Stellaris-M4F Launchpad is out now - 4.99$ only! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2012, 05:34:39 pm
content: http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/video/Portal.tsp?entryid=1_582brzi9&DCMP=stellaris-launchpad&HQS=stellaris-launchpad-em2-vQuick! Limited time only! Shipping included in 4.99$!

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2012, 07:09:48 pm
content: No, it is not out. They are just soliciting pre-orders.From the mails TI is sending out today:QuoteThose who remember the clusterfuck TI did with the original Launchpad might want to think twice before pre-ordering.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 12:06:41 am
content: QuoteBut half of the excitement is to see if TI has improved the order/manufacture/ship infrastructure!Ordered mine; it only took two tries. At least TI is being clear that this is a pre-order phase; IIRC the MSP430 LaunchPad was announced as "get it now" before it was actually available.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 02:42:45 am
content: Yeah, preorders are getting it cheaper with shipping combined.Great! TI's Cortex-M4F dev board for only 4.99...

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 06:45:27 am
content: http://www.ti.com/ww/en/launchpad_site/stellaris.html?DCMP=stellaris-launchpad&HQS=stellaris-launchpadI just got two, inc postage to Oz.Dave.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 08:50:52 am
content: Quote from: westfw on September 01, 2012, 12:06:41 amKind of playing the lottery for small change. You think they'll ship before Christmas?What was interesting in the original LaunchPad launch was how hard TI officials acted as if there were no problems. That was really funny.There is one statistics I'd really like to see. How many of the hyped boards, like the original LaunchPad or the Raspberry pi are only powered up a few times before ending up in a drawer. 50%, 75%?

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 08:54:16 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on September 01, 2012, 06:45:27 am"Got" as in "having them in my hands", or as in "pre-ordered them"?

author: rolycat
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 10:12:45 am
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on September 01, 2012, 08:50:52 amI'd guess more than 75%, at least for cheap boards like the old LaunchPad. A lot of the evaluation and prototyping boards I order end up in a drawer.However. every now and again one gets fished out again for a project. I think having a selection of uC boards to hand is as useful as having a stock of any other component.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 11:41:30 am
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on September 01, 2012, 08:50:52 amThey say 29th of august. Hope so

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 12:48:06 pm
content: i dont get why companies require always a damn company name and website.........

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 01:14:02 pm
content: Quote from: M. András on September 01, 2012, 12:48:06 pmBecause they don't really want to deal with hobbyists, because the volumes hobbyist buy are completely neglectable. Occasionally some part of the company thinks it is a good idea to increase how the company is perceived by hobbyists, students and the like. Then they come up with offerings like the LaunchPad.Such an activity then clashes with the existing infrastructure, support organisation, and also the corporate culture and the mindset of employees. The result is friction. The more the larger the company is. Accidental friction, because no one thought about e.g. fixing the subscription form. Or even intentional friction by people intentionally throwing spanners in the works.What I hate is the dishonesty that comes with such activities. Marketing and PR tell you they love you, other parts of the company might tell you to fuck off, and once the whole thing is over marketing and PR don't want to hear from you either.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 01:15:51 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on September 01, 2012, 08:54:16 amSorry, pre-ordered.Dave.

author: bxs
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 01:42:10 pm
content: Yesterday I also preorder 2 of those, but Ti was clear that it will take time to get them in my hands...I remember well my experience with the MSP430 launchpad, I ordered 2, but only received one, the other was always stated as pendingI even forgot it for some months, but them I decided to contact Ti by mail, next day I received a phone call about it and 2 days later I had the MSP430 launchpad in my hands

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 03:05:13 pm
content: Yeah that was my bugbear with TI.You'd have to use a university email address if you say are a student for their samples, WTF?At least uChip was better, only need to not use a gmail or windows mail or yahoo mail

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 05:05:06 pm
content: Quote from: M. András on September 01, 2012, 12:48:06 pmTI does not require you to specify a company name.Quote from: T4P on September 01, 2012, 03:05:13 pmHow else are they supposed to verify that you're a college student?

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 05:32:43 pm
content: That's valid in the US, but not here. Nobody in a Polytechnic/College has their own school email address in singapore

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 01, 2012, 06:09:29 pm
content: it gave me back those fields during checkout for the board even company mail address. i work at a pharmacy distribution company and i had trouble when i said to the delivery man to take my packade to my workplace when he showed up there,

author: opcode
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 04, 2012, 01:03:47 pm
content: I bought two of the kits.. well you are limited to two. There are a fewboosterPacksplanned for it too.

author: GnatGoSplat
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 01:26:37 pm
content: Either I'm not doing something right, or the deal is dead. Their website still says it's available for $4.99, but the store page says it's $12.99 and that's what it shows when you add to cart.

author: mrflibble
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 03:00:04 pm
content: Looks like a neat addition to the dev-board collection. I think I'll order some when they become readily available at mouser/digikey, no rush.

author: 48X24X48X
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 03:18:56 pm
content: I ordered mine some time ago, today it says that the shipping is being pushed all the way to November!

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 03:21:53 pm
content: Quote from: 48X24X48X on September 19, 2012, 03:18:56 pmYeah indeed. God knows what happened

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 04:59:35 pm
content: Quote from: 48X24X48X on September 19, 2012, 03:18:56 pmQuote from: Bored@Work on September 01, 2012, 08:50:52 am

author: bingo600
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 07:46:19 pm
content: I also just got a Nov-09 ship date , for my two/Bingo

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 08:02:38 pm
content: Maybe they finally added up all the orders and compared them to their planned production run? Actually I wouldn't mind terribly if my order was sufficiently delayed that they had the time to spin a chip revision or two, the current errata sheet makes the chip look a bit half-baked.

author: PedroDiogo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2012, 08:37:37 pm
content: My order still says that the estimated ship date is 1-October-2012.But I preordered one right after they announced it, maybe it's one of the first batches.

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 20, 2012, 08:16:57 am
content: Quote from: bingo600 on September 19, 2012, 07:46:19 pmSame here.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 29, 2012, 05:59:33 am
content: TI ships them for real, just got a mail.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2012, 01:04:44 am
content: Mine arrived...

author: reagle
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 30, 2012, 11:15:54 pm
content: Mine shipped and is in Fedex's hands at the moment. the price was a limited time deal, so those who jumped in early got it. Now it's back to regular. Still quite a deal.

author: Jimmy the Squid
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2012, 04:31:45 am
content: Quote from: reagle on September 30, 2012, 11:15:54 pmI think the deal is still going. I just ordered one for the $4.99 special

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2012, 06:09:50 am
content: Still 4.99$Hard to believe how much they will be losing every board now but ah well, if this is the way they advertise i certainly don't mind (Remember the 28$ TI watch? I bought that one too)Fedex man came it at 10:52AM but i was not at home and i found no note at all

author: HackedFridgeMagnet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2012, 07:47:56 am
content: I wasn't fast enough for a cheap watch, but I just ordered 2 of the Stellaris-M4F to Aus.They said 8-10 weeks delivery, hopefully I will finish something before then.

author: Tuomas
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2012, 09:38:22 am
content: My order was made on 1st of September. "Status: Waiting to Ship" "Est. Shipping date: 11/09/2012". Still more than a month to go for me, according to the online store anyways.

author: LaurenceW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2012, 09:38:51 pm
content: While we wait for these boards to arrive, can we agree to have the IDIOTS that made the TI video taken outside and SHOT?Just give us the facts.Gits.

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2012, 10:22:20 pm
content: It's funny. I had to pull up the PDF just to find out what peripherals were on the chip. Nowhere in any of the promo materials do they even mention it has onboard 12 bit A/D or how many channels.

author: reagle
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 01, 2012, 11:00:16 pm
content: Mine is here, and oddly enough it showed up the same day as the free TI FRAM book from Mouser:

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 05:09:39 am
content: Look at what arrived, all within the last few "business days" (one on thursday, one on friday, one on monday, I think.)(more pictures at the flickr page...)

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 05:24:24 am
content: Quote from: poptones on October 01, 2012, 10:22:20 pmTells you a lot about what TI thinks is the target group. Facts? We ain't need no stinking facts. And maybe TI is right. If you assume that 90% of the boards end up in a drawer within a week it doesn't matter if it has a 8 or 12 bit ADC.

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 06:22:28 am
content: Ayup. I started to order one then thought "what am I gonna do with it?" And closed the page.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 08:00:04 am
content: Quote from: LaurenceW on October 01, 2012, 09:38:51 pmNo trial, no last breakfast and certainly no flowers please.

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 12:01:55 pm
content: Daaamn, I've ordered mine on Sept 6th and it's planned shipping date is Nov 16th... :/

author: GnatGoSplat
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 01:37:41 pm
content: $4.99 deal is back on, in for 2! If I never find motivation to learn how to program it, it'll at least be nice decoration for my office to make me look nerdier than I already do.

author: HackedFridgeMagnet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 01:57:28 pm
content: Goddam Yanks!I thought they gave me a shipment date for the 12th of October, look again, not quite, it's actually the 10th of December.With that time frame I guess it's like buying a Raspberry Pi.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 02:02:28 pm
content: Well, this is a PRE-ORDER. I'm not surprised though. TI did state 8-10 weeks and that looks fair on my watch at leastIt's been several months since RPi announced their manufacturing and ... they haven't completed pre-order shippings.

author: krivx
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2012, 03:13:07 pm
content: I got mine today and I live in Ireland, so it's not just the yanks.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2012, 12:11:46 pm
content: I just checked it, same price as the original MSP430 launchpad at farnell ...

author: KedasProbe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 03:11:56 pm
content: I will power-up mine tomorrow.For people who have misted the workshop linkhttp://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Getting_Started_with_the_Stellaris_EK-LM4F120XL_LaunchPad_Workshop?DCMP=Stellaris&HQS=stellarislaunchpadworkshop(P.S. TI download procedure is a bit nuts)I still may go for this one instead if I find a cheap test board.http://www.st.com/internet/com/TECHNICAL_RESOURCES/TECHNICAL_LITERATURE/DATASHEET/DM00046749.pdf(only disadvantage is the missing EEProm)edit:http://be.farnell.com/stmicroelectronics/stm32f3discovery/eval-stm32f3-cortex-m4-discovery/dp/2215108?ref=lookahead(303 not 373)

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2012, 10:36:46 am
content: I don't see any disadvantages of not having EEPROM. At least me, i never use EEPROM ever.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2012, 01:47:11 pm
content: you can save application or calibration setting in eeprom so you dont have to redo on each startup.

author: KedasProbe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2012, 03:42:41 pm
content: When I pressed the debug button (like in the video) I got a message about first time initialization and then CRASH, I haven't even played with it yet, anyone who can help?(Communication is OK with/via Putty)Screenshot below (I made sure I added enough zeros in the file name)Edit: connecting it directly to my PC instead of via my Monitor usb-hub solved the problem.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2012, 07:03:53 pm
content: That's odd. First go it was okay from the get-go for me.Not sure about a hub

author: Yaksaredabomb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2012, 12:56:42 pm
content: Fyi as an update the link from the first post:http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/video/Portal.tsp?entryid=1_582brzi9&DCMP=stellaris-launchpad&HQS=stellaris-launchpad-em2-vStill has a link called "Pre-order your Stellaris LaunchPad", even though some people have already received theirs.It links to the product page in the store at (https://estore.ti.com/Stellaris-LaunchPad.aspx) and says:QuoteHowever, on the ti.com page (http://www.ti.com/tool/ek-lm4f120xl) under "Order Now" you can click "Buy from distributor".Avnet appears to have them in stock for $4.99 USD. For an order of 2 boards the cheapest shipping to USA/Indiana is $8.00.So the $4.90 deal may be off TI's store for now but they can still be had for about $8/board delivered (if you can order from Avnet and your S/H is the same as my S/H). I'm not sure whether I should order at this price or wait for the TI direct deal to go live again (it seems like the deal went away, came back, and has now gone away again). It's only $3 but I hate buying even small things just before a price drop.They look pretty exciting to me! Seem substantially more powerful than the MSP430 Launchpad. I like the higher I/O count and peripheral list.By the way, I am still using my Launchpad as a saltwater aquarium water level monitor and controller - and have been for 8-10 months now - so mine didn't get end up in a drawer! Okay, 1 of them didn't...but the other 2 did.JacobEDIT: It's actually 9 USD/board buying two from Avnet at $8 shipping. Silly mistake. Also wanted to mention Newark (apparently Farnell in USA?) has them listed:http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=44W8822They're 5.49 there, though, and have a lead time of 26 days. On top of that they won't tell you up front how much shipping will be. It says "Your tax and shipping charges are currently not available. These charges should appear on your order confirmation email and/or invoice." Maybe that's not unusual but I'm not comfortable with it.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2012, 02:40:52 pm
content: 4.99 USD free shipping via FEDEX anywhere .. apparently. That was then, not sure about now. But yeah, everyone hates buying stuff before a price dropWell yeah they are marketing the new launchpad like it costs peanuts, well it's a loss for every board but hey.A good replacement if you can't stand the fact that the Arduino costs 50USD or it's just TOO SLOW

author: Yaksaredabomb
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2012, 06:54:34 pm
content: Well, I'm in for 3. 1 to brick, 1 to use, and 1 for a spare or a friend.I just looked at the datasheet for the chip though, and it's more than 1200 pages! Yikes!!!http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm4f120h5qr.pdfA pretty massive jump up from the MSP430 Launchpad indeed, lol.Jacob

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2012, 10:39:19 pm
content: Where on earth are you buying Arduinos? Tell you what: I'll sell as many as you like for 40 bucks!Arduinos are dirt cheap and reasonably fast. Arduinos are cheap enough now to just leave in prototypes and move on.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2012, 03:16:18 am
content: Quote from: poptones on October 18, 2012, 10:39:19 pmyou are right, but there's arm (older m3 or m4) cheapo china dev kit out there, reasonable priced as well and runs few tens MHz. possibly another option if you think arduino is too slow such as while rendering big screen. (i'm talking arduino mega vs arm, not uno which is totally out of league if you need other pheripherals beside the big screen)

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2012, 06:04:35 am
content: Arduinos are hardly dirt cheap neither are the ATMEGA chips that run them, i can get several STM32F1 for one of thoseAnd 40 bucks is alot for a project

author: PedroDiogo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2012, 09:43:01 am
content: Quote from: T4P on October 20, 2012, 06:04:35 amA new Arduino Leonardo can be bought for only 16€, not 40$http://store.arduino.cc/ww/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_12&products_id=225That makes it pretty cheap compared to what they used to be, but I have to agree, compared to different chips the ATMegas are overpriced

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2012, 01:43:30 pm
content: I'm not talking about the Leonardo. Everyone has been talking about the Arduino Uno.Throw in the Mega and comparing arduino with STM32F4 is very, very expensive if not expensiveNevermind, i'll step it down to STM32VLDiscovery, still way more performance.What the STM32F4-Disco has over the LM4F120XL Launchpad is, built in mic, high power headphone amplifier, faster clock, it even has a accelerometer! A MEMS motion sensor is the accelerometer

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2012, 08:22:22 pm
content: Well, I wasn't talking about the Uno. I was talking about the nano, which is still arduino uno compatible in every sense except the physical connection to "shields" and costs less than ten bucks. The chip used for these things is a buck or so, and there is a huge community around them. That may not mean anything to a lot of people and that's great, but you're never going to have a market for tens of thousands of those ST development boards without that community. Maybe someone needs to come up with arduino like software for the ten dollar ST board, or just make a set of tools that work within that environment.Like it or not, the Arduino has led a resurgence of interest in electronic hobbies. It has opened new markets to entrepreneurs, something all the "development boards" in the world had never before done - not even the pic with its very low cost dev tools.Ten bucks is not a lot of money to spend on a prototype. And if you really must get an Uno form factor you can now buy those for the measly sum of 12.95. It may not be made in Italy where everyone spends the afternoons of their four day work week drinking wine, but it's still an Uno.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 02:05:18 am
content: The ST and TI eval boards are heavily subsidized; they're marketing tools.The Arduino platforms are realistically priced; their MSRP even supports a level of distribution.That means that if you design a device around an Arudino, and then decide to manufacture it yourself, you can build your own PCB with arduino circuitry for somewhat less (or even significantly less) than the arduino itself would have cost. You can do that because of the cost savings, or you could do that because the model of arduino that you designed your device around is no longer manufactured.If you build your device around a low-priced ST, NXP, Freescale, or TI eval board, and want to manufacture it yourself, your costs will go up. Significantly. Maybe not to more than than an ATmega-based solution, but ... higher. The lm4f chip used on the stellaris launchpad is priced about the same as the whole launchpad, for example, even buying 100 at a time.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 06:05:36 am
content: Yeah sure. marketing tools or not, stop defending the Arduino.Of course i know the LM4F and the STM32F4 are 32bit high speed processors, not some crummy 20MHz 20MIPS 8bit processorI want 168MHz 252DMIPS processors! Or maybe not, just 48MHz 38DMIPS.Either way 32bit blows 8bit processors out of the water as they are just cheaper and were made in the modern ageWhoever starts a prototype and go "Okay, well, i'll slap on a Arduino" deserves to get their money ripped! It's so easy to interface a modern Cortex via JTAG and just use a programmer to program pretty much all the FPGAs and uC's HOW HARD CAN IT BE?!In the end, assembly is a proper language for all uC or whatever, but, ARMs are optimized to run on C-complied code. Not assembly. Sure you want to know the intimates of a uC but heck. Arduino is just a "cover" for the real languages. Real men use "C" not ArduinoAnd come on, there are a buck or two Cortex-M3s out there!Time to move on. Arduino is for the 90s and the numerous number of "coders" doing arduino as some people say "claim they know everything"Heck for the same price i can get a Pi!

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 07:18:00 am
content: "defending" the arduino?It doesn't need to be "defended" it is what it is: versatile, low cost, widely supported, AVAILABLE and successful. The Arduino has done more for the electronics hobby than anything to hit the market since the demise of Heathkit, and that was a very long time ago.Eight year olds (and most of their dads) don't have the first fucking clue what a jtag is much less how to actually use it. You have to start somewhere, and the Arduino is great for that. C sucks in so many ways. The arduino code is more like javascript, which means it also forms the basis of further practical learning.Good luck getting a pi. After seven months I'm still waiting.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 08:13:18 am
content: Did i ever talk about getting a Pi? A arduino is a "cover" and it will always be.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 09:08:06 am
content: Looks like an interesting dev board but for this bit in the Eval manual or am I missing something?"Download evaluation versions of these tools fromwww.ti.com/stellaris. Due to code size restrictions, the evaluation tools may not build all example programs. A full license is necessary to re-build or debug all examples."

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 09:15:20 am
content: Quoteyes i've forgotten this fact thanks for reminding me. nevertheless arduino has brought us together here more or less, one way or another. so arduino is a arse starter. its like the forgotten rotten old grandpa, with his (its) limitation, we've forgotten what he has contributed in the past. arduino was an "eye opener" for me in electronics and embedded system. with its limitation, soon i moved on to another option. lets not forget about this fact.

author: KedasProbe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 10:29:32 am
content: Quote from: jucole on October 21, 2012, 09:08:06 amFrom what I see Code Composer is free without code size limit if used with the Stellaris board and also the first 90 days.

author: jeremy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 11:29:21 am
content: for the record, the AVR architecture was designed from day 1 to have C run on it.http://www.atmel.com/technologies/cpu_core/avr.aspxI used to be an arduino hater until I started teaching with them, now I totally get what they are for. To say that an arduino is not an engineer's development tool and is therefore useless is like saying mythbusters rubbish because it is not scientifically rigorous; you are completely missing the point.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 04:46:37 pm
content: Arduino is great for starting off for most, but definitely not me.I didn't start off with Arduino but instead the STM32F4-Disco so things are very messed up ... Mainly due to the fact that the REAL arduino uno is asking 50bucks! the Mega asks for 80 bucks and the chip itself is 20bucks! Hell the STM32F4 is 20 bucks!

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 06:24:13 pm
content: The arduino is open source. There is no "real" arduino. An Uno is 12.95, a nano is 9.95. If these things are beyond that where you live, maybe it's time to call china. I just bought a lot of nanos from a supplier in california who makes and sells them domestically for $99.90 in a lot of ten. I prefer the nano as it plugs into a breadboard perfectly and doesn't have those damn oddly spaced headers.

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 08:00:45 pm
content: Quote from: T4P on October 21, 2012, 04:46:37 pmWhat currency and where are you buying them from? The asking price at eg.DigiKeyis around 25 USD.Quote from: poptones on October 21, 2012, 06:24:13 pmThe name "Arduino" is protected, so if it's called "Arduino" it is (or should be) a real Arduino.

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2012, 08:10:47 pm
content: Ah, I see. That's why all those on ebay are listed "Uno FOR Arduino IDE."Comme ci comme ca... it still works.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 11:35:58 am
content: http://sg.element14.com/arduino/a000046/board-arduino-uno/dp/1848687

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 01:15:11 pm
content: Therev 3is cheaper, and even less atDigiKey. The converted DigiKey.sg price is in fact almost the same as at theArduino webshop.Since the Arduino people have made the same decision as Dave to have the boards locally made, rather than farming the manufacturing out to China, it's no surprise you can get cheaper, compatible boards elsewhere. Also keep in mind that boards like the STM32F4 Discovery are sold at or below cost, which skews the comparison to boards like the Arduino which are trying to turn a profit. This is why eg.teho Labsstopped selling boards - they found it was impossible to compete against manufacturer-subsidized products. (I wonder how much cash Atmel have saved by having the Arduino be the de-facto AVR starter board rather than having to make lots of too-cheap kits themselves?)

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 04:46:27 pm
content: Yes but anything goes. It's a limited capacity "dev board" for idiot programmers. In any case it's STILL VERY expensive.Just double it and i can get a Beaglebone, go figure? I'll say.And then you have digikey's ridiculous shipping cost. 30bucks minimum to my country! They don't have a warehouse elsewhere!

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2012, 05:15:51 pm
content: Elitist bullshit. What's it like to be a bigot?"8 year olds, Dude..."

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 12:44:24 am
content: QuoteSo build your own. It's not difficult, and it's very cheap.http://www.instructables.com/id/Single-Sided-Really-Bare-Bones-Board-Arduino-in-EA/(then repeat using your choice of ARM chip. Let us know how the experiences compare.)(not that cheap development boards from vendors aren't a lot of fun, and great values.)

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 06:50:31 am
content: Ya, and then a guy goes to a job interview:-what controllers do you have experience with? What programming languages do you know?-Arduino-

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 07:47:51 am
content: Quote from: poorchava on October 23, 2012, 06:50:31 amif you know how to be professional you can say, "Atmel product and C++ environment"

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 04:44:28 pm
content: "What sort of coding have you done?"Oh, on a certain Atmel chip on a blue board with some bare bones interface on a C++ environment"Do you see that door there? It's meant for you."

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 07:07:42 pm
content: OK, I'm 50 years old and I started programming before I even had a computer. I dropped out of school at 15 and went to vocational electronic school at 17 where I was helping seniors with their projects within weeks of starting. I was contracted by a sales agent to design a z-80/6502/6800 processor board for use in an in-house project and had designed a bit-slice processor when most of my friends were still sleeping through history class. When I was 16 I started writing a forth interpreter for the 6502, but in spite of having bought a vic-20 at 19 I never got to see my own forth actually run until I was 22 and got to port it to a z80 running on a trs-80 4p. Guess what? It needed very little debugging, in less than a week I had it deployed in our test fixtures using it to validate production.Since then I've programmed countless devices. On Microchips picxxxx series I worked directly with a lead developer at Microchip, Ferenak Nelson, contributing test code to her when she was developing Microchip's PIC assembler and simulator. Working in c and cpp, I was one of about three people who brought avisynth back from the dead and made it a popular tool by adding sophisticated layering, compositing and color adjustment tools. I've built (and am building another) website using php, I've written dlls and entire desktop applications for Windowsusing jscriptback long before there was a .NET and I built an entire infrastructure for searching, scrubbing and editing data from the web long before Google was even heard of by most.And I love the Arduino. It's fun and easy - which it was meant to be. So SOD OFF with the "arduinos are for idiots" nonsense, I'm sick of hearing it.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 07:31:45 pm
content: Quote from: poptones on October 23, 2012, 07:07:42 pmGuess what, we are sick of hearing about the Arduino.I give a flying fart through a rolling doughnut what you do in the privacy of your home. I couldn't care less about that rubbish piece of hardware (couldn't even align two headers ...) with that rubbish piece of software - if the Arduino people wouldn't feel the need to shove their shit under my noise at every opportunity. If they wouldn't try to tell me that the Arduino way is the way everything should be done. And if they wouldn't bill themselves as engineers, because they managed to blink a LED (and manage only because they copy-pasted the code).

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 09:15:33 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on October 23, 2012, 07:31:45 pmProbably not half as sick as we are of people who can't stop whining about how terrible Arduinos are whenever they're mentioned.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 09:24:55 pm
content: Quote from: andersm on October 23, 2012, 09:15:33 pmThen just stop mentioning that shit. It is really easy. Stop shoving that shit under my nose. But I know, the Arduino crowd has a problem with that simple idea, because the crowd is full of attention seeking whores. And heaven forbid they don't get the right kind of attention.

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 10:06:02 pm
content: ArduinoAVRArduino is not cmaker fairmakerbotmakeadafruitraspberry piIf you really are sick of hearing about these things, it might be time to find a new profession.

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2012, 10:20:50 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on October 23, 2012, 09:24:55 pmYou should consider starting your own closed community site where you can set a list of allowed subjects.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2012, 12:28:16 am
content: Quote"An arduino? That's sorta neat; a lot of our candidates have never written anything but BAT files and javascript, and only class assignments at that. Some of the EEs have done Labview."(admittedly, it's not as impressive if you're applying for that position that wanted you to have 5 years of embedded programming experience. But experience is still experience.)(let's see. I'm pretty sure I could have graduated with my EE degree without having written any code beyond two semesters worth of Fortran. ("Fortran 101", and "Numeric Methods.") (ok, that was 30years ago. I still remember making the SDK-86 display scroll "HELP", and having the prof want me to show everyone how I had done it...)

author: jeremy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2012, 02:58:41 am
content: Quite a discussion going on here!I have used arduinos personally, educationally and professionally (yes, professionally). Just because you know how to write Verilog, pretty doesn't mean that it is suddenly illegal to use an arduino ? Yes, stuff like the beagleboard is "better", but one must realise that the definition of "better" is subjective. My experience is that folks seem to try and maximise MIPS per $, but we are not all the same. My current toy of choice is a Xilinx Zynq, but that doesn't mean it is the right tool for everyone (in fact, it is the wrong tool for a lot of people).Personally, if I am doing it for learning then I want to optimise learning per unit time; I don't really care about cost (within reason of course!). In teaching, you want to maximise "transferred" knowledge per unit time or educational progress per unit time as the educator's time and the time cost of the education environment costs far more than some measly blue pcb. If you aren't interested in teaching C++ or assembly, why should you be forced to?In the professional world, the amount you pay a good EE often vastly outweighs the cost of development kits; no manager worth their salt will give a crap if you want to spend $25 instead of $10 on a single dev kit, especially if you can get your prototype up in 15 minutes instead of 4 days (I have a beagleboard, it took me at least 4 days to get it to do anything useful without the hardware triggering kernel panics).Arduinos are ultimately for maximising progress per unit time, you don't write much boilerplate and you don't read a 900 page datasheet. STM32F4Discovery and the like are for maximising MIPS/$. If you buy one for the wrong reason then of course it is going to be horrible ?

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2012, 06:20:17 am
content: i'm going to build a development board thats suitable for both engineers, pure softwarests and hobbiests alike, there will be no more complaint, toss all those existing standard, this is the best and i promise! who dare with me?!

author: poptones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2012, 08:40:35 am
content: Can I program it in javascript through a usb connection?

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2012, 10:30:41 am
content: Quote from: poptones on October 24, 2012, 08:40:35 amjava, .net and flash capable!

author: KedasProbe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2012, 06:40:02 pm
content: Did anyone already put an (RT)OS on Stellaris-M4F Launchpad, which one?How much need to be changed to make it work?Is SYS/BIOS from TI a (good) option for beginners?P.S. Sorry for going back on topic

author: jeremy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2012, 09:42:57 pm
content: Haven't used it, but seems pretty good:http://www.chibios.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=chibios:architectures

author: andyturk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2012, 10:25:36 pm
content: Quote from: jeremy on October 24, 2012, 09:42:57 pmI'm using it in a project now, and ChibiOS is very well done. The source is very readable (if you're into kernel stuff) and there's excellent support for STM32 out of the box. I'm not sure, but I think the principal author works for ST.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2012, 07:53:05 am
content: Yes, you can almost say it's from "ST"

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2012, 07:53:29 am
content: Where is the API reference for the Stellaris? I believe I had found a pdf file but cant find it now...I really don't understand the way TI has selected to arrange infos over their site.Alexander.

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2012, 08:27:58 am
content: Ok, found again.http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/spmu019o/spmu019o.pdfAlexander.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2012, 01:17:26 pm
content: Quote from: KedasProbe on October 24, 2012, 06:40:02 pmI haven't used SYSBIOS in the launchpad yet, but I can tell it has way more than enough memory to use it (256kB flash/32kB RAM). The Code Composer Studio has also some pre-canned examples to use SYSBIOS on LM4F boards (just checktheir wiki page).If you haven't done so, you may also want to take a look at theStellariswaresoftware package, which contains a load of example code for it.

author: aluck
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2012, 02:32:15 am
content: Just got mine a couple of days ago.Is it any good with Eclipse/ARM, or it's better to start with their "free" 32 Kb-limited IAR?

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2012, 11:15:06 am
content: Currently there is not official support for ICDI in OpenOcd software. It is possible, but it's highly experimental and provided as a compilation time patch, sou you would have to recompile the stuff yourself. As far as i know guys developing OOCD have convinced TI to reveal ICDI's usb interface spec so it's rather likely that the support for Stellaris Launchpad will be officially added with next release.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2012, 01:09:04 pm
content: Quote from: aluck on December 07, 2012, 02:32:15 amCode Composer is based on Eclipse, unlimited and free to use with the Launchpad...

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2012, 05:32:05 pm
content: Yeah they gave CCS for free with the Stellaris Launchpad ... in the past you would literally have to buy the CC430 watch (which i did, during the deal) to get the unlimited CCS for free

author: jerry507
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2012, 08:28:01 pm
content: If you don't need to go beyond 32K use IAR. CCS is kind of a pile of crap. What "free" vendor supplied Eclipse IDE isn't though?

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2012, 09:21:35 pm
content: I discarded CCS (I was freezing "X"). I now us Code::Blocks with GCC and OpenOCD-GDB.Alexander.

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 31, 2013, 03:44:17 pm
content: Any help configuring Code:Blocks for the launchpad?Your Greek tutorial sounds like greek to me. Thanks.

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2013, 04:32:17 pm
content: Do you have the toolchain up an running (gcc, openOCD-gdb, lm4tools, stellarisWare)? What exactly is your issue?Alexander.

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 31, 2013, 04:49:43 pm
content: I have all running but I get this error when compiling the default test example:arm-none-eabi-ld.exe: warning: cannot find entry symbol ResetISR; defaulting to 00000000

author: andyturk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2013, 05:33:19 pm
content: Quote from: EdoNork on January 31, 2013, 04:49:43 pmAre you using FreeRTOS? I don't (use FreeRTOS), but it looks like ResetISR is the code that runs when the mcu comes out of reset.

author: firewalker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2013, 07:17:34 pm
content: Quote from: EdoNork on January 31, 2013, 04:49:43 pmI think I had upload a wrong zip file. Please try this one.http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31742622/stellaris.zipExtract it to/home/username/.codeblocks/share/codeblocks/templates/wizard/or the equivalent directory for Windows. Delete the oldstellarisdirectory.Another issue (probably a bug) with CodeBlocks is that when selecting the part, although it is already selected, you have to drop down the list and click it.Alexander.