Tuesday, July 27, 2010

A Nice Forum, and a Bone to Pick

A Nice Forum

So I decided to write a little update post on two separate topics. First I found a forum that was posted in the Google LaunchPad Group, and wanted to share it with everyone in case you don't already know of it. If enough people join I think it could be very useful. I will try to be active on both the Google Group and the 43oh.com forum.

http://www.43oh.com/forum/

A Bone to Pick

Second, I have a bone to pick with TI. I will be emailing them about this once I have enough time to word an email correctly. I have just received my 5528 target board, and it is VERY cool. I got home and was super excited to compile the test program and use the Field Firmware Update Demo they speak so highly of in all their documentation. Turns out they DON'T have any firmware update application available.

This frustrates me since this was the real reason I bought the board all together. It is also not a lack of research which caused me to believe the executable was posted. Let me quote one of their documents.

"(NOTE: The starter project will be made available by August 2009. Until then, an executable version of it has been compiled into a demo application, which is available on the MSP430F5529 product folder web page. What follows is a description of what the starter project will be.)"

Generally speaking I trust documents written by a company and do not go out verifiying every little bit of it, I assumed that since they said the executable was posted that it would be. Also, in another document in the same .zip package they show screen shots of the program. Ok, I know, its a "preliminary" document. It was posted over a year ago...

It seems like they are holding out on me. :-( I'm not trying to pick a fight or anything since I am sure they have a good reason to not post it, I am just saying how it seems to me. Hopefully TI will answer my email with a link to the executable instead of their typical answer "Don't worry, you will see it posted in a month or so." This just does not look good from a customers perspective.

Sorry, just needed to vent. I'm done complaining now. I still love TI's hardware products. :-P


Next Post

My next real post is almost done. It will contain a broken down version of the example code which came with the LaunchPad so we can get started using a software UART. I will also do some testing to show how high we can set the baud rate to and have it still be reliable.

I also just wanted to thank everyone who comments on my posts, it really does mean a lot to me to know that I am actually helping people instead of talking (writing?) into thin air.

After the first two weeks of being up and running (it has grown since then too!), I had over 1000 visits to my blog, and about 40 subscribers! Thanks everyone! The more the better! :-)

2 comments:

  1. Nice blog!!!!!! first of all, I'm from Argentina so I apologise for my english. I get some times lost with the technical language used in the datasheets and with your posts you are really doing me a great favor. I´m looking fordward for the next post, I tried to understand the example code in order to send some bytes but I got lost and quit it. It also would be interesting to send data in both directions.
    Once again; bear with me as I try to remember what I learned in english

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  2. :-) I'm glad I can help! I know how hard it can be trying to understand technical material in a language you are not fluent in. I'm going through some similar difficulties at work, I find it fun though! But thats another story entirely.

    I actually have quite a few readers from Argentina (according to my Google Analytics). Countries all over the world are tuning in. Very cool. If anyone ever has any questions about wording I use, or doesn't understanding something for any reason, feel free to comment and ask me. I will never get frustrated if someone does not completely understand something I say.

    PS: Your English was perfectly understandable! No worries at all. The example code is hard enough to understand on its own. >.<

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