STM32 in real consumer products

[Bogdan Golab]

Posted on June 05, 2018 at 13:25

I believe I do not violate any forum policy here. I do not want anyone to break any secrets here.

I am a hobbyist & STM32 enthusiast but I have never seen any real products where the STM32 was embedded (besides Sony SmartWatch a few years ago, and Primer / EvoPrimer Tools).

I think such information might be interesting for many STM32 enthusiasts.

If you could share some information about real products where we can find the STM32 MCUs.

[David Annett]

Posted on June 07, 2018 at 15:40

When I worked a Garmin I deployed a marine stereo and a high end infotainment system that used them in support roles.  Currently do a lot of interactive shop displays for places like Best Buy.  I can't say which companies I do them for but should be safe to say If you are at a Best Buy about 20% of the interactive displays are my designs and most use STM32 processors in a supporting role.

[Matthew Staben]

Posted on June 07, 2018 at 17:08

We're currently ramping up a custom board with a STM32F767II on it for use in industrial controllers.  (Fire Alarm Control Panel, Security Systems).  We're actually switching from a Luminary Stellaris LM3S9B96 and LM3S5732 combo due to the LM3S9B96 having a problem and sudden end-of-life due to flash that can't be trusted (it can lose data if left unpowered for 6 months!). 

Imagine that, finishing a product, pushing it through UL, and getting word from TI that the primary part will soon be obsolete so better sign this agreement and buy as many as you may need and expect no support or warranty!  Fortunately, we're able to sell copies of what we have already passed through the labs.

EDIT: Wanted to add, my project's a pure HAL centric port!  Running: FreeRTOS, LWIP, CAN, Ethernet MII, 2 I2C, QuadSPI, SDMMC, SPI, 5 Uarts, USB (slave+FatFS), 4 ADCs, DAC (PWM), DMA, IWDG, WWDG, TIMERs - all this stuff together with HAL with very few HAL tweaks.  It really is a VERY NICE PLATFORM - just have to understand how to run the HAL!

[Bogdan Golab]

Posted on June 07, 2018 at 17:19

I know what you mean.

Working for public safety systems where we have vendors for our system components we face the same issues related to sudden product End Of Life announcements.

I do not want to mention particular vendor name but believe me they are Fortune 500 companies.They say that their sub-vendors announced EOL as well, so they are simply victims of the supply chain. At least the say it.

Diversification of vendors sometimes help but it a huge cost to develop pararelly solution where the system cost is 500+ staff months...

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on June 07, 2018 at 19:08

A lot of factors impact these things, and in current market conditions people aren't going to carry water for uneconomic lines of products. They aren't going to warehouse wafers and ICs for decades, or speculatively build things.

The tsunami in Japan destroyed a lot of facilities. Samsung has committed old IC lines to LEDs. When old production equipment, especially test equipment (IC/Wafer testers, etc) breaks it may either be impossible to get spares or replacement equipment, or the costs are simply unjustifiable. Similarly IC packaging methods or lead-frames may be obsoleted.

Fabs get sold, fabs get closed, companies merge or go bankrupt.

Ten year commitments are a start, but they are hardly iron-clad/bullet-proof guarantees.

[Bogdan Golab]

Posted on June 07, 2018 at 20:25

I worked for IC manufacture for some time. Also for vendor  of routers for many years.

I know all thee issues very well. And the concept of 'last-time buy' when supplier announce the shutting down of the factory where non-replacable chips are produced...

It costs huge money to re-design the board.

From the hobbyist perspective: the NXP stopped manufacturing Cortex M0 LPC810 MCU after a few years (~3)  - this was unique ARM chip in DIP8 case.

I was complaining to them about this because they committed to 10 years of production.

I got a reply that the supplier cannot provide DIP8 package. I could not believe...

[Matthew Staben]

Posted on June 07, 2018 at 21:14

Indeed.  Huge money. 

On the end-of-life of the LM3S9B96 uP, I wonder sometimes if Texas Instruments (who purchased Luminary Micro) chose to end the product, not because of a faulty flash, but because it had embedded Wittenstein's SafeRTOS in ROM and wanted out of this agreement  The LM3S9B96 was the only chip they produced with SafeRTOS on it IIRC.  

I considered a ROM RTOS feature a major benefit - a proven indemnified RTOS without cost!  One would still have to pay $60K for support, etc., but this way the developer knows the RTOS isn't changing nor does it have (known) issues.

[Bogdan Golab]

Posted on June 07, 2018 at 21:29

I cooperate with many suppliers. I do not see major obstacle when the supplier keeps promises i.e. follow the roadmap of the product. If you have close cooperation you synchronize your product lifecycle with the supplier component lifecycle.

The problem is when they want to cut cost suddenly  (usually after the acquisitions - when our supplier is 'consumed' by the larger company).

This happens all the time, I guess in many businesses.

[Nicholas Yunker_2]

Posted on June 08, 2018 at 14:13

Very cool article, thank you.  This is a good way to show kids in STEM programs at school that what we do is cool and fun.  A good way to get them interested so that they will want to become engineers and fill desperately needed embedded coding positions.

[Stefan Stenzel]

Posted on June 14, 2018 at 10:12

Used it for a synthesizer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umXnCuVBwf0

[Krenek.Steve]

Posted on June 14, 2018 at 23:13

My company produces a soil moisture sensor based on an STM32L:

http://aquaflex.co.nz/