (serial)? how do I toggle GPIO?

bblincoe
  • 2,393
  • 2
  • 20
  • 34
  • @bblincore, Thank you for your answer. Should I start with IAR Embedded Workbench or TI Code Composer Studio? Also - do I need to configure the clock system etc. in order to do simple logic? Is there some sort of default configuration for these things? Is there plenty of community support? It scares me that Code Composer seems... old! – Irina Rapoport Mar 08 '14 at 08:23
  • 1
    IAR Embedded Workbench Kickstart could get you started. Their full version license gets a little pricey but is totally worth it in my opinion. Code Composer Studio is relatively low cost ($300?) but uses the msp-gcc compiler (or did). I didn't think it was too great. Go take a look at some of the TI example code. They will have comments explaining every step. – bblincoe Mar 08 '14 at 12:28
  • Question. I don't have the actual chip. I do have Code Composer Studio (the free version). Is there any way to hook Code Composer to an emulator, instead of an actual chip? – Irina Rapoport Mar 09 '14 at 02:45
  • TI provides extremely inexpensive development kits. I don't believe there are any emulators for the MSP430. – bblincoe Mar 10 '14 at 11:41
  • I know. I am just out of time to order it, meeting a client tomorrow. – Irina Rapoport Mar 10 '14 at 15:58
  • @ТаняТ. Call up IAR and see if you can get a 30-day full featured eval key (I know I've done this with Keil ... don't remember if Ive done it with IAR) – Digikata Mar 10 '14 at 22:51