I was recently selected to Road Test the MSP-EXP430FR5739MSP-EXP430FR5739 kit. Unfortunately my detailed review in the road test section won't show up properly so I'm postting it on my personal blog here at E14, I hope you guys find it usefult.
MSP-EXP430FR5739MSP-EXP430FR5739 Road Test Review
Thanks to Texas Instruments and Element14 I got selected to Road Test the new MSP-EXP430FR5739MSP-EXP430FR5739 kit. This Board sports the new MSP430FR5739 from the MSP family with FRAM memory. FRAM is a type of non volatile memory that is much faster and with more endurance than conventional flash memory. It will probably replace Flash in most MCUs in the future so I’m quite exited to have this board on my hands.
I placed the order on the TI’s e-store and the Board arrived in 5 days by FEDEX with shipping and Duties paid and while I was on the TI estore I also ordered an MSP430Launchpad so I will be able to compare against it.
Initial Impression
The board arrives in a black retail box. Launchpad users will instantly recognize it as it’s almost identical to the Launchpad. The similarities don’t end here as the contents and the board layout itself are modeled to the Launchpad.
Kit contents
Opening up the box we can find the Quick Start Guide with information about the demo firmware. What this quick guide lacks is a reference to the board page ( www.ti.com/tool/msp-exp430fr5739 ) where all support files can be found. Below the quick start guide we can find the board itself. There is also a 2 feet long USB cable and a 32.768 kHz Micro Cristal that can be soldered on the board when needed. In addition to a pair of 12pin Female headers, the kit also includes a 6pin 0.05 pitch male headers to be soldered onto the Emulation part of the board. This is a welcomed addition because pinheads with this small pitch are difficult to find and it allows programming and debugging external target boards.
Unlike the Launchpad, the MSP-EXP430FR5739MSP-EXP430FR5739 board has the male headers soldered onto the board. This saves me the trouble as I would probably have soldered them anyways and reduces the risk of damaging the board. But some users may want to use female headers in which case they will have to carefully remove the male headers first.
The Demo software
The Demo software GUI can be downloaded from TI’s website. Unfortunately it needs java to run so I had to use the JVM installed as part of Code Composer Studio.
The 4 modes of the demo firmware are well explained in the quick start guide. What impressed me is the speed of writing to FRAM as compared to flash. I will have to run tests on other flash based MCUs to be convinced.
Performance
The first thing I did after playing with the demo firmware was to measure the current going to the MCU. The MSP-EXP430FR5739MSP-EXP430FR5739 board includes 2 jumpers on MSP_PWR and RF_PWR that allows you to measure the current going to the MCU and any wireless module attached.
The measurements on MSP_PWR with LEDs and UART disabled were really impressive:
- Mode 1 Writing at full speed: 811uA
- Mode 2 Writing at low speed: 131uA
- Mode 3 Accelerometer based Bubble Level Demo: 102uA
The low power consumption on mode 3 plus a low power wireless module makes me think on wireless motion tracking and login applications.
Next I tried to write a small modified “Hello World app”. It was a disappointment that FRAM devices are not supported on GRACE. Fortunately, code written for other MSP430 devices will run on FRAM devices with little to no changes, so I downloaded a “Hello world app” written for the Launchpad and modified a couple of lines to use 2 of the blue LEDs (I attached it to this post). The code was compiled without errors and soon I had the code downloaded to the device and had started a debug session.
Conclusions
I was really impressed with the performance of FRAM devices and this kit helped me to tests its advantages.
This is a nice kit but there are still a few things that could be improved. The board is well laid and is robust and useful. But the documentation and information could be improved. For example the kit could have included a CD containing Code Composer Studio IDE and the GUI software. The documentation mentions wrong file names for the GUI application and the source package, this could confuse users. Also it should be stated in the documentation that the GUI software requires a Java VM as the only error message you get is the absense of javaw.exe.
Something I would like to see is more demos on Dynamic Memory configuration since its one of the main features of FRAM.
All in all this is a great kit and helps experiment with the new FRAM devices. Good value for the money.
Next steps could be pairing it with a low power wireless module and/or energy harvesting kit for tests on wireless sensor applications.
PD: I've looked the Farnel site and it looks like MSP-EXP430FR5739MSP-EXP430FR5739 kit is on promotion at Unit Price: £10.25 so act now.