Suggest me ARM development board - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: shparvez001
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 18, 2017, 06:29:54 am
content: Hello everyone, this is my first post in the forum. I was thinking to do some embedded projects on ARM, mostly for learning purpose. Which development board is good for starter? I have absolutely no exposure on arm development. I was thinking of this onehttps://www.techshopbd.com/product-categories/arm-98786/1681/stm32f0discovery-techshop-bangladesh. Do anyone of you have any suggestions?You can suggest any board from here (possibly a low cost one)https://www.techshopbd.com/product-categories/arm-98786. This is a place from where i can by things easily in my country.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 18, 2017, 07:13:48 am
content: ST has nice cheap development boards. It's very accessible and the parts are good.You'll find plenty of resources on the internet regarding ST micro's. Good choice.

author: Brutte
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 18, 2017, 10:29:42 am
content: This techshop is hopeless and expensive.Iff limited to that shop, I'd buySTM32L100C-DiscoveryDave made a review of a Discovery with almost identical micro.

author: shparvez001
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 18, 2017, 11:58:06 am
content: Quote from: Brutte on January 18, 2017, 10:29:42 amThanks for the suggestions. I know this shop is expensive. And i have no other reliable shop to buy electronics components. I think i will buy this

author: Brutte
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 18, 2017, 12:59:30 pm
content: Get a breadboard, jumper wires and some DIP components.Of course you also need a mini USB cable for ST-Link.This micro has a nice USB device onboard but the PCB does not come with appropriate USB receptacle. So if you want to use internal USB device then you need a second USB cable with octopus end.I'd also suggest getting some PDIP LCD glass as the uC comes with built-in LCD glass driver (up to 8x28).

author: daybyter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 18, 2017, 10:49:51 pm
content: No chance to get one of those stm32f103c8t6 boards?http://www.ebay.com/itm/STM32F103C8T6-ARM-STM32-Minimum-System-Development-Board-Module-For-Arduino-DHUS-/321569700934

author: stj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2017, 02:01:21 am
content: Quote from: daybyter on January 18, 2017, 10:49:51 pmi have one of those, you still need ST-Link or a Nucleo board though.sure you can upload over a serial port, but debugging wouldnt be easy.

author: daybyter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2017, 03:47:11 am
content: Yeah, I used the arduino IDE with a st-link v2 to program my boards.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2017, 02:46:33 pm
content: Quote from: wilfred on January 18, 2017, 11:55:05 pmI received an e-mail where it is mentioned this week they are also offering free shipping for Launchpad products, although no special code was provided and they don't specify if it is worldwide...

author: jnz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2017, 05:48:40 pm
content: While STM can be very frustrating as a company, I'd really recommend an ST development kit over almost any other. You're going to just have a much easier time finding examples on the internet over say a TI part.FWIW: Having done a lot on STM's parts... Skip the STM32F1!! Go to the F3/F4 for development. F0 or F2 are great too, but you'll want to learn on the higher tier chips.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2017, 06:44:49 pm
content: Quote from: jnz on January 19, 2017, 05:48:40 pmCan you elaborate on those claims. Because as-is these claims have no value.

author: MasterBuilder
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2017, 06:54:07 pm
content: I have used several different ARM development boards (TI launchpad, LPC xpresso), but no ST boards. What I use now is the LPC 1768 board from this website:http://www.hotmcu.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1What they sell is clones of development boards at lower price. The LPC 1768 board is working well with my GCC based toolchain and there are enough examples available to get started.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2017, 07:00:46 pm
content: LPC1768 is a very good chip indeed. It's from the original mbed.https://developer.mbed.org/platforms/mbed-LPC1768/Expensive though, but the chip is available till 2026.

author: jnz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2017, 09:23:45 pm
content: Quote from: Jeroen3 on January 19, 2017, 06:44:49 pmI'm 1/2 tempted to tell you to go learn your own lesson... But - because of the presevation of information and maybe someone else might save themselves some time -The F1 parts are the old generation. They get almost no love from ST. You want to use the new LL drivers? Tough because ST hasn't updated the HAL properly for the F1, let alone the LL drivers. You want code snippets? Good luck because their focus is on F0/F4. Maybe you want to run CAN and USB at the same time? Nope. Want reliable I2C? Nope. Perhaps you don't care about that and just want to use a compiler like IAR and Keil and want updated code, good luck, their focus is on the newer chips as well.I've been up and down the STM line. There is nothing the F1 does that the F0/F2/F3/F4 doesn't do better and in everytime I looked factoring in equal specs. I just can't find a single reason to tell someone to start working with the STM32F1.

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 20, 2017, 03:47:43 am
content: For learning ARM, I would suggest Edx learning with the University of Texas in Austin "embedded systems, shape the world" course. I took it a year ago. Great learning tool.https://www.edx.org/course/embedded-systems-shape-world-utaustinx-ut-6-03xIf you can, take it real-time so you can interact with the other student on the various labs.It uses the TI Launchpad and will get you an idea of what writing your own space invaders game is like on an ARM Cortex processor. A/D and D/A conversions, timing, state machines, and many more labs to do.This year they also put out a real time operating system course on that platform.What was nice (using the Keil C compiler) was to be able to emulate the programs, get them graded and then burning it to the micro for testing.It was an excellent introduction to the whole thing, if you can put in the time. Student were from all over the world in that course.It is all free(apart from buying the TI launchpad) unless you want a certificate.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2017, 06:24:39 am
content: Quote from: jnz on January 19, 2017, 09:23:45 pmDisliking a chip due to it's maturity is a bit reckless in my opinion. But you are right, the software support is missing. But if you're any serious you won't need that.