Hi y'all,
(First post newbie alert)
I'm loving playing with my Launchpads and am currently working on some robotics projects, including designing an intelligent motor controller that uses I2C interfacing.
Well, as these things go, the I2C communications didn't work right off and I was frustrated by my lack of a logic analyzer, so I decided to throw together an MSP430G2553-only logic analyzer capture system that communicates to existing SUMP clients. It works well considering a one-weekend investment of time and I'm learning lots. It can collect 390 samples, with 8 probes, at a maximum sample rate of 1 MHz and serviceable triggering modes. (I'm hoping to optionally raise the number of samples by reducing the number of probes, reducing the sample rate, and bit-packing the data; I guess I'll eventually add an external memory to get past the 512 byte RAM limit!).
Anyway -- to my question: I'd like to get this logic analyzer off my Launchpad and make it a semi-permanent unit for my use. It's no problem to make the MSP430G2553 standalone, but I'm still tied to the Launchpad for the USB-Serial communications. What's my simplest way forward? Here are the options (and disadvantages) I'm aware of:
1. Buy the FTDI interface chip and learn the whole new world of designing and making PC boards and hand-soldering small chips (lots of new things to learn, so no small project, but maybe I should go ahead and bite the bullet?)
2. Buy the FTDI interface chip and a breakout board so that I can build the unit using 0.1" prototyping methods I'm comfortable with (starts to get expensive compared with just buying another Launchpad)
3. Just use a Launchpad (limits the baud rate to 9600 and keeps me confused when I have three Launchpads plugged into my system [I2C master, I2C slave, logic analyzer] that I have to keep straight in CCS])
4. ??? What's the simple way forward? I feel like I must be missing something. Is there an MSP430 with built-in USB communications? Is there an inexpensive DIP UART-to-USB solution? Is there a way to make a Launchpad identify itself differently to the host computer so that I can make the logic analyzer obvious in my list of attached devices?
Thanks for your suggestions!
Rob