Chinese microcontrollers worth considering - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: dimbmw
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 01:40:05 am
content: Hi everyoneI am seeing plenty of Chinese microcontrollers lately.I am wondering if there are ones that are worth considering, in terms of the quality, reliability of the vendor, availability pf documentation, and compiler’s support.Maybe there is some online resource to study Chinese uC manufacturers and their products with cross reference with well known western uC lines line msp430, atmel etc…Thank you for sharing the info!

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 03:33:35 am
content: There are plenty of STM32 clones, and LCSC has the datasheets for at least 8 of them.Gigadevices makes both STM32 clones and uC's with a RISC-V core, but otherwise mostly the same peripherals.I know a clone of the ATMega328 exists.(LGT8F328P) It apparently has "improved peripherals", but don't know much more about it."W806" pops up a bunch of sellers with some purple PCB, but I don't know what's on it. Some Ali shops claim it's an STM32 (clone).

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 04:52:38 am
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on June 08, 2022, 03:33:35 amI have seen these W80X devices too and looked around for data on them but could not find much and certainly not in English so decided to pass on these.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 05:13:54 am
content: Megawin Tech catalog is small, but has some 32F10x Cortex-M3 mcus under $2, almost $1 buying 1000.The english version also has translated datasheets, but for some reason the M3 aren't there, only the M0.MG32F103CBT672MHz, 28KB SRAM, 128KB FLASHDatasheet, sdk, specs (Chinese)Edit:Found M3 english datasheets and a lot of stuffhere

author: GromBeestje
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 09:02:19 am
content: If you go to the Chinese part of the site and download the DK ( MG32F10x_DK_v1.04.zip ), it contains the English Reference Manual.If you are interested into RISC-V, you might want to look at what WinChipHead has to offer. Their CH32V series (eg. CH32V103C8T6 is pin compatible with ST's chip) But one thing to note, it's not using standard debugger interfaces, you need their debugging probe and openocd. Better build it from source, (https://github.com/newbrain/riscv-openocd-wch) as their binary is outdated.For the WinnerMicro W80X, well, C-SKY architecture. The toolchain is no problem, GCC, binutils, newlib, gdb, Your standard GNU toolchain. But the toolchain ain't enough, you need to connect to your chip to debug it. And how to do that? I've found no documentation describing that step. There are these CK-LINK Lite on AliExpress, but I am not sure if this is the appropriate debugger probe for this thing, or what software goes with it.Anyhow, Chinese 32F103 chips, I've tested some in the past, and I will do some more testing soon. (I've ordered some that are currently offered, waiting for them to be delivered.)

author: Canis Dirus Leidy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 09:18:33 am
content: STC Micromakes a bunch of MCUs with 1T 8051 core that have some English documentation and can be flashed with built-in bootloader (byofficial STC-ISP utilityor third party tools likestcgalandstc8prog).WCH, AKA "Nanjing Qinheng Microelectronics Co., Ltd.".Makes a lot of MCUswith 8051, Cortex-M and RISC-V cores, but they don't bother about (officially) translating documentation from Chinese and demonstrate an unhealthy desire to vendor lock everything they can (For example: their CH32V chips use undocumented debug protocol, for which you need proprietary debug adapter andOpenOCD fork).Quote from: Doctorandus_P on June 08, 2022, 03:33:35 amW806 (and W801) architecture have nothing to do with ARM in general and STM32 in particular:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/hlk-w806-what-is-this-mistery-very-cheap-and-powerfull-cpu

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2022, 10:57:30 am
content: Quote from: Canis Dirus Leidy on June 08, 2022, 09:18:33 amYour link was missing the last slash. Updated above.

author: PCB.Wiz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2022, 04:22:23 am
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on June 08, 2022, 05:13:54 amYes, and they also have 8 bit MCUs, from 34c/100+ at LCSC, who show 66 part codes from megawin.Their latest 8 bit MCUs have 144MHz PWM support.Quote from: Canis Dirus Leidy on June 08, 2022, 09:18:33 amSTC have also just released early silicon for their 32 bit 8051 'STC32G' and they have ARM models coming too, (STC32M) so they seem to want to cover all permutations here, but have chosen some confusing part code overlaps here..LCSC shows 218 part codes from STChttps://lcsc.com/products/Microcontroller-Units-MCUs-MPUs-SOCs_11329.html?keyword=stc8 bit models start ~30c/100+LCSC show stocks of 4 packages of STC32G12K128-Beta- ($1.06/100+) - even DIP40, as they seem to want socket retrofits in schools and colleges !The TQFP32 package is a lot of resource in an easy to apply package.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2022, 06:41:27 am
content: There are also a lot of "OR1" chips around, manufactured in China.My HDMI video grabber is an example. It has an OR1 CPU @ 800Mhz coupled with an H264 encoder and a USB3 engine, all in one chip.I bought it because I tried to hack when I was wondering if I would then find an ARM? MIPS? RISC-V? processor. No dice, I found it's "OR1"! Wait what? "OR" stands for "OpenRisc", a crappy RISC design with so many hardware bugs that you have to hack the toolchain to hack the tools of what you intend to hack.hack(hack(...)), what is this? type of recursive hack?To save myself the day I stated that I lost 100% interest in that damn thing I parked on eBay for a couple of penniesA couple of pennies can really lift values, here, at least because it saves you from that crazy stuff. I don't blame Chinese for that, just I don't understand companies like Allwinner when they deliberately use bugged OR1 design (and they know it has bugs) as co-processor for their Linux SoCs.I am talking about the thermal unit controller used in Allwinner H3-H5 SoCs: if you don't want to go nuts with all its hardware bugs, you better turn it off, and keep the core frequency as low as possible (600Mhz instead of 1.2Ghz boost-speed), so they don't heat up. You lose performance, but at least your SoC doesn't burn out.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2022, 09:23:01 am
content: Quote from: DiTBho on June 09, 2022, 06:41:27 amOhhhh! or1k ! The ISA doesn't look horrible and it's fairly full-featured with FPU and MMU and SIMD. A decent alternative to MIPS, if you want something royalty-free, at least until RISC-V came along, and if you don't mind GPL.A pity if the (one, basically) implementation is buggy. I didn't know that.The RISC-V people looked at it when they wanted an ISA to use in their research, but it was 32 bit-only at the time, and the instruction encoding was too full to add much in the way of extensions (including variable length for code density). So they made their own.

author: ralphrmartin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2022, 02:37:12 pm
content: The ESP32 is pretty well documented and supported. I guess you dont have to use the Wifi...

author: paf
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2022, 04:47:48 pm
content: Another supplier of 32 bit ARM processors:Arterytek:http://www.arterytek.com/en/Board with one:https://github.com/WeActTC/WeActStudio.BlackPillIt seems to be another STM32 "compatible", and the board is around 5 Euros on aliexpress.Anyone knows more about it?

author: dimbmw
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2022, 03:53:38 am
content: Guys, thank you for your replies.These are mostly high performance uCu that you mentioned, but how about some low power stuff ? Like MSP430 equivalents maybe with some extended peripherals like 22-24 bits sigma delta ADCs and things like that ? Like AFEs for sensors with uC on board?Please give your recs… thanks!

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2022, 06:57:29 pm
content: Ultra low-power and ultra-cheap are usually mutually exclusive.I personally do not know of any chinese cheap MCU that is anywhere near as low power as the "ultra low-power" MCUs you can find from the major vendors such as ST, TI, etc.I'd be curious to see one though.

author: Datom
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2022, 08:30:49 am
content: Quote from: dimbmw on June 15, 2022, 03:53:38 amThere are really not many low-power MCU made in China, but more MCU like "STM32F103" or "STM32F407". Of course, there is RISC-V such as "ESP32".I recommend some low-power MCU:HC32L130 and GD32L233.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2022, 07:18:40 pm
content: Ah, the GD32L233 is not bad indeed.

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 16, 2022, 07:51:44 pm
content: Quote from: Datom on June 16, 2022, 08:30:49 amWhere to buy the GD32L233?

author: Datom
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2022, 01:07:48 am
content: Quote from: voltsandjolts on June 16, 2022, 07:51:44 pmGD32L233 was only released in 2021. It may not be enough for promotion and supply. It can be found on Taobao in China, but it doesn't seem to be found on Diyi-key、Mouser and LCSC

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2022, 09:59:12 am
content: A lot of the chinese ic's are not mentioned on "western" shops such as digikey, mouser, or even on octoparts.

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2022, 09:38:55 am
content: Today I have found these SUB 1$ parts with Cortex M3 @ 80Mhz, 1MB flash and 288KB RAM, and WIFIhttps://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/Microcontroller-Units-MCUs-MPUs-SOCs_WinnerMicro-W600-B800_C500040.htmlDoes anyone here have used them or have any more info, it seems very interesting part

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2022, 05:53:54 pm
content: Quote from: ali_asadzadeh on June 18, 2022, 09:38:55 amI haven't, but Seed studio sells boards based on it:https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/W600_Module/

author: peter-h
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2022, 08:21:07 pm
content: Having just extracted an injection moulding tool (my property) out of china, and having paid off a number of completely shameless gangsters on the way, I would never use china for a key component which cannot be realistically designed-out.By all means use them for- bare PCBs- overmoulded cables- machined parts- connectors- mouldings (big risk there - see above - because they have you by the balls with the tooling cost)and similar stuff where another supplier can be readily found, and the parts are cheap enough that you can buy a large quantity and buy it rarely, say once a year.There are still downsides e.g.- have to pay up front (you are powerless if there is any dispute, and many chinese companiesdoplay on that)- long shipping time with sea freight (30 days; plays havoc with your cash flow because you basically have to pay 3 months earlier than locally)- a rapidly increasing % of businesses are run by gangsters- their IT security is lousy, so e.g. you get regular "new bank details enclosed" emails (probably inside jobs) - we lost $2k not long ago- rapid employee turnover- probably only 1 person in the factory speaks English, and is replaced every few months- departing employees tend to steal their customer database; see IT fraud above, and you get contacted by other companies quickly (JLCPCB get this a fair bit)- unless you visit (few do; it is difficult) you really know nothing about the company, which could be at a totally different address- if you do have to visit, or try to organise a local person to visit, you often find they are not there (website address is fake)- the parts are very often made by somebody else, whose identity will be either secret or fakeand things are getting worse each month. I used to build whole products out there but stopped that a few years ago. Too regular vanishing acts, losing the stock, tooling, test equipment, each time, sometimes offered back to us for purchase a year later by the management who escaped to Taiwan before getting killed (not kidding) for unpaid wages.They are very religious. The name of their god is US DOLLAR

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2022, 11:43:53 pm
content: It's a real Mafia

author: tepalia02
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 24, 2022, 12:10:36 pm
content: If the supplier is dependable and performs good QC, I think there is no harm in buying from them.

author: Mike.M
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 26, 2022, 02:45:08 am
content: There's several :HDSC, Chipsea, GigaDevice, Nuvoton, HK(hsxp-hk.com, don't know the real name...), espressif, etc.Most of them are Cortex-m architecture, like stm(or copy?)

author: jupizz1010
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 21, 2022, 01:51:59 am
content: Quote from: DiTBho on June 09, 2022, 06:41:27 ambut was it 2 usd only ? do you have a link ? i'm curious now

author: yufanmicroelectronics
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 13, 2022, 10:00:22 am
content: What kind of of microcontrollers you're are referring to?

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2022, 06:41:05 am
content: Many options herehttp://wch-ic.com/products/CH554.html