MSP CMAKE

Low-power MSP microcontrollers (MSP430 and recently introduced MSP432) from TI are awesome! They are really easy to get started with. Code Composer Studio IDE from TI will help you to get started, but can feel cumbersome at times. That's why I decided to create an alternative build system for MSP microcontrollers using CMake.

CMake is a cross-platform build system that doesn't build software, but rather produces input files for other build systems. CMake is able to generate build files on different platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac OS) and for different build systems (Makefiles, NMake, Visual Studio, XCode, etc.). So if you want to build your project from command line or use IDEs other than CCS, MSP CMake is here to help.

MSP CMake supports different toolchains; so far only TI's proprietary toolchain and MSPGCC are supported, but MSP CMake can be easily extended.

FEATURES

• Supports different toolchains. Currently supported:
  • TI's proprietary toolchain
  • MSPGCC and GDB
• Supports variety of MSP430* MCUs
• Automatically detects required tools, if installed under common path (e.g. C:\TI).
• Generates upload_<EXECUTABLE_NAME> target to upload firmware
• Supports multiple operating systems: Linux, Windows, Mac OS.
• Can output input files for many build systems: Make, NMake, Visual Studio, XCode.

REQUIREMENTS

• Common:
  • CMake 2.8 or higher - http://www.cmake.org/download/
• TI's proprietary toolchain:
  • Code Composer Studio - http://www.ti.com/tool/ccstudio-msp
  • MSPFlasher - command line tool to upload firmware - http://www.ti.com/tool/msp430-flasher
• MSPGCC toolchain:
  • Windows
    • MSPGCC - tested with TI's distribution - http://www.ti.com/tool/msp430-gcc-opensource
    • GDB - comes with TI's MSPGCC
    • GDB Proxy (also known as GDB Agent) - comes with TI's MSPGCC
  • Linux
    • gcc-msp430 - available in standard Ubuntu repository - http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/gcc-msp430
    • mspdebug - available in standard Ubuntu repository - http://packages.ubuntu.com/source/precise/electronics/mspdebug

FEEDBACK

Project is hosted on GitHub:

https://github.com/AlexanderSidorenko/msp-cmake

Feedback and contributions are welcome!

LICENSE

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

TODO

• Test on Mac OS
• Test with build systems other than make/nmake
• Add ability to configure serial port that is used to upload
• Test for MSP432
• Make upload tool an option

USING MSP CMAKE

MSP CMake comes with a few samples that you can find under samples folder. To compile samples, follow these steps. Windows

cd samples\build
cmake -G "NMake Makefiles" ..
nmake
nmake upload_blink_c

Linux

cd samples/build
cmake ..
make
make upload_blink_c

If you want to add MSP CMake support into your project, follow these steps:

1. Specifying toolchain file

CMake supports toolchain files. Toolchain file tells CMake where to find compiler (or cross-compiler, in our case). You can specify toolchain file on command line:

cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<path-to-msp-cmake>\msp-toolchain.cmake

Or in your CMakeLists.txt file, as samples do:

set(CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE <path-to-msp-cmake>\msp-toolchain.cmake)

MSP Cmake should automatically detect all required dependencies and just magically work.

2. Adding MSP executable

To add MSP executable, simply use add_msp_executable instead of add_executable in your CMakeLists.txt:

add_msp_executable(<name> arg1 ... argN)

The first argument <name> is treated as executable name, the rest of arguments are passed through to add_executable call. Here's how sample does it:

project(blink_c C)
add_msp_executable(blink_c blink.c)

That's it! You are good to go!

3. Adding MSP library [optional]

Similar to MSP executable, you can add MSP library. Just use add_msp_library instead of add_library in your CMakeLists.txt. Syntax is similar:

add_msp_library(<name> arg1 ... argN)

The first argument <name> is treated as library name, the rest of arguments are passed through to add_library call.

CONFIGURING MSP CMAKE

MSP CMake has a plenty of options that you can configure. File msp-config.cmake has default values for all of them, but you can override options on command line:

cmake -DMSP_TOOLCHAIN=ti ..

or in your CMakeLists.txt:

set(MSP_TOOLCHAIN ti)

Here's list of options:

Name	Value	Description
MSP_TOOLCHAIN	gcc	Use MSP-GCC toolchain. Default.
	ti	Use TI's proprietary toolchain.
MSP_FAMILY	msp430	Target MSP430* family of MCUs. Default.
MSP_MCU	msp430g2553	Specific MCU name. This is default value, but really any MCU that is supported by toolchain can be used.
MSP_AUTO_UPLOAD	true	Automatically upload firmware on every build; upload_<EXECUTABLE_NAME> will be added to ALL, so it will be executed automatically on every build.
	false	Don't automatically upload firmware on build; upload_<EXECUTABLE_NAME> will still be generated.
TI_BASE_DIR	C:\ti	Base directory for TI software; default is C:\ti on Windows.