Source of knowlegment

[nicomarconi]

Hi, everyone. I have been doing some courses bout stmf411 programming, it is quite good course. However a question comes up in my mind all the time. How would i learn if i wouldn’t have nobody to teach me all the microcontoller stuff ? or in other way how have the stm32 programmer master learnt to program? is there a special course that is given by STM company?

What is the main source for becoming a master in st microcontroller master?

 

I would really appreciate any answer to this that blow my mind …

 

Thanks a lot 

[mfgkw]

Hi,

what is a “st microcontroller master”?

For the first steps you need some guidance or tutorial, there are many in the internet; some as webpages, some as videos, or preferable you know somebody who has experience…

The other end is “knowing everything”. Here you won’t find anybody obviously.

Everybody will be somewhere on this spectrum. I do not know how far you want to go on the road to the other end.

What you need is always a combination of different subjects, like C/C++, electronics, MCU in general and STM32 and your specific controller (and probably many more, depending on your needs). I assume programming basics like C will be easier to get on a PC, but I may be wrong.

In the end you will have many roundtrips with searching information, trying, making errors and sometimes some success.

I do not believe in “this makes you a master in xyz in n days” if you want to go beyond the first level.

For many more specific subjects like GPIOs, rimers, RTOS etc. there are really goods lessons available online. But not one source for everything, so I think your question is hard to please.

[nicomarconi]

Thanks a lot….

[mƎALLEm]

Hello ​@nicomarconi and welcome to the ST community,

The reference manual and the datasheets are the main entry points but there is no Book provided by ST for STM32 applications but ST provides wikis and some How to on its Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@stmicroelectronics 

You can also find/purchase some books like Mastering STM32

But to master the MCU, no matter the platform, you need to do many projects to master it. You can’t master everything at first time.

 

[nicomarconi]

Thanks a lot for taking time for your answer. I have been programming microcontroller for 5 years , and it is hard to find the correct way of doing that. That’s why i am asking you, because maybe i am no being capable of finding the correct way of learning to code microcontroller. I started with NXP and after a while i moved to ST. 

I will follow the link you have send me. Thanks a lot again.

[nicomarconi]

Thanks a lot  for you answer. Yes i know what you mean , but for me is difficult to understand that something so difficult lo learn , does’t have a path from trhe vendors company to learn. I know the basis from diferent website courses.  But for example, i am dealing with sd card connection to stm32f411 and it is really sad to have to learnm from people that you don’t know they are expert in the matter . You know what i mean?

[mƎALLEm]

 But for example, i am dealing with sd card connection to stm32f411

As I said there are some “How to ...” provided by ST either as article/wiki or on the youtube channel.

For example for SD card:

Refer to this article: How to create a file system on an SD card using STM32CubeIDE

and this video: STM32 – Creating a File System on a SD card

They are using STM32F7 MCU but the SD configuration is almost the same.

For the hardware, you need to refer to the board schematic provided in the video: 32F746GDISCOVERY schematic. especially this part:

You can also refer to the STM32CubeF4 package examples, especially the ones using FatFs.

Example this example: https://github.com/STMicroelectronics/STM32CubeF4/tree/master/Projects/STM32F412G-Discovery/Applications/FatFs/FatFs_uSD

Hope that gives you the hint on how to start on this topic.

[nicomarconi]

mƎALLEm

Awesome, im gonna see all the material you’ve send me , it is reassuring to have this support. I am really grateful . THANKS A LOT

[Andrew Neil]

 

[nicomarconi]

Hi Andrew, i really appreciate your help. I will check all you sent me...THANKS A LOT

[Pavel A.]

Too late, I’m afraid. Knowing microcontrollers of this kind won’t yield you a job these days. OTOH if you already have a job or a proposal, they should tell you what to learn and how.

 

[nicomarconi]

Hi Pavel. Thanks for your answer. I am no looking for a job right now. I have all the time to study because i quit my last job for starting development my own products. It was my dream since i finished my degree of Bio-engineer. And i am doing a project right now,and i have to deal with sd card and so on.

If someone is interested to connect and to share stuff i am open to catch up and to see how we can collaborate in this journe.

 

Thanks a lot. My email is [e-mail]

[LCE]

Just do it…

You can attend many courses, but you’ll probably learn more by doing it. Trial and error, and sometimes success…

So my 7 cents:

• check for examples from ST
  • understand, copy, paste, adjust
• get a Nucleo-board first before spending time on your own design
• mostly make sure you have the GPIO directions correct, the STM32 types I used are quite robust
• to make things safer, put a series resistor 33R .. 100R to each GPIO, then it will be hard to damage anything - although not impossible...

[nicomarconi]

Thanks a lot for your help...Yes i am doing some online courses and i am learning from that. Thanks

[Mikk Leini]

I can speak out of my experience - you need to have a problem that you really want to solve. You mentioned bio-engineering. Maybe you want to build a portable stress meter that plays om-sound then stress goes high or maybe you have some other higher goal. Anyway you start working on that. There are hundreds or thousands ways to do devices like that. Research, read, study and when you feel you have enough knowledge or its all still fuzzy, then roll up your sleeves and start development in practice in your own way! This is engineering not manufacturing - you innovate and find new ways all the time rather than replicate solutions with zero deviations. After many successful projects and even more failures you start seeing patterns and are able to re-use right solutions and bypass the wrong ones. Eventually you realize that you can’t become master of one MCU, MCU family, toolset or programming language anyway because by the time you learn something specific down to last register, it’s outdated and world has moved on.

So you don’t need to focus on STM32 specifically because many practices apply across the whole embedded engineering field. Your experience with NXP MCUs is valuable as well. For start, check out this great collection of materials:

GitHub - nhivp/Awesome-Embedded: A curated list of awesome embedded programming. · GitHub

[nicomarconi]

Awesome Mikk Leini. Yes i agree entirely with you. Making devices, projects and learning from th experiences is the way to become a master in something. I know only one think is the only thing that i want to do in my professional life, learn to make my products and to set up my own manufacturer to fabricate and sell product. 

 

I have been working 15 years in world-wild medical devices companies as general electric, Biotronik, etc, as clinical specialist, technician and salesman, and besides that, i studied  about all regulations laws for medical devices manufacturer, after that i realized it is not worth making any medical devices, at least you have an idea will really change human being life.  

Now i am focused to make products for a huge amount of people, for commercial purpose. 

 

I really appreciate your time Mikk...thanks a lot

[rich.g.williams]

The video posted by ​@mƎALLEm is very good, just to say that you don't have to use fat file system, for a data logging application lower level 512 byte blocks might work - like DD command in Linux, would also work for streaming audio etc, lot's of interesting possibilities with STM32, would like to see any info that could be shared working the SD Card on SPI or even bitbang.  Richard