Tom and I have been working on some code to replace msp430-gdbproxy, which is a piece of closed source software that we regularly use to program and debug MSP430 microcontrollers. The atmosphere at 25C3 encouraged the continuation of this effort, and we can now successfully reprogram MSP430s using it. We’ll be releasing it as FOSS as soon as possible once we’ve ascertained that there are no legal issues with us doing so. I’m sure that you can understand the reasons for such caution here.

In the future, we’d like to be able to prove that we had got to this point by this date. Therefore, we’re publishing the SHA1 (160-bit) hash of the source code right now, and will later publish the code that it goes with. That hash is:

a882f498292de84f720cf3f2d0dea67ca46fdea6

And in order to remind myself which git commit this maps to in my repository, it’s commit: 894dde86e14b824e16540908e9138ee944abafcf.

Tags: 25c3, msp430, msp430-gdbproxy

6 responses to “msp430-gdbproxy replacement implemented”

1. Peter Jansen says:

   January 15, 2009 at 8:33 am

   Excellent, can I help?

2. Vaclav Pe says:

   January 15, 2009 at 2:42 pm

   Good to hear such message.

   I plan to implement JTAG controller into PIC18F2455 to debug MSP430 processors through USB. Do you think some part of gdbproxy can be moved into PIC to simplify USB data communication ?

   Thank you.

3. Travis Goodspeed says:

   February 26, 2009 at 9:10 pm

   I’ve published details of the protocol at the site below, which I reverse engineered after these neighborly fellows, but without a copy of their results. (Please share!)

   http://travisgoodspeed.blogspot.com/2008/12/sniffing-msp430-fet-protocol.html

   For a functional spy-bi-wire implementation,
   svn co https://msp430fet.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/msp430fet/trunk msp430fet

   Cheers,
   –Goodspeed

4. xGoat - fetproxy: An open source replacement for msp430-gdbproxy says:

   March 25, 2009 at 8:08 pm

   […] Just under 3 months ago, Tom and I reverse engineered the protocol to talk to the TI FET430UIF MSP430 debugger. […]

5. soxs says:

   November 27, 2009 at 8:51 pm

   Hi, I’d like to know the state of this project, as I can’t find any source nor binaries. Did you clear up all potential legal issues or is this just dead?
   Greets

6. rob says:

   November 27, 2009 at 10:54 pm

   @soxs: http://xgoat.com/wp/2009/03/25/fetproxy-an-open-source-replacement-for-msp430-gdbproxy/
   Yes, more work will happen in the future on this.