Advice of hardware and software for STM32

[martech]

Posted on January 14, 2018 at 07:03

I am new to this group and wish to start using the STM32 group of MCUs. There seems to be a lot of choice here. Can someone recommend what hardware/software to use in my development. I have used MCUs from Microchip, TI and various 8051. 

Thanks

Peter

[S.Ma]

Posted on January 14, 2018 at 08:57

Get started with STM32F0 or STM32L0 with KEIL C Compiler on a nucleo board.

[Szymon PANECKI]

Posted on January 14, 2018 at 10:21

Hello Peter,

For persons, who would like to get started with STM32 ST prepared two online courses. These are

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/events/events.html/stm32cube-basics-online-course-with-hands-on-exercises-a.html

and

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/events/events.html/stm32cube-basics-online-course-with-hands-on-exercises-a.html

. By attending in these courses (free of charge) you can easily become familiar with STM32 MCUs and its tools ecosystem.

Regarding hardware platform, you can consider using one of affortable STM32

http://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/stm32-mcu-nucleo.html?querycriteria=productId=LN1847

or

http://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/stm32-mcu-discovery-kits.html?querycriteria=productId=LN1848

kits.

Regards

Szymon

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on January 14, 2018 at 16:50

Doing what? Do you have a practical application for a 200 MHz core, or something running at 20 MHz? The context of what you want to do might provide a more focused path, and narrow the choices.

Keil has a free IDE for ST's Cortex-M0 parts (F0, L0). If you like GNU and Eclipse there are several tools using those. Tools chains are usually a lot about personal tastes.

The NUCLEO and DISCO boards are cheap and self contained. Have a built in debugger pod, and Arduino shield connector and VCP connectivity in many cases. There are some top-shelf EVAL boards but the up take there is a lot smaller.

Joseph Yiu's 'Essential' books have a lot good foundational stuff providing a different perspective compared to ARM's TRM and ST's DataSheets, Reference and Programming Manuals.

[T J]

Posted on January 14, 2018 at 21:57

I use the Visual Studio IDE, I paid for the GDB license.

Very nice, quite quick and single step at will.

then there are no restrictions to switch to any processor you wish.

[martech]

Posted on January 15, 2018 at 03:01

Thanks for the reply. Your suggestion means there is virtually no outlays required except for a low cost nucleo board. I purposely made my question very open ended so I would get a broad cross section of views, which is what I received. All replies are useful to me.

Thanks

Peter

[martech]

Posted on January 15, 2018 at 03:02

That is very helpful! I shall check on the links you gave and take a look at the 2 hardware suggestions. 

Thanks

Peter

[martech]

Posted on January 15, 2018 at 03:05

Sorry to be vague but I have a number of different applications. As I wrote above I wanted this to be a general question so I could receive many solutions. I do agree with you that if a question is focussed then the respondent will be better able to offer an optimal solution. I do know I have to do a lot of reading of datasheets but that OK. 

Thanks

Peter 

[martech]

Posted on January 15, 2018 at 03:06

Thanks for the reply. Whats does GDB stand for? 

Peter

[T J]

Posted on January 15, 2018 at 03:29

Visual GDB will allow you to compile ARM projects within the Visual Studio IDE.

but it costs $150 roughly. 

per year I think..