Attaching an EZ430 RF target board to the Launch Pad

The Launch Pad development board provides unpopulated pads for adding a header so that a target board such as the EZ430 RF board can be attached to it. To connect one of the ez430 targets, connector J4 must be populated with a 0.050-in (1.27-mm) pitch male header, as shown in Figure 4, to connect the target boards. The part number for the header is Mill-Max 850-10-006-20-001000. I had a relatively hard time finding the header so I asked Mill Max for free samples and they graciously sent me a few. I would not normally ask for samples but in this case I could not find the header part. The manufacturer's will usually oblige requests if you are not greedy.

The header for J4 is very small and with the 0.05 in pitch it presented a challenge for my rusty soldering skills. One of the images shows the header part beside a ruler. I is a little over 1/2 an inch. The pads on J4 are close together on the Launch Pad. My hand shakes a lot more than it did when I was a youngster, but I was successful in soldering the connector to the Launch Pad. The target board was installed and all came up without a problem.

The EZ430 RF2500T target board is about 1 inch in length with an onboard chip antennae. In testing with my daughter we were able to maintain a connection outdoors for at least half a foot ball field distance. In my next post I hope to be able to share the results of experimenting with this setup to allow the two boards to talk to one another.