Ok, I bought the TI MSP-EXP430G2 Dev board a while ago, and it was about time I tried it out, as always, with LEDs and Ping-Pong Balls.

It fades between the colours.

You will need:
A 2xAA batery holder, with 2 AA batteries
A 9v battery clip
A small piece of copper stripboard, just large enough to cover the back of your battery holder, but not go over it
a TI MSP430 launchpad (really cheap, get it from proto-pic in the UK,, about $4.50 straight from TI, pluss shipping)
A Ping Pong Ball
A diffused Common Cathode RGB LED
3 pin headers
a jumper
a 14 pin DIP socket
a 10K resistor
Wire

Solder
Hot GLue Sticks

Hot Glue gun
Drill with 5mm bit
Soldering Iron

Step 1: Set Up Your Development Environment + Programming the Chip

If you have never used this development board before, you will not have a development enviroment.

The code was written for MSPGCC, and uploaded with MSPDebug - this is cross platform, a quick google will land you with the downloads

The code can be easily ported to CCS or IAR, which come free from TI

You can download the source code from my GitHub repo

Just compile it (or use the .elf provided) and use mspdebug rf2500 to program the chip (not applicable for CCS or IAR)

If this is your first upload, then congratulations, you have programmed your first chip :-D

Step 2: Check You Have Everything

Make sure you are good to go, just a pic to check your stuff against.

Step 3: Drill the Ping-Pong Ball

Hold it steady against the desk (I haven in the pic, as one hand held the camera, but I did do it, honest ), and drill a 5mm hole for the LED

Step 4: Put the LED in the Hole

It should just fit in, with little room to move, the lip should stop it falling in

Step 5: Glue It In

Turn on your hot glue gun, and wait for it to heat up, then cover the LED in glue (leave the pins though) This will make it permanent.

Step 6: Time to Lay Out the Strip Board

First we need to add the DIP socket, as seen in the picture

Step 7: Mark It for Drilling

We need to mark out where to drill it to break the trace. Otherwise the pins will short.

Step 8: Drill the Traces

I deliberately did some too big so that you can compare, later on you will see why they are too big. Use the smaller ones as a guide.

Step 9: Solder It In

Solder the joints. You can see why the holes are too big, there is not enough room for soldering, and the joints near them are messy, going round the holes, and spreading out.

Step 10: Populating It With More Components

Add these components and wires. The 10K resistor keeps the chip from resetting, and the jumper acts as a power switch,

Step 11: Now Just Add the LED

Now we just place and solder the LED, making sure we get the wires the correct way round. The longest pin should be on the broken trace with the wre on it, the other three should be on traces going to the DIP socket.

Step 12: Add the Battery Holder

Cover the back of the battery holder with glue, and place on the stripboard. Solder the 9v clip to the wires protruding from the circuit, and clip it onto the battery holder.

Step 13: Add the Chip and Turn It on :-Dsocket

Take the MCU from the dev board and place it in the DIP socket (make sure it is the right way round, line up the notch on one of the shorter sides with that on the socket) Turn it on with a jumper, and watch it glow and change colour.