Зачем программисту дизассемблер в 2025: отладка на слепую под редкие MCU

Даже в 2025 году, когда вокруг нейросети, автогенерация кода и IDE с предиктивным интеллектом, работа с редкими микроконтроллерами всё ещё может обернуться настоящим хардкором. Особенно, если речь идёт о «слепой» отладке без отладчика, когда в арсенале только прошивка, HEX-файл и пара байтов на выводе. В этой статье — личный опыт, много хардкора, дизассемблирование вручную и поиск глюка в 2 КБ бинаря. Когда говорят «отладка», в 2025 году чаще всего имеют в виду жмяк на F5 в Visual Studio Code или лог с CI/CD. Но в embedded-мире, особенно если ты копаешься в системах с 8-битным контроллером 2006 года выпуска, это слово может означать кое-что пострашнее. Например — «прошивка вылетает на 4-й секунде, данных в UART нет, отладочного интерфейса нет, документации почти нет, а заказчик просит сделать "как раньше работало"». И вот тут начинается старый добрый reverse engineering.

https://habr.com/ru/articles/907810/

#дизассемблер #MCU #отладка #embedded #MSP430 #бинарный_анализ #прошивка #ассемблер

Code Composer Studio Theia is the new generation programming IDE of Texas Instruments. The older CCS does not work anymore on some modern linux OS due to changes on graphical (?) libraries. CCS Theia does not have syntax highlighting support for MSP430 assembly language. For those who would like to add it, read https://eliaschr.blogspot.com/2025/04/assembly-msp430-code-composer-studio.html
The extension can be found at https://github.com/eliaschr/msp430x-theia #msp430 #TexasInstruments #CodeComposerStudio #ccs #Theia #assembly #syntax #highlighting

Modern 6502
https://www.mikekohn.net/micro/modern_6502.php
#ycombinator #Mike_Kohn #Michael_Kohn #open_source #schematics #electronics #atmel #microcontrollers #msp430 #assembly_lanaguage #asm #playstation #homebrew

A thermal printer with a MSP430 Launchpad

Yes that's right. A standard MSP430EX2GET Launchpad board, together with a thermal print mechanism and a driver board, will make a thermal printer.

https://github.com/TheSonicZone/ThermalPrinterPOC

#MSP430 #thermalprinter #sonicthehedgehog

Welp it had to be. After failing to even get started with the #msp430, the #Arduino, the piece of shit #tiny88, the fuckin #acorn from #digispark, I gave in and bought two rpi2040. I spent today trying to figure out how to output a uart signal. I figured it out for 8 bit. But I learned that 9bit is something you can't do with Arduino X. So here I am doing what I didn't want to do... Gonna try a #raspberrypi. Supposedly it can do #9bitserialcommunication. I highly doubt I will succeed.

Their lousy documentation is phenomenal! #digispark is pissing me off. I'm just going to go find what other people have actually used successfully and use that. My #msp430 never failed. #arduinoduemilanove never failed.

Water Meter UI Hack - Part One

https://makertube.net/videos/watch/48353553-2d99-419b-b008-76486368e8c4

J'ai acheté un circuit de voiture pour les enfants sur Vinted, je trouvais que ça manquait d’arbitrage électronique.
#msp430

Because they were cheap enough, I got some #MSP432 #MCU devboards, which is TI's fine Cortex-M4F core wrapped with relatively slow flash and terrible #MSP430 peripherals. Looks like TI re-branded some of their Tiva parts to MSP432 E-series, I bet those are better.

I got the #MSP430 #MCU boards cheap, $4.30 for boards with debuggers, got a handful of MSP430F2553s. They're kind-of the go-to for noodling around on a protoboard when I want a debugger, but the peripherals are clearly designed by people that don't write code! I don't care they're 16-bit or kind-of-like a PDP-11, they're just another MCU programmed in C

New challenges have been released for Microcorruption:

https://research.nccgroup.com/2022/10/31/check-out-our-new-microcorruption-challenges/

#ctf #reverseengineering #exploitation #msp430 #microcorruption

My pinned hash tags! I plan to post about these things as time progresses.

PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT

#neuroscience #neuroimaging #computationalneuroscience #signals #analytics #rstats #python #programming #computerscience #math #AI #highered #steam #innovation #4IR


HOBBIES AND INTERESTS

#entrepreneurship #3dprinting #SDR #maker #arduino #msp430 #electronics #raspberrypi #astronomy #photography #birds #aquariums #biking #outdoors #plants

PLACES
#stpaul #minneapolis #cleveland (sometimes)

#introduction
This should be my last introduction toot! I mentioned my professional focus (#neuroimaging #neuroscience signal analysis) in my last toot. Now, for my other non-research engagements...

I am a #maker who uses tools like #programming #arduino #msp430 #raspberrypi #electronics and #3dprinting to prototype fun projects. I have my own fleet of 3d printers and support equipment.

As a signal processing engineer, I'm also very interested in #sdr (software-defined radio). I'm working on two pet projects right now employing SDR and my maker tools for backyard #radio #astronomy and satellite signal reception. While not entirely novel end-goals, the work is very engaging and rewarding! I hope to package the results for science outreach in #steam in the near future.

Everyone should expect neuroimaging research toots from me as well as updates on my projects and resources for #STEM and #STEAM engagement in the classroom. I hope to contribute to #edutoot by sharing my demos, resources, and projects for bringing innovative thinking, science, and engineering into the classroom.

I love #biking and outdoor activities. I'm a novice in #photograpy (microscope as well as DSLR) and am looking for hints and suggestions for my entry into #astrophotography . Any advice? Let me know! I have a strong love of #fish and #aquariums, so expect my gushing about fish on occasion. I also have a pet parakeet, so expect some bird antics along the way! It can't all be work and seriousness, after all!

@don_kosak Ever do any #MSP430 embedded programming? I heard it has a very similar instruction set to the PDP-11.

Battery-less Bike Computer Gets Power and Data from the Wheels

Bicycle generator technology has advanced far beyond the bottle dynamos of years past, which as often as not would introduce enough drag when engaged to stall the bike. Granted, it's not as much of a current draw as a big old incandescent headlight, but this wheel-powered cyclocomputer is a great example of harvesting both power and data from the rotation of a bike's wheel.

While there are plenty of cyclocomputers available commercially, [Lukas] was looking for some specific features. His main goal was something usable at night, which means a backlit display, ruling out the usually coin-cell power sources. His bike's hub dynamo offered interesting possibilities -- not only does it provide AC power, but its output frequency is proportional to the bike's speed. This allows him to derive speed, distance, RPM, time-in-motion, and other parameters to display on the 1×8 character LCD display. There's some clever circuitry needed to condition the output of the hub dynamo, and a 1.5 farad supercapacitor keeps the unit powered for about four days when the bike isn't in motion.

As for measuring the frequency of the dynamo's output, [Lukas] simply used a digital input on the MSP430 microcontroller, with a little signal conditioning of course. He also added a barometer chip for altitude data, plus an ambient light sensor to control the LCD backlight. Everything lives in a clever 3D-printed case with a minimalist but thoughtful design that docks and undocks from the bike easily; [Lukas] assures us that a waterproof version of the case is in the works.

We really appreciate the elegance of this design, and the way it uses the data that's embedded in the power supply. While [Lukas] appears to have used a commercially available generator, we've seen other examples of home-brew hub dynamos before -- even one that offers regenerative braking.

#transportationhacks #altimeter #barometer #cyclocomputer #dynamo #generator #hubdynamo #msp430

#TIL TI MSP430 CPU's instruction set is basically "what if we redesign the PDP-11, but more RISC-like."

Wow, I spent a month on PDP-11 assembly this year, who knows it has practical applications?! Shut up and take my money? #electronics #retrocomputing #PDP11 #MSP430

Download From NFC Datalogger, No App Required

The plethora of wireless technologies has made internet-connected devices the norm, but it's not always necessary if you don't need real-time updates. Whether it's due to battery life, or location and range constraints, downloading data directly from the device whenever possible might be a viable solution. [Malcolm Mackay] demonstrates an elegant solution on the open source cuplTag temperature/humidity logger, using any NFC-enabled smartphone, without requiring a custom app.

The cuplTag utilizes the feature on NFC-enabled smartphones to automatically open a URL provided by the cuplTag. It encodes the sensor data from the sensor unit as a circular buffer in a ~1 kB URL, which automatically uploads to a web frontend that plots the data. (You can use their server or run your own.)

This means that data can be collected by anyone with the appropriate phone with zero setup. The data is displayed on the web app and can be downloaded as a CSV. To deter spoofing, each tag ships with a secret key which is used to generate a unique HMAC every time the circular buffer changes.

Battery life is a priority on the cuplTag, and it's theoretically capable of running seven years on a single CR1220 coin cell using the current-sipping Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller. The hardware, firmware, and server-side frontend and backend code are all open source and available on GitHub.

Earlier this year, we held a data logging contest, and featured submissions that monitored everything from your garden's moisture levels to your caffeine intake.

#wirelesshacks #datalogger #environmentalmonitoring #msp430 #nfc

Tried to hack my #BiteAway yesterday. But apparently the security fuse of the #msp430 has been blown :/.
Now the #reverseengineering would consume more time than I can spare. So just removing the beeper 🔇

#MSP430 #veriloghdl
openMSP430
https://opencores.org/projects/openmsp430

デバッガも対応

#MSP430 #trap

__bis_SR_register(LPM3_bits + GIE);
_NOP();

NOP: No Operationがないと最適化によりブレークポイントがおかしくなる
詳しい人に聞くまで知らなかったこと