Posted on July 18, 2012 at 16:55I like the STM32F4 Discovery for deveopment before hardware arrives. It brings out many of the processor pins, and most of those pins are not ''hard wired'' to a function on the board. This accomadates developing firmware modules on the Discovery board that use the same peripherals / pins as the custom hardware design does.
The discovery board comes close to being ideal but falls a bit short. A small number of the pins are hardwired to on board chips. For example, I believe USART1 is hard wired to the USB OTG function. For UASART debug I removed a couple components from the board. Additinally, some of the many pins are not brought out. More specifically ports beyond E are not available at the edge headers.
For the prehardware firmware development I just completed, the ideal board:
- Would leave as many pins free as possible using only pins needed to support debug. Alternatively, jumpers could allow disconnection of pings connected to functions such as USB.
- Bring all pins out to the edge headers.
I really like the STM32F4 Discovery. I am only identifying how a board might better satisfy the specific customer need of firmware development before prototype boards are available.
John
