TouchGFX or Embedded Wizard or what am I missing? Complete STM newb.

[JGoli.1]

I am new to the STM world. I was drawn to the STM because of the beautiful graphics I see in demo's and I would love my HMI's to look that advanced. I am having trouble trying to figure out just what software to use to build an HMI/GUI. Everything I read says TouchGFX but then I click on the "Premium Content Webinar " and they show me Embedded Wizard. In general there seems to be a never ending sea of links that lead to more confusion when clicked. Can anybody set me straight?

[Mon2]

Welcome to the forum. Personally suggest the use of TouchGFX which is a free tool supplied by ST as ST purchased the vendor about 1.5 years ago. This used to be a 3k EURO commercial product. Respectively, the tool has been advanced over the past number of months so be sure that you have the latest toolchain installed. Next, review a kit video that can confirm the hardware (kit) from ST is supported on TouchGFX. Before jumping in, follow the toolchain steps in an attempt to program the same selected target kit. If the process builds then you stand a good chance of building your own custom GUI. I have been out of the loop for a bit but will be jumping back in shortly for a possible new design. Hope this helps.

PS: We have a keen interest to see if we can drive perhaps one of the many low cost displays from the "iphone" family. We are shooting blanks with the support from Asia on this topic. They claim the specs for such displays is a guarded family secret. Great to know yet everyone including my mother is building them in Asia. Somewhat confusing. Anyways, ST offers a slew of controllers that can support the MIPI standard. Just now starting this review and will investigate from the iphone schematics on their interconnect with the target display. I think you will be better off in terms of performance, resolution and commonality to consider a MIPI driven display version some other variance. Just my 2 bit (half a nibble) advice.

[JMors.1]

There is a third option, STemWin. And there is the Qt work on micros as well.

You could download the software for each EmbeddedWizard or TouchGFX and run through an example. There should be sample software and example projects for the target you are looking to use. It might be best to get an idea of the project flow and process for each and determine for yourself which is best.

TouchGFX has recently been added to the ST suite of tools, and although there has been some challenges, the integration with STM32CubeIDE and STM32CubeMX is getting better. Then again, you may find one better for some projects and the other better for others. From what I gather, TouchGFX is more C++ focused where EmbeddedWizard seems to be more C based though.

Personally, I have been doing a bit of TouchGFX work and outside of some issues, it does allow you to work on a project between TouchGFX, STM32CubeIDE, and STM32CubeMX. Since TouchGFX uses FreeRTOS/CMSIS_RTOS V2 you can pass message between the HAL and GUI layers fairly easily.

I do have EmbeddedWizard installed and have created a basic GUI example. The design process is much different from TouchGFX but not too difficult. It does seem a bit more manual with regards to loading the code on a Target where the command line is used. In TouchGFX you can use the same Debug and Run options from STM32CubeIDE, Keil MDK or IAR since TouchGFX produces project code for each .

Even without a board, you can download the tools and go through the examples and demos. This should give you a better idea of what is best for your particular needs.

Cheers,

Jon

[SSnid.1]

There is a fourth option as well, Crank Software.

Crank is an authorized Partner with its GUI development framework, Storyboard, support across both STM32 MCUs and MPU(s). Storyboard’s architecture enables you to decouple the front-end UI development from the back-end logic development allowing you to alter how users interact with your application without having to overhaul the communication with the backend.

Just another STM32 GUI builder framework to consider.

Cheers