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Any TI MSP430 fans out there?

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4pyros

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I am thinking of making some battery operated precision programmable timers for firring mine runs. I am looking at the TI MSP430 LaunchPad. Its cheep and should do timing well (I Think) but there does not seem to be alot of intrest in it around here.
Does anyone think its worth my time learning this micro to use as a timer?
Andy
 
I like the MSP430. It is 16 bit. Good with math. Some have DMA. The LaunchPad is a good place to start. C compiler is free.
 
This is a PIC-centric forum and it always will be. There are people that can help for MSP430's here, but discussion on microcontrollers families tends to be forum specific. For MSP430's you can go to **broken link removed**
 
Hi Andy (4pyros),

I have a TI MSP430 Launchpad board. Writing programs in Code Composer Studio is fun. The only crystal option is a 32768 Hz watch type crystal and so you'll be limited to binary weighted 2^N intervals.

Have fun. Happy Holidays.

Cheerful regards, Mike
 
Update

I am still trying to join the 43oh form so I can ask some questions. I the meantime I have been looking at presishoin timing relays as a referance and the ones that mite work for this app are over $100 each. Thare cold start accuracys are all over the place so I may have to skip the simple way out and keep them powered up insted of switching the power to them.
This means I will have to come up with some way to trigger the timers down the line hopfully using only the same two wires that are carrying power. Any Thoughts on how I can do this? Andy
 
two wires that are carrying power
Do the things normally getting the power mind having the power interrupted? If not, modulating the power line, e.g. with brief interruptions, would be fairly straightforward.
 
Do the things normally getting the power mind having the power interrupted? If not, modulating the power line, e.g. with brief interruptions, would be fairly straightforward.
I dont think I can do this. The power wires also need to carry the firing current for the Ematchs.
I was thinking along the lines of an AC signal over the DC wires.
 
An easy, and cheap, job using small PIC's - send the data by pulsing the supply, and use a diode and capacitor to power the PIC.
But can I still fire Ematchs with 1 or 2 amps each off the same pulsed supply?
Have you any examples of the pulsed supply method?
Thanks Andy
 
But can I still fire Ematchs with 1 or 2 amps each off the same pulsed supply?
Have you any examples of the pulsed supply method?
Thanks Andy

As long as you charge a large enough capacitor, the current then comes from that, not the supply.

I suggest trying charging a few different capacitors and see what it takes to fire it.

I'm presuming there's no problem with the initial charging sequence taking a good few seconds?.
 
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I'm presuming there's no problem with the initial charging sequence taking a good few seconds?.
This will be powered by its own battery. The hole system should be turned on and charged up, ready to fire well before show time. It would be started by a trigger from the firing system and then fire Ematchs one after the other 10 to 20 feet apart at about 1 tenth of a second intervels. I would like to be able to daisy chain 20 to 50 modules one after the other and power them all from one battery. Andy
 
An easy, and cheap, job using small PIC's - send the data by pulsing the supply, and use a diode and capacitor to power the PIC.
One big problum would be trying to keep the timers down the line from triggering. The pulses would have to be encoded some how? and then decoded by each timer.
I just had another idea. What if I use a change in DC voltage to trigger a timer? Maybe using diodes to encode and decode so to speek the signal. Like thay used to do on model trains for the horn signal. The change in votage would just need to be isolated (maybe with diodes) by each timer and then sent down the line after a timing cycel to the next timer.
Any Ideas guys?
Andy
 
One big problum would be trying to keep the timers down the line from triggering. The pulses would have to be encoded some how? and then decoded by each timer.
I just had another idea. What if I use a change in DC voltage to trigger a timer? Maybe using diodes to encode and decode so to speek the signal. Like thay used to do on model trains for the horn signal. The change in votage would just need to be isolated (maybe with diodes) by each timer and then sent down the line after a timing cycel to the next timer.
Any Ideas guys?
Andy

You send digital data down the line, each PIC can be individually addressed - that's the point of using a processor.
 
You send digital data down the line, each PIC can be individually addressed - that's the point of using a processor.
That sounds like it would increase the complexity a lot. I just wanted to use the processor for timing.
 
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