Newbie loSTM in space

[Frederic Cloth]

Posted on June 08, 2018 at 12:34

Hi,

sorry for this beginner question: I am new to developping with the STM32 platform.

I just acquired an STM32F103 evaluation board and the Atollic TrueStudio software.

This works perfectly, I could compile and execute the standard 'blinking LED' project,

so basically I have no problem with the chain of tools itself.

I see that the provided code uses some system calls such as

STM_EVAL_LEDInit()

STM_EVAL_PBInit()

STM_EVAL_LEDToggle()

RCC_GetClocksFreq()

etc

On the ST website, they apparently direct you toward 'Mbed OS' which is documented

but it seems to be different system calls than the ones used by Atollic TrueStudio, and

the code produced seems to be way more heavy (the blinking LED example compiled with

Mbed CLI is about 50k, where the one compiled with TrueStudio is about 2.5K !).

I tryed to find a reference manual for those calls provided in 'TrueStudio', but so far I have

been unlucky. I tryed to type searches such as 'reference manual STM32F103' on the ST website,

forum and google, or even some of the system calls like 'STM_EVAL_LEDInit' but no luck so far.

Could someone be kind enough to point me in the right direction ?

Thanks !

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on June 08, 2018 at 13:32

If this is using the SPL (Standard Peripheral Library) there should be a Windows Help file in the root directory, I've seen PDF versions of this too.

Like

STM32F1xx_StdPeriph_Lib_V3.5.0\stm32f1xx_stdperiph_lib_um.chm

But honestly, in 2018 don't start an IoT design with an F1 part, these are a decade old, and there are new parts that work a lot better with a lot of the limitations/inflexibilites designed out.

HAL is the current library that ST actively supports, should be PDF describing that available in/near the CubeMX/HAL downloads

[Bogdan Golab]

Posted on June 08, 2018 at 13:51

This book is exactly about STM32F103 (particularly useful for 2USD 'blue pill' board

https://www.apress.com/la/book/9781484236239

 

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on June 08, 2018 at 13:37

https://www.cs.indiana.edu/~geobrown/book.pdf

 

http://www.st.com/en/embedded-software/stsw-stm32054.html

 

This is for the F2, but might be instructive

http://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/technical/document/user_manual/59/2d/ab/ad/f8/29/49/d6/DM00023896.pdf/files/DM00023896.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.DM00023896.pdf

 

[Bogdan Golab]

Posted on June 08, 2018 at 13:53

And a piece from the introductory chapter:

[Frederic Cloth]

Posted on June 08, 2018 at 23:25

Hi,

first of all, thank you for your answer.

'Clive'... nice name by the way... it reminds me of Sir Clive Sinclair.

Most certainly a coincidence,

but a nice one.

I am not planning to use the 'STM32F103 Nucleo 64' board in a project: it

was given to me

so that I could familiarise myself with STM coding and then write code for

an

electronic music instrument using that family of microcontroller.

HAL/CubeMX seems indeed to be the most sensible option, thanks for pointing

me in that

direction. I definitely will try it. I have found the library and some note

explaining how to compile

example code... let's hope I also find the reference manual for it )

Though I have no experience in embedded software, I am what I could

describe as a seasoned

software engineer (I started to program somewhere in the 1980's, and have

tryed many languages

and environments, including ARM assembly at its beginning in the early

1990's, when it was the CPU

of a computer named Archimedes).

I must say that the STM world seems... rather cryptic to me: the concepts

are not exagerately

complicated, but the use of a seemingly random naming convention makes life

of newbies like me

a bit nightmarish.

The file about the 'STM32F1 HAL' is to be found on a page about 'CubeMX'

and is titled... 'UM1850'

and stored as... 'DM00154093.pdf' not to mension that its existence is

never revealed on the page

describing the STM boards for which STMCube/HAL was apparently created

Honnestly, I believe having a link to a document named 'STMCube HAL

reference manual for STM32F1xx'

or something similar on the page(s) of the STM32F1xx boards and containing

the various system calls with

some C/C++ sample code, etc... would probably help sell more of those

boards.

Anyhow, thank you very much for your help.

On Fri, Jun 8, 2018 at 1:33 PM, Clive One <st-microelectronics@jiveon.com>

[Frederic Cloth]

Posted on June 08, 2018 at 23:33

Hi,

and first of all thanks for having taken the time to answer my question.

The libopencm3 which is cited in the introductory chapter seems quite an

interesting ressource, and it seems

there is a reference manual for it. Fantastic !

I certainly will try to investigate in that direction.

Thank you very much !

On Fri, Jun 8, 2018 at 1:53 PM, Bogdan Golab <st-microelectronics@jiveon.com

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on June 10, 2018 at 04:42

>>Though I have no experience in embedded software, I am what I could describe as a seasoned software engineer (I started to program somewhere in the 1980's, and have tryed many languages and environments, including ARM assembly at its beginning in the early 1990's, when it was the CPU of a computer named Archimedes).

My younger brother had an Atari ST and Acorn Archimedes, probably 1987-88 time frame. Started with 6502, Z80/8080, 8086, 68K and ARM assembler here. Still got a bunch of books by Rodney Zaks, Lance Leventhal, and VLSI ARM Data Manuals.