How to use expansion boards in a project?

[murrellr]

I have a NUCLEO-L476RG with X-NUCLEO-IDW01M1 Wi-Fi and X-NUCLEO-NFC05A1 NFC Card Reader expansion boards. I want to create a project that uses both these modules. I've downloaded the X-CUBE-*** software zip files and tried to import them into STM32CubeMX but they wouldn't import. The supplied quick start guides say find an example project that does what you want and modify it. This doesn't help for using both modules.

So, I'll start with the basic question. How do I import the software into STM32CubeMX?

[Khouloud ZEMMELI]

Hello @Community member​ ,

Sorry for the delay,

To import an external pack on CubeMX, you need to use the From Local option under Help/Manage embedded Software package, as mentioned in the image below, if it does not work for you, please provide me more details/ steps to be able to reproduce your issue.

 

Thanks, Khouloud

[Guillaume K]

Hello

Which X-CUBE-*** do you use ?

I think these software packages are not tailored for STM32CubeMX use.

Rather they are .zip files you have to unzip and use them directly in an IDE (not going through STM32CubeMX). If using IAR EWARM, double click on *.ewp project files. If using STM32CubeIDE, start STM32CubeIDE, open a workspace, choose "Import existing STM32CubeIDE project" and browse to the folder containing .project and .cproject files.

Usually the examples are for one expansion board only.

In order to make work both expansion cards together you have to understand the architecture and fix any bus conflict.

I.e. if they both use same SPI bus you have to design a way to disable one of the chips (Wifi or NFC reader) while using the other ( "chip select").

If they use same I2C bus and have different I2C addresses it's possible to make them coexist.

Read the technical docs for both expansion boards and the Nucleo board.

[murrellr]

The packaging of these products use the terms "quick" and "easy". In this case it is neither. Why don't you convert the examples to STM32CubeMX so I can at least manually merge these products into my STM32CubeMX-based project without having to trial-and-error each pin to see if the generated code matches the code in the examples?