Is there a free/lite Keil MDK for STM32F4?

[Pavel A.]

Posted on November 21, 2017 at 15:54

According to this page 

http://www2.keil.com/mdk5/selector/

 the Lite Keil edition does support Cortex-M0/M0+/M3/M4/M7.

Does STM's F4 series belong to the category of ARM M4? If yes, why the Lite MDK license does not let me to target STM F4 boards such as Nucleo?

(If this is relevant, I've already requested a license for STM F0 on my machine successfully, because earlier I played with STM F0 device. But now I need to switch to F4)

Regards,

Pavel

#keil-mdk5 #free-keil

[Tesla DeLorean · Accepted solution]

Posted on November 21, 2017 at 17:43

You have installed the STMicro M0/M0+ license, this is going to limit your usage of that installation.

The Keil Eval can build up to 32KB images for the F4 designs, beyond that you're expected to buy your own license, and would need to if using the code commercially.

[Tuttle.Darrell]

Posted on November 21, 2017 at 22:10

I would just add that you can use the Keil IDE and compile with the GCC compiler (not supplied by Keil) without the 32KB limitation, however the 32KB limit would still apply to debugging. I did this before eventually purchasing a Keil license.

[Pavel A.]

Posted on November 21, 2017 at 22:52

Thank you. Commented out the STM free license in MDK's ini file, then MDK let me to create a project for F4 device.

-- Pavel

[Andrew Neil]

Posted on November 22, 2017 at 17:07

Clive One wrote:

 ... would need to if using the code commercially.

Actually, that's no longer true - you can now use the free 'Lite' version in commercial projects.

MDK-Lite is the (sic) complete software development suite for ARM®-based microcontrollers. It features software development for microcontrollers based on ARM Cortex®-M and selected ARM Cortex-R processors. It is intended for product evaluation, small projects, and the educational market. It is restricted to 32 KByte code size.

http://www2.keil.com/mdk5/editions/lite

 

http://www.keil.com/demo/limits.asp

 

[Pavel A.]

Posted on November 22, 2017 at 20:36

Good to know, thanks. The hitch is, how to get a commercial project

- pa

[Cartu38 OpenDev]

Posted on November 23, 2017 at 10:14

Another way of working is to rely on SystemWorkBench for STM32 tool :

http://www.openstm32.org/Downloading%2Bthe%2BSystem%2BWorkbench%2Bfor%2BSTM32%2Binstaller

Such is :

1) Fully free

2) No code size limitation

3) No private / commercial usage limitation

4) Fully relying on ARM Gcc toolchain (same or even more recent release then Keil MDK ...)

5) Supporting full STM32 portfolio devices & related boards

Have a try !

 Br,

 cartu38

[Andrew Neil]

Posted on November 23, 2017 at 11:29

pavel a wrote:

The hitch is, how to get a commercial project

Ha ha - tell me about it!

[Andrew Neil]

Posted on November 23, 2017 at 11:33

And, of course, you can also use Eclipse with ARM GCC - so all of the above, plus no vendor lock-in (but you have to do all the setup yourself).

https://gnu-mcu-eclipse.github.io/