stm32f407vet6 MCU general questions

[Andrew Crawford]

Posted on April 05, 2018 at 23:35

Hey everyone, I'm new to these microcontrollers and new to these MCUs in general, and had a few questions... First off, i have some experience using Arduinos, so I'm somewhat familiar with the functionality and programming involved, and I've done all the research I can as far as finding the compatible software for programming, and looking more into the arm assembly language involved (in case I need it alongside c), but I wanted to ask more about the capabilities of the board, and whether or not I can do certain things.

The board Ive ordered has a built in SD card reader and claims to have pins supporting an LCD screen, wireless, etc... So I was wondering if it may or may not be possible to run a light version of Linux (with a GUI) off of it, maybe using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The only operating system I've found is the rtos, which definitely seems appealing for its own ease of use and purposes, but I was wondering if these boards were even capable of running anything with a GUI, if optimally configured (or if any such thing may already exist). Thanks!

*As a side note, I'm not necessarily asking if it's already been done, I would just as well be interested in doing it myself, just wondering if the capabilities may or may not potentially be there. Thanks!

[LMI2]

Posted on April 06, 2018 at 00:01

407 and STM32f1-7 don't have enough RAM or rom. You need an ARM which use external RAM, like SD-RAM:

[Andrew Crawford]

Posted on April 06, 2018 at 00:16

Ahh, okay, I mistook an SD card for having something to do with sdram, but upon looking into what that is now I see what you mean. Is this something that could be (hypothetically) done using spi or i2c, since it is in particular *synchronous* dram? Sorry for such a basic question, I'm just still learning this stuff. 

Thanks!

[Andrew Crawford]

Posted on April 06, 2018 at 00:21

Also, this MCU said it used arm assembly, so does that probably mean it just uses the language, or does the microcontroller actually have ARM? Again, sorry for such basic questions

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on April 06, 2018 at 00:50

The core micro-controller is designed by ARM, it uses the Thumb2 instruction set. The compiler hides most of that level of detail.

Might suggest one of Joseph Yiu's Essential Cortex-M4 books

[Andrew Crawford]

Posted on April 06, 2018 at 00:57

Ah, now I see what you mean. And definitely will do, thanks!

[T J]

Posted on April 06, 2018 at 01:43

I have a board that you may be interested in. Although it isn't ready today.

it has 128MBytes of 32bit SDRAM and 4GBytes 16bit FMC Flash  based on the STM32H7

it also has the QSPI flash and SDcard.

would that be enough ?

why wouldn't you use a PI ?

[Andrew Crawford]

Posted on April 10, 2018 at 05:51

I didn't really have anything too specific in mind, so really whatever would be enough to do what I was initially asking about would be enough in general. But I'm just as much exploring the capabilities of these MCUs overall, then I can figure out what all can really be done with it. But I'll definitely take that book suggestion as a good starting point, as understanding ARM overall, and the instruction set is surely an essential (as well as further understanding computer architecture). Thanks!

[Andrew Crawford]

Posted on April 22, 2018 at 00:55

Alright, I've run my rounds and I'm back for more. Now I have a bit of a better idea what I'm looking at as far as these boards go, I think. I still haven't looked too much into this board or arm controllers yet, just had another question.

Now I'm looking at building a robot, and I've heard these can be used for that. I'm looking to piece together something more complex, just sketching out the details now, and at this point my limitations are just pins. I'm not sure i can find a pi or Arduino with enough gnd or power pins (3.3 and/or 5v), to do what I want. I can put it together from separate, simpler pieces with arduinos (a handful of sensors on one, an arm on another, and wheels/legs on another), but I'm exploring controllers for all of those, so i could either try to control the separate parts from this (although im obviously not sure how), or I could program directly on it, depending which would make more sense.

Thanks!

[Andrew Crawford]

Posted on April 22, 2018 at 03:07

Sorry, now I'm trying to figure out how to upload a picture