NUCLEO 144 H7 LEGACY for programming an external MCU

shyammurali · ‎2026-02-27

Dear ST team,

I am planning to use STM32H753ZIT6 in my design and also planning to use NUCLEO 144 H7 LEGACY for development activities. Could anyone help me whether I can use the NUCLEO 144 H7 LEGACY board to program the STM MCU which is going to assemble in my board? If possible please let me know how to isolate the on board MCU which is present in the NUCLEO 144 H7 LEGACY board.

Regards
Shyam

mƎALLEm · ‎2026-02-27

My stand point:

To my knowledge, the NUCLEO 144 boards having STLINK V2 have been deprecated from awhile for H7 MCUs. The boards now feature STLINK V3. So if you purchase the board from a distributor (unless they do have V2 in an old stock).

If you need a STLINK V2 on a NUCLEO 144 board (that you can use it externally) you can purchase NCULEO-F439 (Not H7 product:(

https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/nucleo-f439zi.html

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mƎALLEm · ‎2026-02-27

Hello, @shyammurali and welcome to the St community,

Do you have this exact hardware on your board (ST-LINK V3)?

If yes that's not possible (there is no modification available) to use that ST-LINK to program an external MCU target.

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Andrew Neil · ‎2026-02-27

Does your board have the break-off ST-Link V2.1 part - like this:

If it does, then this applies:

https://www.st.com/resource/en/user_manual/um1974-stm32-nucleo144-boards-mb1137-stmicroelectronics.pdf#page=20

via: https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/nucleo-h743zi.html#documentation

However, this has a number of limitation; a standalone ST-Link is not expensive - I would strongly suggest that you get one!

https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/hardware-debugger-and-programmer-tools-for-stm32.html

Be sure not to get a fake/clone!

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.

mƎALLEm · ‎2026-02-27

@Andrew Neil wrote:

Does your board have the break-off ST-Link V2.1 part - like this:

If it does, then this applies

Indeed otherwise (my previous post), not possible.

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shyammurali · ‎2026-02-27

Hi Meallem, Andrew,

Thank you for the quick response.

I have purchased NUCLEO 144 H7 LEGACY which is having the exact same MCU (STM32H753ZIT6) part which I am planning to use in my design. I haven´t received the NUCLEO board yet but as per user manual details this NUCLEO board have STLINK part on it.

So if STLINK is there then i need to purchase the programmer for programming the MCU in my design. Am I right?

Regards
Shyam

mƎALLEm · ‎2026-02-27

Hello,

Please provide the link you've purchased the board from so we can check if it feature STLINK V2 or V3.

In fact there are two versions of that board one having STLIONK V2 and one V3.

If V2, it's possible like indicated by @Andrew Neil otherwise (V3), that's not possible as indicated by me in my previous post.

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Andrew Neil · ‎2026-02-27

@shyammurali wrote:
So if STLINK is there

Not quite.

There is always an ST-Link there - the question is whether it's the old ST-Link V2.1 (as I showed) or the new ST-Link V3 (as @mƎALLEm showed).

Only the the old ST-Link V2.1 (the break-off one) can be used to program/debug an external target.

But, again, I would strongly suggest that you get a standalone ST-Link anyhow if you're making a custom board.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.

shyammurali · ‎2026-02-27

Hi Andrew,

Could you please share the standalone ST-Link programmer part number and user manual details which I can use it for programming STM32H753ZIT6 MCU.

Regards
Shyam

Andrew Neil · ‎2026-02-27

@Andrew Neil wrote:
again, I would strongly suggest that you get a standalone ST-Link anyhow if you're making a custom board.

See here for the reasons why.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.

Andrew Neil · ‎2026-02-27

@shyammurali wrote:
Could you please share the standalone ST-Link programmer part number

See the link I gave earlier:

https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/hardware-debugger-and-programmer-tools-for-stm32.html

And, again, be sure not to get a fake/clone!

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.