Hello,
I'm having problems with the USB-serial connection with the MSP-EXP430G2 launchpad. It appears to be a software/driver issue of some kind. I have tried reinstalling drivers for the launchpad. I am not sure that it is the computer itself, because the Arduino software's serial monitor works without a problem.
I'm using windows 8.1 64-bit, and I've tried both CCS6.0 and Energia. It is worth noting that this is on a fairly new, custom built computer in the office, so perhaps some security software is getting in the way? I have admin rights and I have tried disabling the ESET endpoint antivirus (in case it was doing some funny business with the com ports). I did not see any other software that I've read causes problems (such as daemon tools).
In Energia, I intermittendly get
"tilib: MSP430_Initialize: Could not find MSP-FET430UIF on specified COM port (error = 57)
tilib: device initialization failed"
CCS6.0 acts similarly when I load programs, although I don't recall the actual message.
When Energia does load the program, and it does appear to load the program correctly, I receive no communication in the serial monitor. If I type into the serial monitor and click send, Energia freezes and I have to stop it using the task manager. This is when I am trying example programs such as "ASCIITable" or "ReadASCIIString". I've tried switching the jumpers between HW UART and SW UART configurations.
If I try a 3rd party serial terminal program such as SerialMon or PuTTY, I can connect but still do not receive anything from the launchpad. Like Energia's serial monitor, if I try to send anything, it freezes. I tried PortMon, but the option to connect/capture was grayed out.
In CCS6.0, I was trying the SDCard project (v0.3) here:
http://doc.43oh.com/The_Card_Reader_SDCard_BoosterPack. This project uses the software UART which uses P1.1 and P1.2 for TX and RX, so as a debug measure I previously put breakpoints on the TX and RX interrupts. Stepping through, I confirmed that the TX pin was transmitting correctly. The RX interrupt never triggered. For this reason, I had thought that it was likely not the launchpad.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions. This issue has been quite frustrating for me. As I said before, the arduino software and it's serial monitor work flawlessly, so it is baffling how I am having so much trouble with the launchpad.
-Nick
Edit: I've also confirmed that the arduino works when I try to connect using serialMon or PuTTY.