MSP430 Launchpad included chips - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: brainwash
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 05:56:13 pm
content: Shame on me for starting to use the kit one year after I received it but I noticed the included MCUs are different than the ones shown on the TI site and Launchpad wiki.Granted, it might have been updated in meantime and the price is also up from $4.30 to $9.99.The wiki states:QuoteWhile I've received:QuoteWhat's the deal? Was the package updated in the meantime or the $4.30 ones got lower-spec chips?Just a question, I'm not pointing fingers or anything, I bought mine about 14 months ago.

author: fretless
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 06:22:19 pm
content: I believe that those chips came with the older revisions of LaunchPad. The ones you listed come with 1.5. Check what revision you'v got by looking at the silkscreen above the IC socket but below the "MSP-EXP430G2" text.

author: brainwash
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 06:23:36 pm
content: rev 1.4, unsoldered headers

author: fretless
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 06:25:23 pm
content: The ones with the newer chips come with male headers pre-soldered. Also: where did you see the price rise? At farnell its still around 4.30$.

author: brainwash
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 06:32:56 pm
content: Here it's listed at $4.30http://www.ti.com/tool/msp-exp430g2Here $9.99https://estore.ti.com/MSP-EXP430G2-MSP430-LaunchPad-Value-Line-Development-kit-P2031.aspx

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 06:34:41 pm
content: $11.37from Mouser.

author: ve7xen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 06:54:05 pm
content: And the M4 Launchpad is up to $15 now.Too bad.

author: Dongulus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:02:48 pm
content: I've probably have had my MSP430 for 9 months and my Stellaris for 6 months and I've hardly done anything with either.

author: mrflibble
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:16:06 pm
content: Quote from: andersm on March 13, 2013, 06:34:41 pmO_oI got several from Mouser for the "normal price" only a few weeks ago. Good thing too. I was thinking "aaaah, maybe I'll just get them thenextorder". Glad I decided to get them. $11.37 is not nearly as interesting a price.

author: brainwash
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 13, 2013, 08:20:31 pm
content: That's well into the territory of "StellarisPad".It does make more sense though to just buy the Stellaris as a general purpose dev platform, I don't know of a lot of ARM dev boards with included ICD and USB client support at this price scale. And a well-implemented sleep could do wonders in power saving.

author: krish2487
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2013, 12:38:54 am
content: Another point I would like to point out is that the newer revisions of the launchpad come with chips that support capacitive touch sensing.The touchpad booster kit was releasedafterthe initial release of launchpad.Someone in TI thought that it made sense to release the rev 1.5 board with the touch sense enabled MCUs.Functionally , Rev 1.4 and 1.5 have very few differences(if any).And at the time of the launchpad release, there were not so many chips in the G2 series.

author: brainwash
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 22, 2013, 06:10:12 pm
content: As some guys on the 43oh forum are speculating about a new board and some shields are about to come out of TI, so we may see some even nicer boards for throw-away prices.At least in Europe it does not make much sense to order the 430 Launchpad since you can have the Stellaris directly from TI at the same price (or cheaper, including transport). Add that to the fact that the 430 chips alone cost a lot in <100 quantity: 1-3 Euro a piece when $4.30 is 3.3 Euro.Oh, the reason for raising the price for the Launchpad was to "not step on the competitors/distributors' toes". It seems with the low price these carried the distributors were making no money at all (compared for example with everything *uino) so TI with no added charges were competing directly with the people that were actually selling their stuff.I somehow think that with this response from the officials we would be very unlikely to see any boards at <5$, at least in the near future.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2013, 01:38:12 am
content: The older Launchpads had the smaller chips.There seem to be a larger number of older launchpads stuck "in the supply chain." I was nice and ordered some new launchpads (to get the new chips) shortly after the change, and got (more) old launchpads :-(So I ordered samples of the "new" chips from TI to do the upgrade myself, without feeling very guilty about it.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2013, 04:32:19 am
content: Revision 1.5 board picture and the included standard accessories, purchased in Jan before the price increased.