Part 1 of 3: ASEE 2013 Workshop Re-Cap
Earlier in the week I wrote about the why TI was hosting three different Microcontroller Workshops at ASEE 2013. I am happy to report that the workshops went exceptionally well, with over 130 different Educators attending one, if not more than one Microcontroller workshop! I only wish that we had been able to video-tape and share the sessions with everyone, but unfortunately, this year we were so focused on ensuring all participants were able to get the most from the presenters, we didn't think to consider that idea until after the fact! So, with that in mind, I wanted to give the second best thing I can offer, and that is these blog posts as a written recount of the workshops. Session M64: MSP430 LaunchPad Microcontroller Session |
If someone pulled me to the side and said that they could only attend one session at ASEE and wanted to know what session I would have suggested... I would have suggested the M64 Session, our Supplier Sponsored Workshop for the MSP430 LaunchPad hosted by Adrian Fernandez and Dung Dang. So, why is that? Why Attend this Workshop?Well, first, it was the session that had the most give-aways to the attendees... (which is always popular!)
 However, aside from the free tools, what I liked about this session was that it primarily focused around promoting the newly released "Getting Started with LaunchPad" book (also the educational booster pack and the MSP430 Launchpad) which is written to be focused on lowering barriers to entry traditionally associated for electronics and opening up this world to new users. This question of enabling electronics for a new user actually has a wide range of applications in Higher Education, which is why I would pointed to this session as my recommendation for someone who didn't have time to attend more than one This workshop was targeted to reach places where hands-on education was actively being considered, no matter the situation e.g. beyond a traditional lab, into K-12, into other engineering disciplines, first time programmers basically anyone who had been previously excluded because of the expertise required to learn how to program in C or Assembly language. So the workshop opened at 10:30 in the morning had well over 30 attendees. |
*Resource Links*
If you want to find about more about the Workshop:
Registration Page
How to Pick Which Workshop
FAQ at the Workshop
What to do after your workshop
If you missed the workshop and want to re-create it on your own... you will need:
1. Your own computer
2. Energia with pre-loaded Examples
3. A MSP430 LaunchPad
4. an Educational BoosterPack
5. The Workshop Presentation
more details
6. Optional: "Getting Started with the MSP430 LaunchPad" Book
What did you do in the Workshop?
Learn About Maker Movement
Learn About WHY Microcontrollers
Learn about the LaunchPad
Set up LaunchPad to use
Project Blinky- Parts of a Sketch
MUSICAL Instruments Lab
Magic 8 Ball Lab
If you would like to talk to people or have questions about this workshop:
Educator's Discussion
43oh community (informal launchpad talk)
Talk to the University Program
Talk to the Author -Adrian Fernandez
Talk to the Author- Dung Dang
Some references that you may like:
-LaunchPad in Universities
-The LaunchPad Page
-About Energia
-Presentation about Hands On Education
If you want to learn more on your own
Google terms-
MSP430 LaunchPad
Energia MSP430
TI LaunchPad
43oh
BoosterPack EcoSystem
LaunchPad EcoSystem
Code Composer Studio
The workshop immediately began with Authors Adrian Fernandez and Dung Dang introducing themselves (more about the authors).
Both of them are employees of Texas Instruments who became excited about the prospect of getting Programming and children excited about "Making" things into the classroom. It was that excitement that prompted them to work together and write the "Getting Started with the MSP430 LaunchPad" book.
It's this book that the hands-on portion of the lab was based around and what most of the exercises were written for. They then offered a discounted price on the book and a few samples for people who were able to come to the TI Booth afterwards.
The next portion of the session had Adrian speaking about the Maker Movement and how it was both what inspired him and Dung, but mostly how it appealed to students across every grade level. "We All Can Make, " he began, "Making is natural to us because we all have problems to solve." |
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Programmers have changed today's world.
Moving to the next section Adrian continued, "[So, what is making in today's world?] Well, with technology... one way to look at it is , Software + Making = Programming" "We are in a great place in history," Adrian explained, "Software has made it possible to be able to share ideas with just a touch of a button." We owe all of this to computers... and computer programmers. |
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| Adrian then continued, "Although the computer has enabled a lot of today's innovations... many of those innovations have come to the "virtual world". To move beyond the virtual world, we need to look beyond traditional hardware, such as a computer or iphone. We live in the physical world, and what we really need to focus on doing... is putting computers in every day objects that make up our physical world. To do that, we need a microcontroller.
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Why isn't this what everyone else is doing? Adrian then asked a question, "Why hasn't this happened yet? Why do we need to keep taking about it?" Which was when he passed the presentation over to his Co-Author, Dung Dang to begin explaining what it meant to put a computer in every-day objects. Things like, letting your fridge tweet you, or your curtains to automatically close... or your dog bowl to feed the dog when you are gone. 1. Hardware is Hard- Electronics has gotten so complicated for the past several years that traditionally to even begin, you needed to have years of formal education (BSEE, BSCE, CPE, CS... etc). Then, you needed to have experience ... and to have been able to keep up with the complex tools that are required to use today's technology (e.g. you can't hand solder things as often as you used to). To know how to do electronics, you've had to had a lot of pre-requisites, which many people don't have. 2. Inaccessible Resources- if somehow you wanted to still learn these things on your own... you would need to spend a lot of time getting resources/access to information. Most of the material out there is very theoretical and less about actually learning "how to do something" . 3. It's Expensive- getting resources is expensive... but even more so is actually setting up a lab could cost thousands of dollars. That's daunting for someone just getting started. |
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But, then Dung paused and began, "but there are answers for these questions". We can help by modularizing the Hardware. By making hardware less of the focus and instead making it so you give someone a starting point, you help give someone a foothold to build on, instead of making the learning curve seem un-navigable. Instead of forcing someone to learn, you give them a motivation to WANT to learn, to overcome the limitations of the tool they are using (the hardware they started with) and challenge them to make their own better ones. He then introduced the boosterpack ecosystem. Next, he spoke about Sharing resources makes sense because no one person can learn everything quick enough on their own.
Lastly, he covered that Hardware doesn't have to cost... THOUSANDS no, it can cost Tens... no longer are kits developed only for "Industry" budgets, there are now tools out there that really focus on the first time, low budget engineer... one of these is the MSP430 LaunchPad. |
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| Inexpensive Hardware that anyone can buy | Software that is accessible to almost any age/skill of user | So many opportunities to interact/learn with the real world. |
Then the session then moved to the hands-on portion.
All attendees had already paired off. The objective was to do 3 of the lab exercises from the book.
Before doing the exercises, we had to make sure everyone had what they needed to get started.
(However, if you wish to try this yourself you will need to obtain the following:
Standard items: that you can buy from the web or provide yourself.
| A Personal Computer- Mac, Linux or Windows XP (or later) | MSP430 LaunchPad Version 1.5 |
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What was provided by us that was not standard: This was the material that was provided on the USB Key for the workshop attendees.
| Special Workshop version of Energia - Download Version (includes examples for the Educational BoosterPack) | |
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Once all the materials were ready, then the attendees completed the first portion of the workshop.
Getting Ready To Launch- What was done
| 1. Gathered Materials | 2. Downloaded and Installed Energia | 3. Opened LaunchPad + USB Cable and connected | 4. Started Energia and Selected Board |
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during this time it was interesting to see that many of the educators were moving ahead of us and were working ahead through the labs.
The labs that they were working through were either one or all of the following:
As the workshop wrapped up some questions came out that the TI workshop monitors helped answered. I aggregated most of them here:
FAQ
Do we need to use the Educational BoosterPack or can we just do Breadboards and loose components?
The BoosterPack was made to simplify getting started, but all of these exercises are very easily adapted into breadboard + components. In the actual MSP430 Book, all of the materials give you the suggested component alternatives.
How much is everything?
The BoosterPack = 25.00
The LaunchPad is = 10.00
The Book is = 12.95
Energia Software = FREE
Worse case scenario, your cost is 48.00, under 50.00. However, Educational Discounts exist at all of the providers and the TI University Program can help obtain those discounts.
I'm not the professor who will need to use this, but I'll take it back. Can I get another one?
Yes, if you have your professor contact us through our University Program website he may request an evaluation copy http://ti.com/university
I like this BoosterPack, but I wish I could change... [insert attribute here] .. Will you guys be releasing another version?
For right now, no, but there are other people who make BoosterPacks, (such as Digilent and other Universities). The design is actually open sourced hardware for both the MSP430 LaunchPad AND the Educational BoosterPack, so please feel free to take them and modify them to be perfect for your course. TI University Program can help you with samples for small qty runs if you are building a BoosterPack for your classroom. Circuitco, the maker of the BoosterPack is also open for contracting for modifications.
Is this Arduino?
Although it's very similar and the IDE, Energia is based off of the same fundamentals (Wiring) as the Arduino environment, but is actually NOT Arduino. We greatly respect the Arduino community and do not want to hamper the movement by directly competing with the same people we wish to enable; the goals of both Arduino and TI are very similar (getting electronics into every person's hands). Because of this, we have made some key decisions to make it different than Arduino. 1. ) our header standard is called the BoosterPack standard, we do not have any spacing differentiation and all pins are 3.3V and is not compatible with Arduino Shields (although you can always jumper the shields over using a breadboard if really needed). 2.) The processor is based on TI MCU's, which offer a lot of specialization. However, we do share many commonalities including: the simplified IDE environment, the desire to facilitate open Hardware (the MSP430 LaunchPad is completely open Hardware) and we have many users that belong to both communities.
i'm in ECE... I don't think this is something I would allow my students to use, they need to know how to program:
Absolutely, we agree!!! We want as many people knowledgeable about embedded programming out there in the world as possible. The LaunchPad can also be used with Code Composer Studio, IAR or GCC, but these all require a degree of C Programming knowledge (which sometimes is lacking). If you don't need the abstraction for your students, then wonderful, we actually have MORE resources for you to explore! We just wanted to offer Energia and the LaunchPad to help get you MORE people interested (other majors, K-12 or intro to engineering) as a starting point to migrate students to industry standard programming. In December 2013, we will be Beta Testing a version of Code Composer Studio IDE that will allow you to import Energia files into a full Industry IDE.
What should we do after this workshop?
I would recommend the following:
1. If you want to receive all ASEE Communications, please Register for our University Program Newsletter, found here.
2. Send us a review of the workshop by filling in our survey Fill out my form!
3. Learn more about the MSP430 Getting Started Book, Energia, LaunchPad or the Educational BoosterPack by visiting their resource pages!
4. Contact Us if you have any problems!
5. Join one of our LaunchPad Communities, such as 43oh!
6. If you or any of your students have a project on the Launchpad or Educational BoosterPack, please post them on the http://ti.com/microcontrollerprojects!
Wrap-Up:
For our first MCU workshop of the conference, it was very much a success. We had several educators making buzzer and beeps, many were excited about taking this through thier outreach to high school and lots of Booth Traffic afterward. This session was definitely encouraging... and I hope that we have more like them in the future.
