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STM32F0 Discovery Board, what do you think?? — Parallax Forums

STM32F0 Discovery Board, what do you think??

rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
edited 2012-10-19 08:31 in General Discussion
Ok I know this is the parallax forums not the ST Micro forums!! But I just completed a review for this board on element 14. I was very interested to see how it would stack up against other dev platforms especially the propeller, even more especially after a certain user came through flaming everyone on the forums in the name of the F4 version of this board. I got to say I was really excited when I got the board it seems fairly powerful. Anyways I was wondering if anyone else had actually used these and had the same experience as in my review, or if anyone has the TI Stellaris boards yet maybe there a better choice or do they suffer the same fait?

http://www.element14.com/community/roadTestReviews/1348

Id like to get into using these cheap powerfull micros at some point but it seems like there is no real good documentation out there, a hand holding tutorial like the Prop education Kit or the Bs2 whats a micro controller. When it takes 3 hours to get an IDE running and an LED flashing I think thats just to much wasted time... I could be doing something more usefull like picking up rocks and moving them 2 inches over....

Comments

  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2012-10-14 16:58
    Concept and quality of product: Thumbs up.
    Lacking an easy to obtain and use IDE: Thumbs down.

    Three hours to flash and LED.. Nope.. Not even gonna wait that long. I had a Propeller doing LEDs and TV Display within my first hour of ownership. Sold.

    Jeff
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2012-10-14 17:07
    rwgast_logicdesign wrote: »
    Id like to get into using these cheap powerfull micros at some point but it seems like there is no real good documentation out there, a hand holding tutorial like the Prop education Kit or the Bs2 whats a micro controller. When it takes 3 hours to get an IDE running and an LED flashing I think thats just to much wasted time... I could be doing something more usefull like picking up rocks and moving them 2 inches over....
    I think you answered your own question. Parallax is your friend. :)
  • frank freedmanfrank freedman Posts: 1,983
    edited 2012-10-14 18:08
    Go to work for mega-corp where they can afford to train you on site or off for a week or two on and provide you a copy of the software development system from the course. Otherwise your on your own. (unless you hit the lottery, in which case tools won't be an object will they)

    Have a cheapie stelaris board, not even powered up yet. To much to do, to much no time.......

    FF
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2012-10-14 18:42
    I just think these boards are sneaky marketing, when you call something a Discovery board or a Launchpad, and price it under 10 dollars it sounds like its a good startering point. When I first chose the propeller I almost got a Discovery board, but didnt due to lack of DIP parts. I probably would have never touched a micro again if the discovery was my first board.

    I think these boards are decent if you start with a crippled IAR then move to GCC, but you have to know C fairly well and work things backwards. Im just really surprised I cant even find some tutorials online or something not even official STM tutorials. I was thinking these could be an awesome chip to connect to a prop and then just use there peripherals if nothing else.
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,183
    edited 2012-10-14 19:02
    rwgast_logicdesign wrote: »
    Im just really surprised I cant even find some tutorials online or something not even official STM tutorials.

    ST's website has to win the all-time prize for total failure. The triumph of Corporate Mission Statement Fluff, over information delivery.

    On the topic of simple boards, I like the look of this offering
    http://coocox.org/Cookie.html

    Not as cheap as a loss leader, but CooCox provide software and IDE and Downloaders, and now they have a simple board, there is the promise of a solution tested and supported from a single point.

    Just a couple of minor grumbles about their Rev1 PCB :
    a) They chose a 64K Nuvoton part, when there are 128K alternatives.
    b) They have a nice shrink DB9, but forgot to connect all the pins (use just 2+G ?!). The Chip has 2 UARTS
    Of course, both are easy to fix.
  • ElectrodudeElectrodude Posts: 1,665
    edited 2012-10-14 19:06
    My uncle gave me an STM32F0 Discovery (or something very similar) and I never programmed it because 1) I couldn't get a IDE or even a compiler, 2) I don't have anything to plug all of those pins into, and 3) it's not a propeller, so why even bother?
  • rod1963rod1963 Posts: 752
    edited 2012-10-14 19:44
    I like the chip, but it's complicated. And before buying a board I always download and checkout the software first. If the software is friendly to non-gurus then I buy the board, otherwise I stay away.

    ST isn't as user friendly as say NXP with their mBed boards and easy to use software. Get one of their 40 pdip packages and you can be up and running real fast. This is how it should be done.

    http://mbed.org/handbook/Homepage

    Lastly consider giving RowleyCrossWorks for ARM boards a try. It's a polished version of GCC without all the bloat associated with home brew and one man shop versions(weighs in at 80MB vs. TI's CC Studio coming in at a horrendous 1.3GB) and you can get a free 30 day version. A personal version costs $150.00.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-10-14 19:45
    There is a good Getting Started document, you should be able to get something working in a few minutes with one of the supported IDEs. I tried the Atollic tools with it, initially.

    I didn't have any problems using Rowley CrossWorks.
  • CircuitsoftCircuitsoft Posts: 1,166
    edited 2012-10-15 12:46
    If you already have the discovery board, try ChibiStudio; it's a nice RTOS that comes with full gcc toolchain and Eclipse-based IDE.
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2012-10-15 14:00
    Hmmmm thanks this ChibiStudio looks very intresting, but being new to arm let me see if im thinking about this in the right way...

    Once I commit to using chibiOS I would then write my programs with all of its library linked to my project. Now that im using chibiOS I dont have to worry about figuring out STMs library code for there peripherals and such, I would basically be using the chibi libraries and following there documentation as its an OS just like on a PC abstracting the lower level drivers into the OS which will hook into the hardware? Basically I would be commanding chibiOS what to do and then it would act as an easy wrapper around the STM libraries and it also has its own stuff like threading which I can use? Like a huge library wrapper with more features....
  • CircuitsoftCircuitsoft Posts: 1,166
    edited 2012-10-16 09:26
    Basically, yes. There are a few peripherals that are not yet supported because they're difficult to support in a driver model (for example, SPI slave). However, for the most part, ChibiOS should have all the libraries and wrappers necessary to make the chip work reasonably easily.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2012-10-16 11:59
    I'd second what Rod1963 said. NXP is an easier way to get into ARM Cortex programming. The LPCXpresso deal between Embedded Artists, NXP, and Code Red, can't be beat. They offer a forum where you can find real answers, and a whole lot of great sample programs come with the free IDE.

    I don't think I would have had as pleasant an experience with the STM32F and Stellaris boards if I hadn't spent a whole lot of time with LPCXpresso. I saw on eBay, recently, where a new LPCXpresso board was selling for $15. (It was an LPC1114 board, which is a fine place to start. The 1114 is an M0, but 95% of what you learn with it could be passed on to faster members of the LPC family, and Stellaris and STM as well.)

    Still, the ARM world will probably never be quite as friendly or as accessible to beginners as the Parallax world.
  • John A. ZoidbergJohn A. Zoidberg Posts: 514
    edited 2012-10-19 08:31
    The STM32 boards are nifty little things, I admit. But what got on my nerves is the IDE. I tried 3 IDEs and I can never darn compile anything or upload to the board. Only MikroC for ARM has managed to do that, with the ST-LINK program. The documentations are sparse and very convoluted.

    However, the Stellaris Launchpad amazed me. I thought this one would wreck my nerves, but I managed to write an LCD code within hours of learning the compiler, interfaces and the such. Plus, it has an FPU inside.

    I would say, mBed is the easiest. No fooling around with installing the IDE, because it's not in the computer. I used mBed to test some peripherals before I moved it to PIC/PIC32. :)
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