STM32CubeMX and STM32CubeIDE can't get NUCLEO-H7S3L8 board to work

[Intector]

Hello,

Nobody at STM seems willing to answer my questions to the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 board. I've two of those boards and spend much time with them, but nothing will work. None of the examples from STM32CubeIDE can produce any results with those boards.

I wrote several posts here in the community but got only an answer to the first one. I even offered money for help, but it's almost like I got blacklisted.

There is no helpful information about the STM32H7S/R series on the Internet, which is somewhat frustrating. I'm thinking about posting my questions and experiences with STM elsewhere, and maybe I can get help elsewhere.

Never forget:

"Always be yourself unless you can be a pirate. Then always be a pirate."

[SofLit]

Hello @Intector and you are welcome and you are not blacklisted :).

Could you please describe your issue with the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 board?

Did you try the examples provided in STM32H7RS Cube package? read the corresponding readme file before? :

https://github.com/STMicroelectronics/STM32CubeH7RS/tree/main/Projects/NUCLEO-H7S3L8/Examples

[Intector]

Hello SofLit,

Thank you for the answer. I've been working with STM32 MCUs for quite some time now and have to say that I like them for many reasons. The STM32H7RS series caught my attention at the Embedded World in Austin, TX. I've noted those MCUs before but never showed any serious interest until I encountered a memory shortage in one of my projects. This project was initially started with the STM32H753ZI MCU and utilized quite a bit of AZRTOS. The integrated HTTP and FTP servers use an EMMC08G-MV28-01J10 for their content, which works very well. The RAM shortage becomes visible when I try to add my IO-Link driver(I've attached some pictures of my EMMC board).

This led to the decision to use an MCU capable of controlling external memory. The STM32H7RS MCU, with its XSPI interfaces, would be the perfect candidate for this project. I got two of the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 boards to test things out. Unfortunately, I could not get anything to work on those boards. I tried unsuccessfully several STM32CubeIDE examples, as described in their documentation. I'm unsure how much time I spend finding detailed information on the internet regarding the STM32H7RS MCUs. 

Here are a few of my questions:

• If I start a new project in CubeMX and select the NUCLEO-STM32S3L8 template, the boot project's icon has a warning sign. What does this mean?
• What and in which order do I flash the firmware to the board?
• How can I just flash the application project to the address 0x70000000?
• Is there a more detailed description of which parts of the software must be in the boot or apps sections? 
• Do I have to initialize the AZRTOS in the boot or the app section?

The NUCLEO-STM32S3L8 boards are back in their boxes, waiting for the time when sufficient information will be available. 

I started working on a new PCB for the STM32H723ZG with APS6408L-OBMx and EMMC08G-MV28-01J10.

[CMYL]

Hello @Intector 

Below 3 Wikis giving introductions and practical examples to use in the following order.

• Getting started with External memory Manager and External memory loader: Getting started with External memory Manager and External memory loader - stm32mcu
• Introduction to External memory Manager: Introduction to External memory Manager - stm32mcu
• Introduction to External memory Loader: Introduction to External memory Loader - stm32mcu

The AN6103: Introduction to external memory manager and external memory loader middleware for boot flash MCU, gives details information on how to start the development on the STM32H7R/S series.

Best regards 

[Intector]

Hey,

I found some time to play with my NUCLEO-H7S3L8 board again. This time, I forked the GitHub repo from your link. It contains a lot of information, which took me some time to go through. I tried several examples for the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 board, but unfortunately, none of them worked. As the next step, I started a new project and followed the instructions posted by @CMYL as closely as possible. You'll find attached the project I've created that way. What can I say? It doesn't work.

Here are some points I ran into:

1. Generating Code from STM32CubeMX gives me this warning:

2. The ExtMemLoader has two warnings:

   

3. It's not possible to start the application:

 

After that message, I used the STM32CubeProgrammer and erased the flash on the STM32H7S3L8, programmed the "STMH7S3L8H6-Sandbox_Boot" to address 0x08000000, and the "STMH7S3L8H6-Sandbox_Appli" to address 0x70000000. That worked without any issues, but the LEDs stayed dark after I pressed the black reset button. Even a power cycle didn't light up the LEDs.

The documentation link from @CMYL led to a description for the STM32H7S78-DK, which does not matter because the MCUs are the same regarding some minor details. The external flash chip on the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 board is relatively new, and I can't find a datasheet, but the dataset for the MX25U25645G will probably do just fine.

Long story short, here are my conclusions so far:

STM32H7S3L8 MCU pros:

• It is a fascinating and flexible device.
• The use of external memory opens a whole host of possibilities.
• It's a super fast MCU.

STM32H7S3L8 MCU cons:

• None or only essential support.
• The development tools and libraries are erroneous.
• The documentation is not detailed enough to troubleshoot some of the issues.

Never forget:

"Always be yourself unless you can be a pirate. Then always be a pirate."

[Intector]

Hey CMYL,

In my answer to @SofLit, I wrote that your link is a description for the STM32H7S78-DK. This does not really matter because the STM32H7S3L8 and the STM32H7S7L8 MCUs are not that much different. The external flash chip used on the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 is relatively new, and no datasheet is available, but the datasheet from the MX25U25645G will do just fine.

I'm not quite sure why STM32CubeMX cannot generate a usable project skeleton for any of the two boards or the naked MCU, but it would help a lot if that issue could be solved.

Sadly, such a potential MCU can't be used without significant headaches for the developer.

Never forget:

"Always be yourself unless you can be a pirate. Then always be a pirate."