769disco and 746disco - what is the direction?

[Dan Mackie]

Posted on February 09, 2018 at 06:53

   ST is to be complimented for three specific design improvements apparent in the 769disco.  FIrst, it actually has a connector to the display, rather than the LCD cable being soldered directly to the board, as is typical of the 429-disco and the 746-disco. This ought to make it much easier to upgrade the system.  Furthermore, ST is actually making two versions of the 769-disco - one with a display, and one without, so we don't have to buy a system with a display, and then throw the display away because we are upgrading the system to a larger brighter display to be sunlight visible.  The third is that the 769disco has mounting holes, as does the 746disco, where the 429disco has none.  I have wanted all of those improvements with other systems we have bought from ST through distribution.  Thanks for the progress ST!

   However, I also have a question or two.  One, I would like to see downloadable full system source kits including the CubeMx project file, for all boards, starting with the 769disco, of course!  It would make it a lot easier to adapt the system, rather than having to puzzle out what device support is required.  If you have not had to do that, lucky you.  ST, please make this happen soon.  You should find that to be dead easy, and VERY popular.

   Two, I would like to see better stability in the product mix available.  We shipped multiple 746disco units that we upgraded to  7' sunlight visible LCDs, and now find that there are no more 746disco units available here, and only electronic rumors of 87 being available at Newark UK.  Newark in Canada has not be able to nail down their UK options for us to date.  Digikey, Arrow, and Future have no stock of the 746disco at all.  However, there are nearly 1000 pieces of the 769disco available, so we are checking out the 769disco because we are forced to, not because we want to.

   I am sure we can be criticized for having shipped systems with xxx-disco units, and be told that we should have built our own boards to ship.  However, if what ST is doing with chips is good, what is wrong with using their boards too,

instead of only using their board designs?   If what you are doing is selling, figure out how to sell more of it, and keeping stock in the distribution channels sounds like a good move.  Dropping product availability significantly makes the marketplace wonder what is really happening.

   If you agree or disagree with the points above, say so.  If enough of us encourage ST in the right direction, they might actually go there!

Dan

#downloadable-full-source-kits #stability-of-product-mix

[Dan Mackie]

Posted on February 11, 2018 at 16:25

I am not overly concerned about clock speed.  180 and 216 are far beyond the 40 and 50 Mhz 188s I have been programming and building for about 20 years.  I moved to the Arm for multi-vendor stability, and ST has been a fairly reasonable player in that game to date in my books.  I have used their eproms for many years with no difficulty. I am a lot more concerned with smooth integration, and ease of use - solid integration design - making it an effective system component, capable of taking on a range of other devices.  A little like the IBM PC versus the Apple of years ago.  Make it more open, and easier to add other devices.  So for example, choosing a consistent family of commercially available plug-in screens with daylight visibility has much more value than the absolute cheapest screen you can find, and changing the screen interface signalling every time you do another machine.  And making it a plug in, rather than a ribbon soldered to the board is a great move in the 769.  With the waving of the agreement I never literally signed, it probably makes more sense to get a 429 with all 144 pins built according to my biases and experience with what we have done to date, and not worry about the next latest greatest clock speed, etc.

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on February 11, 2018 at 18:26

The original Arduino Star-Otto board had the same LCD connector, the current version seems to have a different LCD+CAMERA connector.

https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/07/02/is-the-arduino-star-otto-open-source-st_world-arduinoorg-st_news-arduino/

 

The presence of the microSD card socket and Arduino shield socket is something I like to see.

The LCD socket is also on the STM32L4R9-DISCO

http://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/32l4r9idiscovery.html

 

I'd like to see an STM32L4R9-DISC1 without the screen

[Bogdan Golab]

Posted on February 11, 2018 at 20:15

I like boards with the LCD fitted. 746-DISCO is my favorite one because the LCD is stable - fixed reliably. I do not like 769-DISCO, 412-DISCO,etc because the LCD is not mounted firmly. But I have a hobbyist perspective.

[T J]

Posted on February 12, 2018 at 00:29

Dan , your ideas are awash around the planet.

We are all looking for vendor and processor stability.

I built a board for the '415 -176  originally but blah blah

ended up with a '746 - 208, blah blah  then switched to the '767

then the H7 came out...

:(

Not Luckily, I am sure it was intended,ST has made all these parts, mostly interchangeable on the board.

My current 'F767 board looks pin for pin for the H7,

I checked every pin, every peripheral it all lines up.

I will drop one on a board next month and we will see if it runs.

My point is that you can work with one processor and if another desirable processor comes along,

At worst, it is likely, only slight changes to your board if any.

Best to make a board that suits your work.

Kicad is my weapon of choice

PCBWAY.com Its so cheep and Fast... 6-10days delivered.