Newbie questions to get started with ST

[SteveJ]

Hi all,

I'm new to ST and was a Nordic device users.
Few questions before jumping into ST.
My need is to build a radio based remote control (not BLE), that means a transceiver for TX on one side and RX on the other one.

Also mandatory: Digital and Analog pins on the board.
I intend to implement FHSS communications between the two.

My questions:
1) if I'm correct the STM32 would fit my needs. Correct?

2) I need a dev board to test my software and comms before moving to production.
After looking around it looks like the STM32WB5MM-DK would be the one I should buy. Is that correct?

3) ST seems to provide all software tools (SDK, IDE, etc...) Do they allow board flashing?

4) Are they free to use? Didn't find that info.

5) once entering production, which chipset transceiver should I implement? Of course it won't be the bulky DK, so is it just a bare STM32? The same as the ones on the STM32WB5MM-DK? Any model?

Out of curiosity, we faced many development problems with the Nordic products, especially with various nRF SDKs breaking upgrades and the Segger compiler. That's why I'm looking for jumping ship.

Thanks for any clarification.

Steve

[SteveJ]

Anyone?

[Tesla DeLorean]

STM32 is a family covering hundreds of different chips at this point. Radio chips being a subset.

The STM32WB (Bluetooth, BLE, etc) series and STM32WL (LoRa/Semtech) series being two distinct ones.

The https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/stm32wb5mm-dk.html uses a STM32W5MMG Module containing a STM32WB55VGY MCU. Suggest you pull Data Sheets, and Schematics (see "CAD Resources" tabs)

CubeIDE is a free to use environment using GNU compilers, tools. You can flash devices using an ST-LINK or J-LINK, and the debugger in the IDE

ST also has a free Keil option for their Cortex-M0(+) based MCU

ST's stand-alone flashing tool is STM32 Cube Programmer

Perhaps look on YouTube for videos on the tools and processes

[SteveJ]

Wonderful,

Thanks for your help. I'll get two wb5mm for lab purpose and start tinkering with them to transmit/receive radio data.

Don't need Bluetooth, so ht STM32WL would be also in my list. I'll check the doc.
And thanks for the clarification about the dev tools.
I'll start right away this week-end.

Steve