Virtual COM Port on STM32L053 w/IDB04A1 ?

[eleventen]

Posted on December 24, 2014 at 19:03

According to the documentation and the release notes, it looks like I should be able to either download the binary or a rebuilt HEX file for the VirtualCOMPort project to the STM32L053 Nucleo board and then connect this board to a PC via the USB port and the BlueNRG GUI on the PC ought to be able to communicate with the BlueNRG IC.

Yet, when I load this project onto the hardware and then connect the board to the PC there is no COM port.  I even installed the COM port driver from the BlueNRG GUI package.Is there something else we need to do to make this combination work?

[Tesla DeLorean]

Posted on December 24, 2014 at 22:10

While I don't have experience with the L0 Nucleo, all the other Nucleo's I've used do not have a USB port on the target side, but rather the ST-LINK controller has a USB port, and provides a USART connection to the target STM32, and virtualizes that as a VCP on the ST-LINK side. The USART on the target side is a physical one, connecting PA2/PA3.

[eleventen]

Posted on December 24, 2014 at 23:11

That is correct as far as I can tell.  The following is in the release notes for the VirtualCOM_Port project in the BLE Cube BSP.  It seems unambiguous about the intended purpose of the project as well as the means of installing it.

Example Description 

- Virtual_COM_Port is the application to be loaded in order to use the BlueNRG GUI

  on BlueNRG development platforms.

- User can use this project in order to port the BlueNRG VCOM application to his

  specific BlueNRG PCB (assuming that the customer PCB has a USB or RS232 I/O port

  available for PC connection).

- This application provides an interface compliant with the Bluetooth Low Energy DTM

  test commands.

- This application is not a reference application to be used for BlueNRG application

  development and evaluation. 

- For information  about how to use the  BlueNRG GUI, refer to the BlueNRG Development

  Kit User Manual UM1755 available on BlueNRG web site: www.st.com/bluenrg.

Hardware and Software environment

  - This example runs on STM32 Nucleo devices with BlueNRG STM32 expansion board

    (X-NUCLEO-IDB04A1)

  - This example has been tested with STMicroelectronics STM32L053R8-Nucleo

    RevC and STM32F401RE-Nucleo RevC boards and can be easily tailored to any 

    other supported device and development board.

How to use it ? 

In order to make the program work, you must do the following:

 - WARNING: before opening the project with any toolchain be sure your folder

   installation path is not too in-depth since the toolchain may report errors

   after building.

 - Open IAR toolchain (this firmware has been successfully tested with

   Embedded Workbench V7.20.1).

   Alternatively you can use the Keil uVision toolchain (this firmware

   has been successfully tested with V5.10.0.2).

   Alternatively you can use the Atollic TrueSTUDIO toolchain (this firmware

   has been successfully tested with V5.0.0).

 - Rebuild all files and load your image into target memory.

 - Run the example.

 - Alternatively, you can download the pre-built binaries in ''Binary'' 

   folder included in the distributed package.

[eleventen]

Posted on December 27, 2014 at 21:55

Looks like I found the problem.  For the VirtualCOM_Port program to work, I had to update the STLink firmware in the on-board STM32F1xx that interfaces with the USB port.