MSP432 Microcontroller LaunchPad Development Kit

The MSP432 Launchpad is one of the smallest and cheapest development boards. Developers and engineers can use it to design an application with the interface of external modules. MSP432 is designed with an ARM 32-bit Cortex-M4F microcontroller which gives high performance at low power. It is suitable for operating and controlling the low powered devices which require high performance with 32-bits. The board contains multiple kinds of debugging and programming pins. Modern controlling applications like IoT and robot can be designed with MSP432. The board size can be minimized if it is required.

You may read: MSP430 LaunchPad Introduction 

MSP432 Launchpad Pin Configuration

MSP432 Launchpad comes with almost 84 pins and with some debug pins, they are also divided into 5 headers. All these pins support multiple kinds of communication protocols and modules. These modules come within GPIO pins which are discussed below. The pinout diagram of MSP432 Launchpad is shown here:

MSP432 LaunchPad Pinout Description

MSP432 Board Digital Input/Output Pins

Digital output and input is the requirement of every circuit. these functions are the most used functions by external sensors and peripherals. Sometimes a smart programmer can also build the unbuilt in function by using programming through I/O. All I/O pins come with an internal pull-up resistor. The low pulse will be able to change the state of the digital pin for input. All GPIO pins in MSP432 are:

• P6_0 – GPIO2
• P3_2 – GPIO3
• P3_3 – GPIO4
• P4_1 – GPIO5
• P4_3 – GPIO6
• P1_5 – GPIO7
• P4_6 – GPIO8
• P6_5 – GPIO9
• P6_4 – GPIO10
• P3_6 – GPIO11
• P5_2 – GPIO12
• P5_0 – GPIO13
• P1_7 – GPIO14
• P1_6 – GPIO15
• P5_7 – GPIO17
• P3_0 – GPIO18
• P2_5 – GPIO19
• P6_1 – GPIO23
• P4_0 – GPIO24
• P4_2 – GPIO25
• P4_4 – GPIO26
• P4_5 – GPIO27
• P4_7 – GPIO28
• P5_4 – GPIO29
• P5_5 – GPIO30
• P3_7 – GPIO31
• P3_5 – GPIO32
• P5_1 – GPIO33
• P2_3 – GPIO34
• P6_7 – GPIO35
• P6_6 – GPIO36
• P5_6 – GPIO37
• P2_4 – GPIO38
• P2_6 – GPIO39
• P2_7 – GPIO40
• P8_5 – GPIO41
• P9_0 – GPIO42
• P8_4 – GPIO43
• P8_2 – GPIO44
• P9_2 – GPIO45
• P6_2 – GPIO46
• P7_3 – GPIO47
• P7_1 – GPIO48
• P9_4 – GPIO49
• P9_6 – GPIO50
• P8_0 – GPIO51
• P7_4 – GPIO52
• P7_6 – GPIO53
• P10_0 – GPIO54
• P10_2 – GPIO55
• P10_4 – GPIO56
• P8_6 – GPIO57
• P8_7 – GPIO58
• P9_1 – GPIO59
• P8_3 – GPIO60
• P5_3 – GPIO61
• P9_3 – GPIO62
• P6_3 – GPIO63
• P7_2 – GPIO64
• P7_0 – GPIO65
• P9_5 – GPIO66
• P9_7 – GPIO67
• P7_5 – GPIO68
• P7_7 – GPIO69
• P10_1 – GPIO70
• P10_3 – GPIO71
• P10_5 – GPIO72

MSP432 LaunchPad Serial Communication Ports

The board offers some modern serial communication pins, which can communicate with multiple devices and sensors. All these communications protocols and their pins are given below:

Serial UART Communication Pins

Serial UART communication is one of the most used serial communication nowadays because of its efficiency. UART communication uses only two wires for communication and the rest of the communications depend on the programming. In MSP432 there are three ways for UART communication.

• USB Port
• Debug pins
• GPIO pins
  • RX – GPIO3
  • TX – GPIO4

All these are connected and only one communication can use for UART communication. It will depend on the developer in which pins are chosen.

MSP432 LaunchPad SPI Communication Pins

SPI communication is also known as three-wire communication. It uses four pins, MOSI, MISO, CS, SCK. MOSI is known as Master out Slave in. It is used to send the data from the board to the external module. The second pin is MISO knows as Master in slave out, which is used to send the data from external modules to the board. SCK is for clock pulse to send and receive data according to the clock signal and the last pin is CS. CS means chip select, which is used in the case of multiple devices. In most of the boards and microcontrollers, it remains one as predefined for only one module but it can be designed by converting any I/O pin through programming. All SPI pin in MSP432 Launchpad are:

• MISO – GPIO14
• MOSI – GPIO15
• CS – GPIO18
• SCK – GPIO7

I2C Communication Pins

The I2C protocol is also a serial protocol but it is known as the two-wire communication method. Most of the slow operating devices use I2C communication. In I2C only two wires are used, one for clock and second for data. Clock pins keep the data sync between two devices according to the clock pulse. Every microcontroller comes with the I2C method and MSP432 also has two I2C communication ports, one is I2C(0) and the second is I2C(1). As a default, the I2C uses I2C(1) but to use I2C(0) the programming should be used. All I2C pins in MSP432 are:

• SDA (0) – GPIO15
• SCL (0) – GPIO14
• SDA (1) – GPIO10
• SCL (1) – GPIO9

MSP432 Analog to Digital Converter Channels

Every electronics device works with digital data but in real life, it’s the opposite. Most of the sensors need to measure the value in the analog signal but it becomes unreadable by most of the devices. To solve this issue most of the microcontrollers and boards come with A/D converting channels. ADC takes the analog input and then convert it to digital, which can be used internally within the controller. In MSP432 there are 24 A/D channels and all these channels are of 14-bits. Any analog data can be converted to 14-bits and all pin can be used at a single time without affecting each other data. All ADC pins in MSP432 are:

• A0 – GPIO30
• A1 – GPIO29
• A2- GPIO61
• A3 – GPIO12
• A4 – GPIO33
• A5 – GPIO13
• A6 – GPIO28
• A7 – GPIO8
• A8 – GPIO27
• A9 – GPIO26
• A10 – GPIO6
• A11 – GPIO25
• A12 – GPIO5
• A13 – GPIO24
• A14- GPIO23
• A15 – GPIO2
• A16 – GPIO59
• A17 – GPIO42
• A18 – GPIO58
• A19 – GPIO57
• A20 – GPIO41
• A21 – GPIO43
• A22 – GPIO60
• A23 – GPIO44

PWM Pins

Most of devices speed/voltage can be variate using PWM. PWM pins change the output signal to a desired square wave by using internal timers and Prescaler. In MSP432 there are a bunch of PWM pins and all these pins can be operated individually. This PWM is only controllable through programming. All PWM are:

• P2_0 – GPIO75
• P2_1 – GPIO76
• P2_2 – GPIO77
• P2_3 – GPIO34
• P2_4 – GPIO38
• P2_5 – GPIO19
• P2_6 – GPIO36
• P2_7 – GPIO40
• P3_0 – GPIO18
• P3_2 – GPIO3
• P3_3 – GPIO4
• P3_5 – GPIO32
• P3_6 – GPIO11
• P3_7 – GPIO31
• P5_6 – GPIO37
• P4_7 – GPIO17
• P6_6 – GPIO36
• P6_7 – GPIO35
• P7_0 – GPIO65
• P7_1 – GPIO48
• P7_2 – GPIO64
• P7_3 – GPIO47
• P7_4 – GPIO52
• P7_5 – GPIO68
• P7_6 – GPIO53
• P7_7 – GPIO69

Power Pins of MSP432 LaunchPad

There are multiple ways to power up the board in different situations. All these methods are:

USB

The USB port can be used to powerup the board. The USB port power pins are connected to the 5V and 3V through JTAGs. 3V is converted with USB through LDO. In case of using the USB for power input others, pins can be used for power output.

5V

The 5V pin is used mostly for output only. In the case of using the 5V, the microcontroller can be power up through debug pins if jumpers are connected. If the board is cut down into two pieces then there is no way 5V will be work. All headers contain at least one 5V pin.

3V

The microcontroller in MSP432 using 3V to power up. If 1.8 – 3.7V is connected to any 3V pin in the board then the controller will work. In the case of using the other power input methods, a 3V pin will be used to receive 3.3V.

GND

MSP432 has multiple ground pin. Ground pins are in all headers and even in the debugger.

Oscillator

The clock is the basic requirement for every microcontroller to operate and MSP432 has two of them. It has two internal clock 48MHz and 32KHz. 48MHz makes the device to run at its maximum speed and 32KHz helps the device to perform the precise operations.

Block Diagram MSP432 LaunchPad

The block diagram shows the basic ports and controller’s connections within the MSP432.

MSP432 LaunchPad Features

MSP432 LaunchPad Applications

• MSP432 is an excellent device to drive multiple DC motors. It has multiple PWM pins as compared to the other boards
• In a prototype system, MSP432 is the best option.