Hi all,
I have one of these:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … cts_id=582
and one of these:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … cts_id=582
(Olimex’s MSP430F169-LCD dev board and a BlueSMiRF Gold.)
I seem to be missing something. For what follows, I’m powering everything off the JTAG (a Softbaugh part).
I wrote some code for the MSP430, and got it wiggling UART0. That is, I can send a stream of characters at 9600 baud and see them on the oscilloscope. Big, strong signal. When I connect to the BlueSMiRF with my MacBook, I can see a wiggle at the Smirf when I send characters over the air. However, I will say that I’m only seeing an amplitude of around 400mv. Something, there, seems wrong. (However, I can distinguish individual characters… very weakly. It’s really kinda ugly looking, actually.)
So, the MSP430 generates a great serial signal, and the BlueSMiRF will generate one as well… but the latter is very weak. This may be the majority of my problem.
I cannot, it seems, get the MSP430 to drive the BlueSMiRF. I don’t know what baud rate the MSP430 should be configured for. Using the Smirf’s (over-the-air) command prompt, I told it I wanted to run at 9600 baud… and I believe the MSP430 is running at 9600 baud as well. However, nothing I send from the board seems to make it to my Mac. (I’m using Zterm, and since I can talk to the Smirf to change parameters, I assume that anything the MSP430 managed to xmit would make it over the air back to me.)
I’m unable, basically, to figure out what is going on. Why is the signal from the Smirf so weak? What baud rate should the MSP430 and the Smirf be communicating at? Should I see the alphabet I’m sending over and over from the MSP430 be making its way back to my console if everything is working? I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to debug this at this point.
Help me SparkFun Ninjas, you’re my only hope… (That, or anyone else in this forum, for that matter.)
Many thanks!