STM32F429I Discovery USART2 communication over USB

[SAgaz.1]

I am trying to communicate with my host machine using my F429I board by utilizing the ST-Link on board and USART2, however through cubeMX setups as well as manual register modification I was not able to get my terminal to display messages printed from my MCU. I tried using PA2 and PA3 at first, then PB6 and PB7 but neither set of pins worked. As far as I know this should be possible with the ST-LINK/V2-B that comes onboard?

[SAgaz.1]

Just as an update to this I believe I figured out the problem. I was under the assumption that USART2 was the USART that I needed to target, but it turns out it was USART1 as well as its respective GPIO pins.

[Petr DAVID]

Hello SAgaz.1,

yes you are right. If you are interested to use ST-link virtual com port(VCP) for visualizing USART data. You should use USART1 on pins PA9 and PA10. Further for this you need to have correct configuration of the solder bridges SB11 and SB15. Here is bit difference in the default configuration between BOARD 32F429IDISCOVERY and board STM32F429I-DISC1. But in both cases when you are interested to have the USART1 connected STLINK the solder bridges should be in state ON. More information could be found in the user manual UM1670 chapter 6.3.3.

[waclawek.jan]

Hi @Petr DAVID​ ,

> Here is bit difference in the default configuration between BOARD 32F429IDISCOVERY and board STM32F429I-DISC1.

I was under the impression, that the difference between these two variants is foremostly in STLink. As 32F429IDISCOVERY uses STLink-V2 (i.e. no-B-nor-other-suffix), IMO the question of default configuration of VCP bridges for that one is moot. Am I overlooking something?

JW

[Petr DAVID]

Thanks @Community member​,

you are right that talking about the different default configuration of the the solder bridges on these two boards is irrelevant. The VCP is supported only with the STM32F429I-DISC1. I just overlooked the difference of the ST-Link version on this boards.