This is the repository for the hands-on work during our lectures.

There are two options to run the necessary tools for the course:

• Virtual machine installation (recommended) uses a virtual machine that has already been set-up by us. We recommend this option if you are less experienced with setting up your own tool chains. For this, you will have to install a virtual machine manager called VirtualBox and can then directly run the required software (Code Composer Studio) inside the virtual machine. (credit to Andreas Biri)
• Native installation (without support) uses your normal operating system and directly installs the necessary libraries and tools through an installer script. Please notice that this might change the configurations of your machine. We do not officially support such installations; if you run into problems, please try using a VM before asking us for help.

A virtual machine (VM) emulates a complete computer system on top of your normal operating system. In such a case, you run a guest system (which we previously prepared for you) on top of your own host system (just as you run any other programs). For this course, we use Linux Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS as a guest system.

The VM is available from this google drive and requires 12 GB of free disk space as well as at least 2 GB of RAM.

To run the VM, we use VirtualBox. This program is a so-called virtual machine manager that provides the link between all common host systems (Windows, macOS, Linux) and the guest system (in our case Linux Ubuntu).

The installation process of VirtualBox depends on your host operating system. For further information, we refer to the official installation guides.

Simply download the VirtualBox installer from the official servers. After the download finished, click on the executable to install the program. During the installation, make sure that the option VirtualBox USB Support is enabled.

Simply download the VirtualBox installer from the official servers. After the download finished, click on the file to install the program.

The installation of VirtualBox depends on your Linux flavour. You can find an overview over various distributions online.

In case you should run into problems using devices which are connected through USB, consider installing the VirtualBox Extension Pack. The extension pack allows you to make use of USB 2.0 and 3.0 features, which increases the speed of your interactions with the LaunchPad.

Simply download the file and double-click on it; VirtualBox should then automatically install the extensions.

After having downloaded the VM from the google drive as an .ova file, you can import the machine into VirtualBox by double-clicking on the downloaded .ova file and VirtualBox will ask to import the VM. During the import, make sure that the box next to Import hard drives as VDI is ticked.

Before you start the VM, consider adapting the VirtualBox VM settings in the VirtualBox Manager. We recommend the following configuration:

• Base Memory (RAM): 4096 MB
• Processors: 2 or more
• Video Memory: 64 MB or more

If you are using Windows, make sure that Hyper-V is disabled. This is especially important if you previously used Docker or WSL2, as they prevent VirtualBox from booting a VM; for further information, see the WSL issue, the VirtualBox issue and an overall discussion on Hyper-V and VirtualBox.

To disable Hyper-V, go to Control Panel → Programs → Turn Windows features on or off and make sure that the following features are disabled:

• Hyper-V
• Virtual Machine Platform
• Windows Hypervisor Platform
• Windows Subsystem for Linux

You might have to restart your system for these changes to take effect. After you successfully disabled Hyper-V, you should see a blue "V" as the third icon on the bottom right of the VirtualBox window once you started the VM. If there is a green turtle, then Hyper-V is still enabled!

For the USB devices to be available on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, you must add your user (on the host OS) to the vboxusers group.

To do so, perform the following action in your Ubuntu host OS (replace yourusername with your personal username on the host OS, not student):

sudo adduser yourusername vboxusers

Log out and back in again for the changes to take effect. You can verify that your user was successfully added to the group by running:

groups yourusername

More information on connecting USB devices to VMs can be found in the official Ubuntu documentation.

Now, you are ready to start your VM by double-clicking on it in the VirtualBox Manager. The provided virtual machine is built on Linux Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS. As with any physical machine, you will see the normal desktop screen after booting up.

You should be logged in automatically. However, in case you are required to authenticate yourself (e.g. to run the sudo command), we prepared a user student with password student.

The VM should automatically scale its resolution to fit your window size; if not, make sure that View → Auto-resize Guest Display is ticked in your VM menu bar. To manually change your screen resolution, open your VM and inside the guest OS go to Settings → Displays → Resolution. The VM should automatically adjust its window size thereafter.

To start the integrated development environment (IDE) for the course, Code Composer Studio, simply either double-click on the corresponding desktop icon or left-click on the icon in the task bar.

Also, you can find already downloaded Energia IDE in the Downloads directory of the Ubuntu VM. Follow the parent directory and launch the IDE:

cd Downloads/energia-1.8.10E23-linux64/energia-1.8.10E23

sudo ./energia

There, you can check the examples, uploading them to the target LaunchPad, which has been already configured.

Ubuntu VM contains standalone installed MSP432Ware (/home/student/ti/msp/MSP432Ware_3_50_00_02) (a collection of code examples, datasheets and other design resources for all MSP432 devices delivered in a convenient package). MSP432 Driver Library is also released as a component of MSP432Ware. You can import and run examples from driver library when you have MSP432Ware installed. An empty "skeleton" project is provided in the examples directory of the MSPWare release. In this project, all of the include paths and compiler options are set up to allow the user to seamlessly start development on their MSP432 DriverLib application.

We will use Code Composer Studio (CCS) Integrated Development Environment (IDE) from Texas Instruments.

Download TI CCS using the following link (choose the link for your operating system):

• Download TI CSS

Follow the step-by-step installation tutorial from TI:

• Installation.

Shortly:

• choose an installation location;
• then in the next step select custom installation and tick SimpleLink MSP432 low power + performance MCUs.

After installation:

• start TI CSS and create a new workspace
• update CCS by selecting ARM Compiler Tools and ARM GCC Compiler Tools (You can click on the icon in the bottom right corner).

Energia brings the Wiring and Arduino framework to the Texas Instruments MSP432 LaunchPad. Alternatively, you can develop your project by using this IDE and use Ardnuino-like programming. Energia is problematic on new 64-bit MACOS platforms, therefore you might need to use a Linux/Windows virtual machine to run it on MACOS.

There are a lot of examples on Internet, sample programs and applications. We are not going to cover programming Launchpad using Energia. But you can develop your projects with it.

The SimpleLink MSP432 SDK delivers components that enable engineers to develop applications on Texas Instruments MSP432 microcontroller devices.

The latest versions of the following documents can be accesed from the TI's website.

• MSP432P401R LaunchPad Development Kit
• MSP432P401R Datasheet
• MSP432P4xx Technical Reference Manual

Some nice tutorials can be found at MSP430 Workshop Series. You can check:

• Course Workbook: MSP_Design_Workshop.pdf

• DriverLib's User Guide
• DriverLib Examples

The easiest way to start working with Driver Library is to install MSP432Ware (a collection of code examples, datasheets and other design resources for all MSP432 devices delivered in a convenient package). MSP432 Driver Library is also released as a component of MSP432Ware. You can import and run examples from driver library when you have MSP432Ware installed. An empty "skeleton" project is provided in the examples directory of the MSPWare release. In this project, all of the include paths and compiler options are set up to allow the user to seamlessly start development on their MSP432 DriverLib application.

• MSP432Ware (you may need to register in order to download the file)

• BOOSTXL-EDUMKII BoosterPack Documentation
• Code examples

• See this

Your host OS should automatically detect the LaunchPad. Notice that on certain systems such as Windows, you might have to wait a few seconds until the necessary drivers have been installed in the background. To make it available to the virtual machine, do as follows:

Step 1: Plug-in your LaunchPad to your host computer using the provided microUSB cable. Make sure that CCS is not running on the host system, as it might capture the LaunchPad before the VM can do so.

Step 2: In the VirtualBox menu of the running virtual machine, click on Devices → USB → Texas Instruments XDS110 to make the device available to your virtual machine (there should be a tick next to the option after you have selected it).

In case you do not see Texas Instruments XDS110 as an available option, make sure that you have followed our guidance on USB devices on Linux and that the device is visible on the host system. On Windows, you can verify this by going to Control Panel → Hardware and Sound → Devices and Printers where you should see XDS110 [...] listed under "Unspecified".

Before your first launch, you must update the firmware of your LaunchPad. At the time of writing, the up-to-date version of the LaunchPad is 3.0.0.16; if your board has an older version flashed onto it, CCS will automatically detect this and propose an upgrade. If you run CCS on your native machine, the upgrade should successfully complete; on the VM, do as follows:

Step 1: Make sure the device is made available to the VM (Devices → USB → Texas Instruments XDS110 is selected in the VirtualBox menu). If you see Texas Instruments Incorporated Tiva Device Firmware Update, directly jump to Step 3.

Step 2: Switch the device into DFU mode by entering into a terminal:

~/ti/ccs1010/ccs/ccs_base/common/uscif/xds110/xdsdfu -m

Step 3: You should now see a new device in your list in the VirtualBox menu: Devices → USB → Texas Instruments Incorporated Tiva Device Firmware Update. Make sure that it is selected and enter into the same terminal as before:

~/ti/ccs1010/ccs/ccs_base/common/uscif/xds110/xdsdfu -f ~/ti/ccs1010/ccs/ccs_base/common/uscif/xds110/firmware_3.0.0.16.bin -r

Make sure that you do not forget the -r at the end of the command. You can also reset the device separately by entering ~/ti/ccs1010/ccs/ccs_base/common/uscif/xds110/xdsdfu -r.

Step 4: Once again, connect the debug probe by clicking on Devices → USB → Texas Instruments XDS110. Notice that the name of the device should now have the new version appended (Texas Instruments XDS110 (3.0.0.16)).