This document lists the steps to be followed in order to reprogram a TelosB mote over the USB using the msp430-jtag tool. These steps have been verified for a WindowsXP Operating System. It is also assumed that TinyOS has been installed using the Windows installer provided on the TinyOS website. The Windows installer and other files can be downloaded from here.Instructions on TinyOS installation can be got from the following Quick Start Guide for the TelosB mote. Further information can be got from the Moteiv support page.
TinyOS uses the FTDI VCP drivers which cause the TelosB USB to appear as an additional COM port available to the PC. However to reprogram the mote, the msp430-jtag tool uses FTDI D2XX drivers. The D2XX drivers allow the tool direct access to the TelosB USB device through a series of DLL function calls. Hence we first need to uninstall the FTDI VCP drivers and install the D2XX drivers.
1. To uninstall FTDI VCP drivers:
- Unplug all Telos devices.
- Open Control Panel -- Add/Remove Programs.
- Select FTDI VCP drivers.
- Click on uninstall.
2. If you're using Windows XP, unplug the machine from any Internet connections.
3. Download and save the D2XX drivers for Windows XP from here.
4. Plug in Telos. When asked for a driver, point the driver installation to where you saved the D2XX drivers.
5. Finally plug your machine back to the Internet.
The msp430-jtag tool is now available as an executable and can be downloaded from here. Extract the contents of the zipped file into a directory, say C:\MSP430 on your machine. Update the PATH variable so that C:\MSP430\bin is in the PATH. The PATH variable can be updated as follows.
1. Open a cmd window(Click on Start Menu -- Run -- Type 'cmd').
2. At the command prompt type the following to update the PATH. For eg.
C:\>PATH=C:\MSP430\bin;%PATH%
The HIL.dll and MSP430mspgcc.dll libraries are required by the msp430-jtag tool. These libraries serve the goal of providing JTAG interface support over the USB connection for the TelosB mote. Download the dlls from here. Unzip the file and place the HIL.dll and MSP430mspgcc.dll libraries in the C:\MSP430\bin folder.
1. Connect the TelosB mote to the PC using the USB cable.
2. Currently the erase functionality has been verified for this tool. Open a 'cmd' window and type
'msp430-jtag -h' at the command prompt. Since the tool is on the PATH there should be no problem in
locating it and running it from any working directory. The help menu will be displayed if the above steps were
carried out successfully.
C:\>msp430-jtag -h
3. Once you have verified that the tool has been properly installed, type 'msp430-jtag -e' to carry out a mass
erase of the entire Flash memory.
C:\>msp430-jtag -e
4. A series of messages will be displayed on the screen as a result of reprogramming. Do not expect the mote to
show any LED activity after reprogramming.
5. After successfully reprogramming the mote, unplug the USB cable from the PC and uninstall the D2XX
drivers.(Click on Control Panel -- Add/Remove Programs).
6. After uninstalling the D2XX drivers simply plug the mote back to the PC. On WindowsXP the required FTDI
VCP drivers will be automatically installed for you. In case you have to manually install the VCP drivers,
download the drivers from here and install them.
7. Now you can program the mote using the Boot Strap Loader. Open a Cygwin shell and install a simple
application eg . 'Blink', to test the proper working of the mote.
This concludes the sequence of steps to be followed to reprogram the TelosB using the msp430-jtag tool. If there are any queries or if something is unclear please mail me at vchakra@cs.utah.edu
I would like to acknowledge the extensive help provided by Moteiv Support and Mr.Robert Szewczyk in particular in the compilation of this document.
| Mail me at : vchakra AT cs DOT utah DOT edu | Last modified: Thu Feb 10 11:10:23 MDT 2005 |