Find substitute for EFM32 chip - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: fdisants
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 22, 2023, 09:08:27 pm
content: Hi all,although I have some experience with Arduino and also designed a couple of custom through hole boards I am pretty much a newby in the electronics world.I came acrossthis open source projectand i'd like to create a batch of 10 boards.The problem started when I tried to find all the components necessary, the ic used in the project is not avaiable to buy (at least not in small quantities). The waiting time is way too long and I am keen to find something avaiable soon.The IC used isEFM32WG380F256-QFP100and I am wondering if it is possible to use another chip from the EFM32 family making some modifications to the board. I imagine that I need to find one with the same or more IOs, RAM and flash memeory and same frequency.Using DigiKey I haven't found many candidates,here is the list.But I noticed the despite having more IO pins, most of them have less pins than the origin IC, so which other characteristic should i look for?Is it even thinkable to change the IC without completly redisign the board? Are there some EFM32 clones or similar that I haven't consider?Thank you very much!!!

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2023, 07:00:13 am
content: Welcome to the forum.The MCU used in this project is an ARM cortex m4 deivce, and there are multiple of manufacturers of similar MCU's. There is a good change this is a clone itself of one of the STM32F3xx or STM32F4xx MCU's. Other Chinese brands can be found based on xx32 in the name, like GD32 or CH32.What matters is the peripherals inside the MCU. Depending on what the software and hardware uses, you have to match it with some other more available MCU.Since it is an open source project, I guess (did not read the story) there are schematics and source code available for it. It is a bit of work of course to check all the needed things, but it might bring you the solution.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2023, 07:35:00 am
content: Silabs is not a Chinese company and does not make clones.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2023, 08:02:24 am
content: I see that many MCUs from EFM32WG family do not have USB which is used in the project. So the only similar one in LQPF-100 is EFM32WG980 which appears to have the same pinout on a quick glance.

author: fdisants
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 23, 2023, 08:09:30 pm
content: Hi wraper, hi pcprogrammer, thank you very much for your answers!I had a look at the EFM32WG980 but unfortunatelly it is no available as the wg380. I am considering another MCU family maybe the stm32 that pcprogrammer mentioned.I foundthis oneand seems promising, at least at very first glance. Beside other features it has:Connectivity: CANbus, HDMI-CEC, I²C, IrDA, LINbus, SPI, UART/USART, USBPeripherals: DMA, I²S, POR, PWM, WDTWhereas the one used in project has:Connectivity: EBI/EMI, I²C, IrDA, SmartCard, SPI, UART/USART, USBPeripherals: Brown-out Detect/Reset, DMA, I²S, POR, PWM, WDTI am still confused on who to understand which one I need for my project.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2023, 09:28:30 pm
content: I did not dig deeply into the circuit but I suspect project uses analog circuits specific to these MCUs. So you likely will need to reimplement that externally. I'd rather try alibaba or some other Chinese marketplace to get these.https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/New-Original-Stock-32-Bit-Single_1600531143893.html?spm=a2700.shop_plser.41413.3.22996ac6NAB47yhttps://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&tab=all&SearchText=EFM32WG380F256-B-QFP100&selectedTab=product_en

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2023, 05:45:03 am
content: I did not check to deep, but what the schematics show is the use of static ram with 18 bit address bus and 8 bit data bus and some control lines. According to the text the MCU uses DMA to store samples in this memory, which means the MCU needs to have an external memory bus it can use. I'm not sure the STM device you pointed out has this.What I also noticed is the operational amplifiers mentioned in the EFM32 block diagram, which might be used in the design, and the STM one does not show this feature.The be able to find a replacement one has to study the schematics, software, the MCU datasheet and the MCU reference manual to understand what is needed, and then look for a part that offers the needed features. This is quite a bit of work.

author: bidrohini
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2023, 11:41:12 am
content: Have you checked FCM32?https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/07/07/flashchip-fcm32-is-yet-another-alternative-to-stm32-microcontroller/

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 24, 2023, 01:52:24 pm
content: Quote from: bidrohini on January 24, 2023, 11:41:12 amThis MCU has nothing to do with STM32 and their clones.

author: fdisants
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 24, 2023, 06:25:09 pm
content: Thanks to everybody for the tips, I think I am actully gonna try with the buying oversea option.