Specifications

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Looking at the chart from Texas Instruments found below will be useful for comparing
available microcontrollers. A few particular lines of the MSP430 family have built in
LCD controllers, making it convenient to control our user display system. This is also
combined with a fast wake up system and flash memory, both features desirable in our
design.
Figure 55 – MSP430 Chart
Permission Pending
For any of the microcontrollers utilized, we will not be able to use any of the
LaunchPads offered by Texas Instruments. This will mean that we will be required to
solder the microcontroller onto our own PCB. Care will need to be given while doing so
as to place the wires where they need to go. As it is a common mistake for groups to
solder in the wrong location, or even completely upside down, our group will pay special
attention to this part of the design process.
After careful consideration, it was decided that the MSP430G2231 would work perfectly
for this application. It has a frequency for 16MHz, 2KB of flash, and 128B of SRAM. This
should yield plenty of memory and speed to implement the basic code for executing the
power calculations and the functions to display the calculated conditions to the screen.
The plan is to use two of these microcontrollers. The first one will read in the voltage of
the battery and the current sensors, calculate all relevant values, and then
synchronously send the results to the second microcontroller. The second
microcontroller will be in control of the display. Depending on the button pressed by the
user, different data will be displayed.