ST-LINK/V2 works with Keil, but not with Atollic

[Alexandre Meyer]

My daily use IDE is Atollic, my board used to have a single 6 pin connector for programming, and everythin worked fine since I can remember.

The new hardware guy decided to add another connector to program the MCU (STM32F4), and our new board ended up like this:

He also insisted that we should use the 4 pin connector, and promptly made new cables for everybody in the team. Despite being identical and respnding normally to the meter continuity test, some of the cables worked and others didn't.

My cable worked for almost one week, but after some time I started receiving script error messages from the IDE. Apparently, it was unable to verify the flash.

I tried to use my old 6 pin cable, but it seemed that my programmer was gone. As I'm the only developer (the other guys only have to make occasional updates), I started borrowing their gear.

In a matter of hours, all the programmers I had borrowed were gone. They didn't work with Atollic, neither with STM32 Cube Programmer. The hardware guy said it was not his fault, and showed me his test environment, using Keil. Everything works fine for him with our (apparently) defective programmers.

I tried to update the firmware to V2.J31.S7 using ST utility. Nothing changed.

The only programmer that still works with both environments is the hardware guy's personal piece. He is also the only one with the old firmware version. I didn't dare to update.

Should I buy new programmers for everybody ?

What is the difference between using the 4 pins interface and the 6 pins ?

Why did it stop working on Atollic but keep working on Keil ?

A guy from another department checked the boxes and suggested that our programmers may be counterfeit. If so, why did they work normally for months using the 6 wire interface and decided to fail at the same time just because we stopped using two interface pins ?

Any idea of what may be going on?

Thank you

[Tesla DeLorean · Accepted solution]

The real external ST-LINK pods have a buffer powered by VTarget, if your pods are blowing up, check that your supply isn't spiking. Certainly indicative of a more systemic problem with your board, and not just the connector.

The NRST pin provides for a means of holding the chip in reset will trying to connect, this can help when you have your own code on the chips that break the debug interface by reconfiguring the pins or going into low power or sleep modes.

Atollic uses the OpenOCD drivers, these aren't the same commercial grade drivers written by ST, Keil and IAR

[David Littell]

My first suggestion would be to get a hardware guy that's not an idiot. Then go back to the 6-pin interface and get genuine ST-LINK/V2's.