STM32L4 is supposed to be compatible with TouchGFX, but STM32CubeMX tells me otherwise

[Nicolas SAN AGUSTIN]

Hello.

I'm working on a project using a STM32L475VG with a TFT screen (240 x 400) and we would like to use TouchGFX as graphical tool. The website tells me the STM32L4 MCUs are supposed to be compatible with TouchGFX, but STM32CubeMX does not propose me the "GRAPHICS" part in the modules list (not even appears disabled).

Even for the STM32L496G-DISCOVERY, presented as reference, STM32CubeMX does not provide me any graphical option.

What does mean this contradiction ? Does the error come from STM website or from STMCubeMX ?

Is STM32L475VG really compatible with TouchGFX and, if so, how can I use it in my project without using STM32CubeMX ?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Nicolas

[Martin KJELDSEN · Accepted solution]

CubeMX blocks TouchGFX from being used if you're not using an F4 or F7; That's the current state. Any MCU is supported by TouchGFX - You can find STM32L4 and STM32H7 application templates in the TouchgFX designer, for instance.

Come december we'll reveal something for CubeMX that can render TouchGFX applications for any MCU.

/Martin

[Nicolas SAN AGUSTIN]

Hi!

First, thanks for your answer.

Actually, just after my first message, I've been told (by the electronic supplier) that TouchGFX's porting for STM32L4 has been reported to Q2 2020. I can't wait until that, so I've been advised to try porting STemWin on STM32L4 (easier to adapt than TouchGFX).

Examples projects for the STM32L476G evaluation board provides some interesting examples using STemWin, so I'm inspiring from it to adapt STemWin on STM32L475VG (quite similar to the STM32L476 of the evaluation board). Plus the STemWin documentation.

Any advice ?

Nicolas

[Martin KJELDSEN]

Hi,

I'm very confident in saying that your electronics supplier has no clue as to the project plans for this product 🙂 We've had support for L4 for a long time, but CubeMX does not allow you to configure it _through there_.

December will see something that opens up for creating TouchGFX projects through CubeMX for L4 and beyond. We already have STM32L4 application templates in the designer that you can check out.

/Martin

[Martin KJELDSEN]

Can i ask who this supplier is? Thanks!

/Martin

[Nicolas SAN AGUSTIN]

Hi.

Supplier's name is Rutronik. I find it strange you say he doesn't know about your plans, because he claims he asked directly to STMicroelectronics if TouchGFX is really compatible with STM32L475VG. Maybe it's a communication problem between you and the french branch of STMicroelectronics ?

So I can REALLY use TouchGFX with my STM32L475VG ? How can I integer it in my project without using STM32CubeMX ? With TouchGFX Designer, when I try to create a project with the template for STM32L496G Discovery, TouchGFX throw me an error (apparently, it can't find the file "texts.xlsx" in "<MyApplicationPath>/TouchGFX/assets/texts/").

Also, when I try with another board, a TouchGFX project just generate files for the UI. I guess I need to include these files in a project with others files of TouchGFX. Is there a manual explaining how to simply integrate TouchGFX in an existing project (I'm using IAR Compiler) ?

Thanks in advance.

Nicolas

[Martin KJELDSEN]

Ok, thanks. I can understand why you think it's strange, but we're a small team of 12 people in a small country. Depending on who you ask, they'd have absolutely no idea what we're doing up here or what the current status of things are.

Yes, you can use TouchGFX with L4 without CubeMX 🙂 The documentation for creating custom ports is pretty much non-existant, but there are some fragments here and there which are difficult to find/piece together. The tool we're working on (which will allow you to do things from CubeMX) will also come with a guide for creating ports (But through CubeMX primarily).

I don't understand why texts.xlsx would be missing. Try copying it from another project. Yes, you need to include the Generated TouchGFX code into your project and then start the TouchGFX main event loop in a task or something similar. You could get some inspiration from the application templates on how this can be done.'

Let me know!

/Martin

[Nicolas SAN AGUSTIN]

Ok, I found the problem : my version of TouchGFX was 4.10, the example project for STM32L496AG is for TouchGFX 4.12. I installed the new version and now the project is created normally.

And I stand corrected : TouchGFX generates a true C project for the board I have selected.

Still, I have to find out how to adapt it for my MCU. I'm comparing the project generated by TouchGFX with the project I have for my MCU. Seems about the same kind of work I started by adapting STemWin on my MCU.

Thanks.

Nicolas

[Martin KJELDSEN]

I really have no idea about STemWin, but it is probably ballpark the same.

If you have full control of writing to your memories (internal ram, external ram, internal flash, external flash) and transferring data to your display - Then adding TouchGFX should be relatively simple.

Then it is simply a matter of starting the Touchgfx main event loop in an OS task, adding all the generated code, screen definitions etc, and then catching some event from the display (VSYNC or TE) to drive TouchGFX tick and thus progress the application rendering.

/Martin

[MuratUnal]

Hello Martin,

We have same problem about touchgfx and Cubemx (STM32L4R9I project).

We started a project with STM32L4R9I-DISCO board template project from touchgfx. Same time we developed our own hardware with same MCU. Our own hardware is in board manufacturer for assembly now. We need to integrate STM32L4R9I-DISCO board project to our own hardware.

How can we do? I have some ideas:

Solution 1:

We can create a project from Cubemx without touchgfx. We can change GPIOs, UARTS, FMC, I2C....configurations according to our custom hardware and put the driver files in to the DISCO project manually. This is very painfull method and if possible, we dont prefer this method.

Solution 2:

if we have a touchgfx project and cubemx project (we know cubemx doesnt support touchgfx for this MCU yet) in the same folder structure, we can make some changes from touchgfx gui and compile or we can make changes from cubemx and compile.

We already did it from another project with STM32F746G-discovery kit (3.5" LCD). We started project with your template under touchgfx for STM32F746G-discovery kit. After that we developed our own board with 7" LCD. when we open your template folder, we saw cubemx *.ioc project file (with touchgfx disabled). And we started to change cubemx project according to our custom hardware and also graphical changes from touchgfx gui and compile both of them separately. It is working well.

if We do same thing for STM32L4R9I-Disco, we can easly adapt our own hardware and continue. But this time your STM32L4R9I-Disco template project doesnt have cubemx *.ioc project file. So it is difficult to use this method for us.

To better understand me, please create a new project for STM32F746G-discovery kit and for STM32L4R9I-Disco from touchgfx gui (V4.12.3) and check both projects folder structure. You will see one of them have *ioc file for cubemx.

Do you have STM32L4R9I-Disco template project which include cubemx *.ioc project file? In my case i guess *.ioc cubemx project doesnt need to have touchgfx support because you already put touchgfx inside the folder.

Solution 3:

Waiting cubemx support touchgfx for L4 series. :sad_but_relieved_face:

Unfortunately we cant wait now. So we need to continue solution 1.:sad_but_relieved_face:

Any another Solution ??:

Our do you suggest us any another solution?

Best Regards,

Murat