Lightweight Web Server Using The MSP430

Need a tiny web server? [Rob] over on the 43oh forums made an Ethernet booster pack for the very popular TI MSP430 microcontroller. If that’s not enough, [Rob] also put together an all-in-one solution with a MSP430 and Ethernet controller that can be powered by a battery. Along with the web server that fits in just 5k of flash, we’re going to say [Rob] has a very good solution for remote sensing and data logging.

For his Ethernet-enabled 430, [Rob] chose to use the WIZnet W5200 Ethernet controller. This chip communicates with the 430 via and SPI interface and has a hardware TCP/IP stack that supports TCP, UDP, and PPPoE, offloading all the low-level stuff off of the 430 and onto the Ethernet controller.

After the break there are a pair of videos of [Rob] showing off his tiny web server. A few neat features include a full memory dump of the 430, as well as a reading the states of all the pins via an HTML page. If you’re looking for a way to collect data over Ethernet, we don’t think you could do better than [Rob]’s tiny 430-based web server. Also, if you’d like to control a few devices over the Internet, [Rob] included a few optoisolators  for lights or appliances.

The code is available on the 43oh forum page, but [Rob] says he’ll clean that up and put it in a Git.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xu4rIqPUP0&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Ng5Kc_LqY&w=470]

17 thoughts on “Lightweight Web Server Using The MSP430

  1. Thanks for the post. This is the chip communicates with the 430 via and SPI interface and has a hardware TCP/IP stack that supports TCP, UDP, and PPPoE, offloading all the low-level stuff off of the 430 and onto the Ethernet controller.

  2. What is not “cheating,” using ENC28J60? :)
    WIZnet chips are great because there’s one less layer to worry about.
    MSP430G2553 has 512 bytes of RAM only and you could have as little as 256 bytes to use W5200.

  3. The thing I hate the most about HaD is the missing favorite button. How should I find this article again if I need to? Bookmark it? That would be like tossing a grain of sand on the beach. I need a Fav-Tool so I can save those Posts in an account without the need to be at my PC.

    HaD, get your sh*t together and upgrade your system. I know this is not Pinterest, by come on… this edit isnt even editable. not by you…. And we’re working on it.

  4. What is not “cheating,” using ENC28J60? :)
    WIZnet chips are great because there’s one less layer to worry about.
    MSP430G253 has 512 bytes of RAM only and you can have as little as 256 bytes to use W5200.

  5. I’d be cheating Gravis if there was an AVR micro on there. Using the wiznet is simply a logical choice in comparison to what else is out there.

    Porting an Ethernet controller chip code to a different micro is a tidy sum of work(even if its the wiznet). + The pcb design / micro choice is excellent!

    Nice work RobG =)

    p.s. write a udp example pretty pretty please!

  6. I’ve been using the Ardumote app on my iPad to control an ethernet shield + arduino for a couple projects. This seems to be a cheaper alternative. Any chance we can get a working UDP example for interfacing with Ardumote??

  7. That is what the magjack is for, it has built in magnets.

    In any case, this looks like a great piece of kit, it would be really useful to have a $10 hardware to web server board, it would make a lot of datalogging applications much simpler (or better yet, implement a serial bridge on it)

    the only way to improve on it would be to rig it for PoE

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