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.