PILED and the state of the Launchpad

A lot has happened since our last blog post...

• The RCOS hackathon (which was a great success) resulted in two different fully functional PILED wireless bluetooth control apps. Thanks to Zachary Clapper, there is now a functional Android app for controlling lighting levels (RGB mixing). In addition, an application was created for Windows allowing the PILED board to be run as a strobe, RGB mixer, or sequenced light effects.
• LIB3 and PILED demonstration materials for MakerFaire - LIB3 will be at MakerFaire this weekend! There will be several RGB LED fixtures, demo computers set up with the new control software, as well as some obligatory banners and such...
• TI has started shipping their new launchpad development boards - 4.99 will get you a Cortex M4 based system, with an 80MHz CPU, 32Kb ram, 256Kb flash, and 43 GPIO (Among other things, like 12 bit ADCs operating at 1000 ksps)... This is a pretty cool system - I can't wait for my order to get here. This also goes to show that TI has found their 'Launchpad' experiment to be successful enough to continue it with new, much more powerful models; the MSP430 launchpads are still available, and their community is expanding.

Knock, Knock. Who's There? Launchpad!

Today we had a maybe not so common problem that is being solved with the Launchpad: our doorbell doesn't work... Yeah, not so common, but a problem nonetheless. So, after figuring out how the thing was supposed to be wired in the house, the work had to be done on the launchpad. Or so we thought. 

A while back some people wrote code for the older launchpad chip to make it output music to an external speaker. We got it working just fine, but there's no guarantee that it works on the newer g2553 model that all currently shipped launchpads have. So that is definitely the first step in getting this to work. I really like this program. If the code is readable, it would make a great little music editor you could play with. But, back to the problem at hand.

Getting the doorbell behavior is basically what interrupts were made for. You can put the Launchpad into the deepest sleep imaginable, and get all the functionality you would need: a simple button press. 

We'll get details up later, but this shaped up to be a really cool, but surprisingly simple bit of launchpadmanship to tackle a practical problem. Also, our doorbell is a song from Super Mario, how cool is that? See everybody at RCOS, I can't believe this is the penultimate meeting already.

Presentation # 3 (Plus, Video # 2)

Hey everybody, back again. We just wrapped up presentation #3 today, which went off with manageable hitches. There were a couple technical difficulties but they were able to be fixed on the fly luckily. Jorel has added bluetooth capabilities to the PILED board, and demonstrated its nifty serial console features. This also demonstrated how the relatively low amount of memory is not really a problem. This board has quite the large amount of code on it. More than you would expect in a lot of projects. But the msp430 can certainly handle it, even large arrays of data (see the rcos easter egg when we have the video). Just goes to show you that 16kb is quite a bit in microcontroller land.

Next, Energia is pretty cool. The code controlling the PILED board was written in it , and all around it has some slick features. There are still some kinks to be worked out, but wow, if you have windows Energia has quite the edge over CCS I believe (CCS code is valid code in Energia, but you also get the additional Arduino-esque code, a nice bonus). If it keeps shaping up like it has been, Energia will make the msp430 quite formidable as an open-source microcontroller solution.

Following the wall of text, we have the slides from presentation #3, and the video from presentation #2.
Thanks for watching, I hope you learn a little something. And now:

Presentation #3:



Video #2:

Charging up with Energia

We (mostly Jorel) did some cool things with Arduino's evil twin known as Energia. This program is much more powerful than I thought it would be, and it's getting better still. One of the main drawbacks I see in Energia is the fact that it is not really supported on linux (I tried many times in vain to install it). Well, look no further, there is in fact a self-contained beta version for Ubuntu. It does a lot of things perfectly, except one, which requires a major caveat. Wrestling a hippopotamus is easier than getting some of the serial programs to work. Other than that, Energia offers a whole new world to windows users, and a great deal of functionality and ease of use for linux users, sans serial. So check out the beta at the link, I hope there will be more to come (For Linux users only, Windows has a working build).

Energia-Linux Beta Build (link is in pbrier's 2nd comment)
Installation requires a bit of finangling, I might write up a little tutorial on how to get this working, if anyone reads this and has trouble, feel free to drop  me a line.

  So, what are we doing with this? One word: Bluetooth. We are toying with working Bluetooth into the LED tile and other such things, so you can control and program them from a distance, as well as enable the LED tile send feedback, ask you how your day was, maybe get the kettle going for when you get back from work (just kidding about the last two, but the last one would be sweet, home automation fame here we come!). Expect tremendous and daring feats for our third presentation.

 Finally, on a project related-note, Energia is quickly growing in our hearts, and looks as though it may devour Code Composer Studio as defacto introductory programming platform for the msp430, at least for us. If Energia can get its act together on Linux then the battle is already won in my book (getting anything that combines the programmer and the compiler in one fell swoop is already ahead of the game compared to CCS. Throw in the fact that Energia is FOSS, and that turkey is basically cooked).This gives me a whole new perspective on programming the msp430, and makes the msp430 a more formidable tool in the eyes of the Arduinauts. Things like porting Arduino code effectively and efficiently are now possible with the progress made by Energia. Expect more Energia-based code from us soon.

Presentation Reloaded

Hello everybody, just letting you know what's brewing for this week;s presentation. We have presentation #3 coming up this Friday (the video for presentation 2 is currently being uploaded, your patience shall be rewarded). For presentation #3, we will have everything working, plus a little extra. We got in the bluetooth modules to hook up to the light boards, so we'd like to get them talking to the computer for the presentation. The lightboard has really come together very well, and the business logistics are shaping up very well. I'll see if I can put together a post on this facet, because the open source business model seems very confusing and people should know that it indeed can be successful. That's all for now, I'll continue keeping the readership up to date on all our developments.

Bug in the System

Well, that was fun, for the most part. We've been making steady progress on our project, and we just had our second presentation. This one was interesting to say the least. First, I decided that it was a good idea to connect to RPI's internet for the first time 20 minutes before our presentation. Big mistake. We had to borrow a colleague's computer, which meant that my demos were unusable. While Jorel's PILED prototype is functioning perfectly, the makeshift power supply (there is no official one, as of yet) decided to take the day off and malfunction, and all he could do is show people what they looked like and what the features are. In true Friday the 13th we brought it home and the power supply has worked flawlessly ever since, perhaps some cosmic force is conspiring against us (wouldn't be the first time).

Other that that the presentation was very good. Jorel lectured on the topic of the sRGB color space, and how he implemented it in the code for the PILED board (a very interesting topic. When it comes to lighting, making a light that looks and feels 'right' while not being resource-heavy is extremely difficult). I also had a bit at the end discussing Energia, a port of the Arduino IDE for the msp430, a truly great step for hobbyists everywhere.

We've signed up for another presentation in 2 weeks. We will work out all the kinks so we can do a great presentation and make RCOS proud.

Finally, Jorel's brewing up a whole bunch of great things in relation to the PILED Development System, an msp430-based development board with a focus on driving RGB LEDs and being a fun, simple multimedia programming medium. The way this device is coming together is nothing short of breathtaking, so have a look, you won't be disappointed. As always, thank you for the support.

Slides after the text, youtube video will follow as soon as it's available.

Check this Fly PCB, Yo!!!

Bad title. I know. I took a direct hit to the dignity but I think I'll survive. The main point is the initial design for Jorel's board and a discussion of 5V logic and the msp430. First, pictures, and a breakdown of what this board has to offer. Also, marble makes a nice photo stage, just throwing that out there.

Look at those boards, you know you want one. It has nice binding posts for peripherals,

as well as shorting blocks for its pins, so you can choose what is connected.

Note the MOSFET drivers, the main application is for driving LEDs, but they are versatile for all your needs.

This is where the magic happens. It has a surface mount msp430-g2553, as well as an lm386 op-amp with microphone input. It can do some cool things like dealing with audio input e.g. flashing leds to music.

My personal favorite is the slide potentiometers. Originally proposed as light controls (RGB color mixer, color temperature, fading) they can be used for a myriad of interesting things. A general crowd-pleaser.

The final feature of note is the 3.3V and 5V regulators (bottom right corner), a proper step forward that makes the msp430 a real contender in the hobbyist market. I'd like to discuss this more.

I've been working to make traditional sensors and peripherals msp430 compatible with code. However, I ran into a significant problem: a lot of common stuff i.e. my ultrasonic range-finder, needs 5V for its VCC. But, the msp430 and the launchpad only do 3.3V logic because its better for power conservation. So, how do we solve this problem? Honestly, there really is no easy answer, you need the 5 Volts one way or another. I initially used a USB-Serial converter which has a 3.3V and 5V rail (Additionally, a chip or device like this is in the planning stage of being added to Jorel's board, but he does not know if it will be feasible to include it, leave some feedback on what you guys think. Additionally, another option is to use the launchpad as a plugin to this board for use of its bootloader). This worked great, but it also required additional parts, as I needed to make what were essentially BJT RTL inverters to interface the 3.3V to 5V logic as an output. It seems like the msp430 can take a 5V logic input just fine. It's not recommended, although I haven't had any serious malfunctions or broken pins/inputs yet. Jorel has solved that problem with by including both logic levels in his board, a swift solution to my problem. It's one step closer to making this an msp430-friendly world. That's all I've got for today, tune in next time for more interesting goodies.