Elysian Shadows

In my microprocessor class, our processor of choice is the MSP340. The university endorses it as their supported processor.

http://ti.com/msp430

My professor also has worked with the processor on some of his own personal research projects. He made a heart beat/blood pressure/vital sign analyzer. It uses several tiny sensors to read your vital signs and transmit them to your cell phone or doctor/nurse.

I was wondering if there are any of you who have screwed around with the processor (or any other microprocessors) at a low level. Being a CPE major, I have always been interested in embedded circuitry/processors. I am itching to screw with the processor in the class (and lab). I am also going to be purchasing the processor directly from Texas Instruments for my own evil experimentation. I have played around with a few other microprocessors (Dreamcast VMU's 8-bit "potato"), but the MSP340 has such a wide array of I/O including ethernet, serial, and other shit--it really opens a window of opportunity to do all sorts of cool things.

One day when Elysian Shadows is done, I would love to start a series about "Adventures in Hardware Design" or microprocessor development. I have several ideas for things that I would love to do, but not enough time. I want to build my own embedded system from the hardware level and make Kendall write my software for it (and Peter write tools).

Probably not anywhere close to what you're doing, but I'm using this http://arduino.cc/ and it's been a lot of fun hooking up all kinds of motors/leds/junk so far.

However I don't get to touch any awesome Assembler with that, I'm stuck on "high"-level programming.

GyroVorbis wrote: I have always been interested in embedded circuitry/processors. I am itching to screw with the processor in the class (and lab).

Dude if I had access to one of those I'd be itching to mess with it too. I have always loved the hardware aspect of tech, that's why I'm doing EE.

pritam wrote:Probably not anywhere close to what you're doing, but I'm using this http://arduino.cc/ and it's been a lot of fun hooking up all kinds of motors/leds/junk so far.

However I don't get to touch any awesome Assembler with that, I'm stuck on "high"-level programming.

Wow, I didn't know that you were into that kind of stuff Pritam. I did some browsing around on that, and it looks like it would be really damn cool to screw around with.

GyroVorbis wrote:

pritam wrote:Probably not anywhere close to what you're doing, but I'm using this http://arduino.cc/ and it's been a lot of fun hooking up all kinds of motors/leds/junk so far.

However I don't get to touch any awesome Assembler with that, I'm stuck on "high"-level programming.

Wow, I didn't know that you were into that kind of stuff Pritam. I did some browsing around on that, and it looks like it would be really damn cool to screw around with.

I thought you knew pritam was mutli-talented

I'm interested in embedded systems and all that lovely circuitry but no I've never worked with any...

Falco you've never heard of the Arduino???? What the heck, it's like the biggest thing in hardware hax! It's the preferred tech to power most indie tech, like peoples baby kick twitter things, and robots and stuff. They are pretty cool little things, and also very functional.

I think there is a defcon badge that was made from an arduino, or maybe that was some seperate challenge at defcon IDK... It had to do with an arduino hackable badge.

Yeah, it looks cool, but what I'm interested is at a much lower level.