On Wed, Dec 08, 2004 at 08:22:46AM +0200, Shaun Parsons wrote:
> Am I the only one who would like another timer in
the MSP430?
> The MSP430 does have versatile timers, but there are only 2 + the watchdog.

Yes, you have only two/three timers, but with software incrementing of the
capture registers you can have something like 11 (slower) timers. But I also
wished to have more timers in the past.

> When using the 16x parts with ADC and DAC running
at uS sample rates and at
> different rates, using DMA to handle the transfers, you end up using the WD
> in timer mode to provide the kernel tick.

I use the ADC sample rate as the supply for my slower kernel tick (counting
down a variable in the isr).

> This leaves no WD function as well as no
additional timer for any other fine
> resolution interrupt driven timed events.

 The MSP430 watchdog is useless. Software should never be able to stop a
watchdog.
The watchdog is not able to kick out the MSP430 from some undefinate states,
only a power cycle can do that. 
 The MSP430 reset pin is useless. A external watchdog is possibly not able
to reset the controller - because the reset pin can be reprogrammed to be a NMI
pin. But is seems that the reset pin can reset the JTAG hardware also.
 The only way to restart the MSP430 properly is a power cycle (below 0.3
volts). The most reliable solution would be to supply the MSP from the
push-pull-output of a external watchdog.
The POR-feature did not really work (compared to a watchdog at reset).
 The recently added SVS does not help much either (it is disabled after power up
I can not believe this, for what purpose is the SVS?)

The reset/startup crap is one of the downsides of the MSP430.
A freezing MSP430 happend to me (and others here) every day during
development - in a friendly environment. But what worse could happen in the
field? At the opposite here are some people that never had such problems with
a MSP430 (must be a problem of the northern hemisphere:-)

        Matthias

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Hi All.

I'm back from Dallas and the 2004 MSP430 Advanced Technical
Conference.

It's still small (in terms of attendees, around 200?), but it is
definitely growing. There was a much larger group of companies with
display booths than last year. I met lots of new people there (plus
some repeats -- hi, Michel!), including many who were exposed to
Pumpkin's Salvo RTOS for the first time.

I thought that Mike Willey of Paragon Innovations gave a great talk,
entitled "Designing Embedded Systems for Low Power and Battery Power
Operation". Lots of good stuff in there, much of which has validated
what I've been doing over the years, and a few new pointers that I
will be ruminating on.

One of the TI Power Group guys mentioned that there are some new
ultralow power LDOs on the horizon (meaning 6mo-1yr before full
production), that are unconditionally stable with a minumum output
cap, and have much lower idle currents (e.g. << than the TPS769xx that
I've been using). All good news, and it's nice to see TI's focus
on
logic, analog, power, uC's and a variety of other components, too.

I've posted a PDF version of the material for the course I presented
entitled "Hardware and Software Design of an MSP430-based
Microsatellite using an RTOS" here:

http://www.pumpkininc.com/content/doc/press/Pumpkin_MSP430ATC2004.pdf

--Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D.
aek at pumpkin inc dot com

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for posting your ATC presentation. 

Do you know if TI will make public the material of the seminars?


Best regards,

S.-

-- 

== Sebastian E. Garcia ~ sebasgarcia at gmail . com
== Embedded systems development
== 54.11.4833.4123 ~ Buenos Aires ~ Argentina


On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 21:22:55 -0000, aekalman
<aek@aek@...> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi All.
> 
> I'm back from Dallas and the 2004 MSP430 Advanced Technical
> Conference.
> 
> It's still small (in terms of attendees, around 200?), but it is
> definitely growing. There was a much larger group of companies with
> display booths than last year. I met lots of new people there (plus
> some repeats -- hi, Michel!), including many who were exposed to
> Pumpkin's Salvo RTOS for the first time.
> 
> I thought that Mike Willey of Paragon Innovations gave a great talk,
> entitled "Designing Embedded Systems for Low Power and Battery Power
> Operation". Lots of good stuff in there, much of which has validated
> what I've been doing over the years, and a few new pointers that I
> will be ruminating on.
> 
> One of the TI Power Group guys mentioned that there are some new
> ultralow power LDOs on the horizon (meaning 6mo-1yr before full
> production), that are unconditionally stable with a minumum output
> cap, and have much lower idle currents (e.g. << than the TPS769xx
that
> I've been using). All good news, and it's nice to see TI's
focus on
> logic, analog, power, uC's and a variety of other components, too.
> 
> I've posted a PDF version of the material for the course I presented
> entitled "Hardware and Software Design of an MSP430-based
> Microsatellite using an RTOS" here:
> 
> http://www.pumpkininc.com/content/doc/press/Pumpkin_MSP430ATC2004.pdf
> 
> --Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D.
> aek at pumpkin inc dot com

Or maybe somebody will post the contents of the nifty USB memory 
stick with all the conference materials that each participant 
received.


Michel

--- In msp430@msp4..., Sebastian Garcia <sebasgarcia@g...> 
wrote:
> 
> Hi Andrew,
> 
> Thanks for posting your ATC presentation. 
> 
> Do you know if TI will make public the material of the seminars?
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> S.-
> 
> -- 
> 
> == Sebastian E. Garcia ~ sebasgarcia at gmail . com
> == Embedded systems development
> == 54.11.4833.4123 ~ Buenos Aires ~ Argentina
> 
> 
> On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 21:22:55 -0000, aekalman <aek@p...> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > Hi All.
> > 
> > I'm back from Dallas and the 2004 MSP430 Advanced Technical
> > Conference.
> > 
> > It's still small (in terms of attendees, around 200?), but it is
> > definitely growing. There was a much larger group of companies 
with
> > display booths than last year. I met lots of
new people there 
(plus
> > some repeats -- hi, Michel!), including many
who were exposed to
> > Pumpkin's Salvo RTOS for the first time.
> > 
> > I thought that Mike Willey of Paragon Innovations gave a great 
talk,
> > entitled "Designing Embedded Systems for
Low Power and Battery 
Power
> > Operation". Lots of good stuff in there,
much of which has 
validated
> > what I've been doing over the years, and
a few new pointers that I
> > will be ruminating on.
> > 
> > One of the TI Power Group guys mentioned that there are some new
> > ultralow power LDOs on the horizon (meaning 6mo-1yr before full
> > production), that are unconditionally stable with a minumum output
> > cap, and have much lower idle currents (e.g. << than the
TPS769xx 
that
> > I've been using). All good news, and
it's nice to see TI's focus 
on
> > logic, analog, power, uC's and a variety
of other components, too.
> > 
> > I've posted a PDF version of the material for the course I 
presented
> > entitled "Hardware and Software Design
of an MSP430-based
> > Microsatellite using an RTOS" here:
> > 
> > 
http://www.pumpkininc.com/content/doc/press/Pumpkin_MSP430ATC2004.pdf
> > 
> > --Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D.
> > aek at pumpkin inc dot com

--- In msp430@msp4..., Sebastian Garcia <sebasgarcia@g...>
wrote: 
> Do you know if TI will make public the material of
the seminars?

I suspect they won't, but I don't really know ...

--Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D.
aek at pumpkin inc dot com

On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 00:37:07 -0000, michelqv <michel@mich...> wrote:
> 
> Or maybe somebody will post the contents of the nifty USB memory
> stick with all the conference materials that each participant
> received.
> 
> Michel


This would be great...

--

== Sebastian E. Garcia ~ sebasgarcia at gmail . com
== Embedded systems development
== 54.11.4833.4123 ~ Buenos Aires ~ Argentina

 
> --- In msp430@msp4..., Sebastian Garcia
<sebasgarcia@g...>
> wrote:
> 
> 
> >
> > Hi Andrew,
> >
> > Thanks for posting your ATC presentation.
> >
> > Do you know if TI will make public the material of the seminars?
> >
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > S.-
> >
> > --
> >
> > == Sebastian E. Garcia ~ sebasgarcia at gmail . com
> > == Embedded systems development
> > == 54.11.4833.4123 ~ Buenos Aires ~ Argentina
> >
> >
> > On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 21:22:55 -0000, aekalman <aek@p...> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi All.
> > >
> > > I'm back from Dallas and the 2004 MSP430 Advanced Technical
> > > Conference.

I went through a year or so at the pain management centre trying to find 
something that works. The problem is that their target is to make you 
pain free, my target is to retain a functional mind. Anyway after all 
the measurements, blind tests etc the 'working' solution is 400mg of 
Tramal + 10mg of Endone twice a day, or on bad days 10mg of oxycontin 
and 10mg of Endone. Both quite nice cocktails if that's what turns you 
on. Either way the tramal/endone kicks in after about 20 minutes, is 
pain free after about 40, and after 3 hours wears off fairly quickly, 
after4 hours the pains back, but for the next 12 -16 hours I'm basically 
dysfunctional, can't piece two thoughts together, and get really ratty 
at the slightest thing. The other cocktail works about the same speed, 
but I'm dysfunctional after about 30 minutes, just too laid back to care 
about anything. It wears off after about 3 hours too, but takes longer 
to become completely ineffective. I tend to feel mu7ch better 
afterwards, ready to do it all again (but don't) and rather than ratty I 
find a couldn't give a damn for at least the next 12 hours, just quite 
happy to sit around, or lay in bed. hence I don't actually take anything 
unless I have to go out that day, I'm travelling (I frequently travel to 
Sydney, and modern aircraft seats are designed to cause excrutiating 
pain. I think the airlines need to be sued before they'll place safety 
over greed). Or if the pain gets to a point where I'm dysfunctional 
anyway, which happens about once every 10 days.

I try to convince myself that pain is just a few microamps, but I guess 
I need an even better current limiting resistor. I ran up the prototype 
of my scrambler last week, it worked pretty well for a first run, but 
the electrodes I'm using  are hard to wear while you work, so I'm 
looking for something better.

Al

microbit wrote:

> Al wrote :
> 
> 
>>My most common are 'internet pharmacies'. I actually back
doored one of 
>>the posts to see what they were 'offering'. Tramal 50mg at
$145 a strip, 
>>  oxycodone 5mg at $200 a box and oxycontin 5mg at around the same. All 
>>US$. I pay in AUS$ just $24 for 200mg Tramal, and $14 each for the 
>>others, in any strength. Not much of a deal. I guess somewhere in the 
>>world (merka perhaps) drugs are priced beyond the reach of ordinary
people.
> 
> 
> Heh.
> It's the "non-script" factor I guess.
> Do bear in mind that Tramal (Tramadol) is an "oral pethadine" :-)
> That pricing is probably for the junkies out there who've been
"shopping around" 
> different pharmacies one too many, and can't get a script even when
they genuinly need it.
> 
> I personally don't like it, it made me feel as sick as a dog, even
with Maxolon.
> (like most opiates, because of interaction w/ other med)
> It has an interesting neural pathway though - it seems to also mimic
dopamine a bit,
> essential to aid as a stimulant when metabolism into norepinephrine and
noradrenaline etc.
> is inadequate. I noticed this first time I was prescribed Tramal, 5 years
ago.
> I could focus a lot better.
> 
> Anywho, it's mainly a matter of trust and integrity with your GP I
think.
> 
> 
>>Makes me glad I live in a banana republic.
> 
> 
> Same here :-)
> 
> -- Kris
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .
> 
>  
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
>