The low power MSP430 line of chips run on 1.8V to 3.6V. When using the LaunchPad emulator, your project is powered off of the USB port of your computer. When you want to deploy your project into the 'world' an appropriate source of power is required. The chip is not tolerant of voltages above 3.7V. The whole idea of this line is to operate from batteries under low power for long periods for things like remote sensors. A 3.3 lithium coin cell would work nicely, as would a pair of double or triple A batteries in series. An intriguing solution I came across in the Pololu catalog is the BodhiLabs single AA step-up 3.3V converter. It is specified to supply up to 100mAs (your project should not use a tenth of that if it is 'low power') (the low power lab runs at less than half of 1mA) and I could find no discernible ripple on my oscilloscope of the supply in operation. Solar and energy harvesting are other good possibilities that I would like to explore in the future.
Pololu/BodhiLab 3.3V converter [Link]
All Electronic Corp Coin Cell Holder [Link]
My other interests [Link]
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