STM32 Discovery Board vs Evaluation board

[juliuscaesar]

Posted on September 23, 2016 at 12:39

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of buying a discovery board or evaluation board. However I'm not sure which one to choose.

I'm currently working on an Arduino for a private project, but arduino has 2 Major disadvantages:

1) no Debugging ability

2) very small SRAM

At my work place, we are using STM32 MCUs and they work pretty well, so that's how I stumbled upon the STM32 discovery boards/eval boards.

I have some simple ''must haves'' in my Project.

I'd like to run freeRTOS on my MCU, so the processor should have enough Memory.

I'd like to have (eclipse) Debugging ability.

And I'd like to connect my board to a PC via USB, so the MCU should Support USB slave functionality.

Could you give me some suggetions on what boards to use?

[Kraal]

Posted on September 23, 2016 at 14:27

Hi !

I would suggest you to go with a Nucleo board for multiple reason:- they are cheap (less than 13 CHF here in switzerland for a nucleo 64)- you can choose almost any kind of STM32 type from F4 to L1 (to tailor your need of memory and execution speed)- they are compatible with arduino shields- they have an integrated ST-Link so you can easily upload your code AND debug it with Eclipse and OpenOCD- the ST-Link provide also an USB to serial capability- you can power them with USB, or external 12V, or external 5V, or external 3V3- all the pins are available through ST morpho connectors (zio for nucleo 144).

[romain239955]

Posted on September 23, 2016 at 14:30

Hello,

Discovery are very affordable, for example for ~20€ you can buy the

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-discovery-kits/32f429idiscovery.html

. MPU : 225MIPS (180 MHz) Flash : 2MB RAM : 256 KB + 64MB external SRAM USB: OTG with micro-AB connector A lot of device... All discovery include a programmer (stlink) on the PCB, so you dont need STLINK device, just download free STLink utility, plug the discovery through USB and enjoy ! Best regards PS: For 50€ you can get a very powerfull platform look at

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-discovery-kits/32f746gdiscovery.html

[romain239955]

Posted on September 23, 2016 at 14:38

Just for information you can :

1. Choose the MCU familly you need (

   http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/microcontrollers/stm32-32-bit-arm-cortex-mcus.html?querycriteria=productId=SC1169

   )
2. Click on the familly circle and try to find a MCU that fit to your need
3. After that, look into evaluation tools (

   http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-tools.html?querycriteria=productId=SS1532

   )
4. Click on the ''

   http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-nucleo.html?querycriteria=productId=LN1847

   '', ''

   http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-discovery-kits.html?querycriteria=productId=LN1848

   '' or ''

   http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-boards.html?querycriteria=productId=LN1199

   '' and choose a platform that get the MCU you select at step 2. (Nucleo and Discovery are more affordable)

Hope this help...

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on September 23, 2016 at 17:47

The EVAL boards tend to be very expensive, and ST doesn't sell a lot of them. Most users, including the commercial ones, have migrated to the DISCO and NUCLEO forms. The most recent DISCO series are heavily populated with SDRAM, LCD, ETHERNET, SDIO and ARDUINO shield connectors. ie STM32F469-DISCO

These new DISCO boards don't provide much additional IO access or expansion, if you want a break-out board look at NUCLEO For ''EVAL'' type boards look at eBay, there are a ton of STM32 based boards with lots of features that are very economical. Look at the [DEAD LINK /public/STe2ecommunities/mcu/Lists/cortex_mx_stm32/Flat.aspx?RootFolder=/public/STe2ecommunities/mcu/Lists/cortex_mx_stm32/GHI%20FEZ%20Cerbuino%20Bee%20boards&FolderCTID=0x01200200770978C69A1141439FE559EB459D7580009C4E14902C3CDE46A77F0FFD06506F5B&currentviews=89]GHI Electronics FEZ and PANDA III boards. These are low cost with SDIO and Shield connectors. You can get a SWD debug pins via headers, and remove NETMF. They can be programmed using USB/DFUSE.

https://my.st.com/public/STe2ecommunities/mcu/Lists/cortex_mx_stm32/Flat.aspx?RootFolder=https://my.st.com/public/STe2ecommunities/mcu/Lists/cortex_mx_stm32/VCC-GND%20STM32F407VET6%20Mini%20Board&FolderCTID=0x01200200770978C69A1141439FE559EB459D7580009C4E14902C3CDE46A77F0FFD06506F5B&currentviews=90

[juliuscaesar]

Posted on September 24, 2016 at 00:58

wow thx for your fast replys! :)

your're probably right, eval boards are too expensive. I'll definitely have a look at the nucleo/discovery boards. The LCD is defiantly a nice feature as well;) What about USB Data transfer, i plan on using serveral sensors to monitor environmental conditions and I'd like to transfer them to a computer (and the other way around) via USB. The Computer Program to read the serial input will be written in C#. How can i tell which MCU supports USB Data transfer? greets Julian

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on September 24, 2016 at 03:44

All the F4 DISCO boards have a user USB-FS connector, also the F4 NUCLEO-144 boards

Now as I recall all the F4 support USB, but you'd have to wire up connectors on the NUCLEO-64 boards. One could presumably use USB VCP or HID type configurations to get data back and forth. I'd lean toward VCP.

[juliuscaesar]

Posted on September 26, 2016 at 13:14

Hey,

I have done some research during the last couple of days. I have decided to use the

STM32F429ZI  

because of its large memory. I'd prefer the Nucleo Board instead of the Disco board (Nucleo -->http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-nucleo/nucleo-f429zi.html Disco -->http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/evaluation-tools/product-evaluation-tools/mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-eval-tools/stm32-mcu-discovery-kits/32f429idiscovery.html) However i haven't been able to find appropriate touch display shields for the nucleo. I would like my Display to be compatible to the Segger Library ( https://www.segger.com/emwin.html) to make Display setup as easy as possible.But i didn't find any shields compatible with Segger. Could you give me a hint where to look? thx for your help so far :)