This repo contains some stuff I'm finding useful in trying to use the cheap STM32F103C8T6 AKA Blue Pill (I believe this is a reference from the movie The Matrix). Cost is $1.75 on AliExpress. The only other thing you'll need is an STMLink V2 USB programmer costing $1.91 on AliExpress. Both prices are with shipping, so you're looking at an investment of <$4
Each of the directories should have a README.md file with further instructions on what that directory is about.
contains a set of gdb pretty printers for displaying control registers. Instead of this:
(gdb) print/r *GPIOC
$3 = {CRL = 1145324612, CRH = 1148470340, IDR = 57344, ODR = 8192, BSRR = 0, BRR = 0, LCKR = 0}
you can get this (pin 13 is set as output and high):
(gdb) print GPIOC
$1 = {0 = Input Floating 0, 1 = Input Floating 0, 2 = Input Floating 0, 3 = Input Floating 0, 4 = Input Floating 0, 5 = Input Floating 0,
6 = Input Floating 0, 7 = Input Floating 0, 8 = Input Floating 0, 9 = Input Floating 0, 10 = Input Floating 0, 11 = Input Floating 0,
12 = Input Floating 0, 13 = Output 50Mhz Open-drain:1, 14 = Input Floating 1, 15 = Input Floating 1}
Similarly for RCC
(gdb) print RCC
$1 = RCC: = {
CR = {PLLRDY = "PLL unlocked", PLLON = "PLL OFF", CSSON = "Clock detector OFF", HSEBYP = "External 4-16 MHz osc is not bypassed", HSERDY = "Osc not ready", HSEON = "HSE Osc OFF", HSICAL = 74, HSITRIM = 16, HSIRDY = "Internal 8MHz RC Osc ready", HSION = "Internal 8MHz RC Osc ON"},
CFGR = {MCO = No Val, USBPRE = "PLL clock is divided by 1.5", PLLMUL = "PLL input clock x 2", PLLXTPRE = "HSE clock not divided", PLLSRC = "HSI Osc clock/2 selected as PLL input", ADCPRE = "PCLK2 divided by 2", PPRE2 = No Val, PPRE1 = No Val, HPRE = No Val, SWS = "HSI osc used as system clock", SW = "PLL selected as system clock"}}
contains a blinky program that requires only:
- The ARM gcc tools
- OpenOcd
A simple program to blink the LED. Unlike barebone blinky, this one uses the hardware abstraction layer provided by ST. Additionally, I used STMCubeMX to generate much of it.
This builds on blinky by adding UART capabilities. It sends messages that can be received in a terminal window via a cheap ftdi adapter (also <$2 on AliExpress). It also echos back to you whatever you type in the terminal.
While uart enables you to talk to your device, you probably want it to talk to other electronic components. SPI is a common way to talk to other devices. This example demonstrates how to send SPI messages.
In addition to SPI, I2C is another common way to interface with electronic devices.
If you don't want to be dependent on a FTDI adapter, the blue pill module does have a usb port you can use.