The MSP430 family of Texas Instruments  is one of the most popular 16-bit microcontroller families  because of its performance, architecture, and ultra low power consumption. Just recently, I received my EZ430-F2013, a USB Stick Development Tool for MSP430.  This includes an MSP430 USB stick, IAR Embedded Workbench (Kickstart Version) IDE, and a CD-ROM containing related  software and documentation.

The USB stick is enclosed by a nice plastic casing and it is composed of a USB debugging interface and a detacheable MSP430F2013 target board(see image above). The USB debugging interface supports development with all the MSP430 Spy Bi-Wire devices and it also supports eZ430-T2012(see image below) and eZ430-RF2500T target boards. The target boards get their power from the USB port.

Texas Instruments also provides various application notes for MSP430 family. One of these is Ultra-Low Power Motion Detection Using the MSP430F2013. This application note is about motion detection using a PIR sensor connected to the Sigma-Delta ADC of MSP430F2013. I used the schematic and code presented in the application note and I made a simple setup using a small breadboard, some passive components, connecting wires, a PIR sensor, and, of course, my MSP430 development tool.

Here is the video of my simple implementation of the application note.