Can my project use Maple (with a STM32F103RET6)

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Can my project use Maple (with a STM32F103RET6)

(8 posts) (3 voices)

Started 3 years ago by cowana
Latest reply from cowana

cowana
Member

I'm working on my first STM32 project, which uses an STM32F103RET6. I have designed a PCB with this and a few other I2C chips on. Rather than using the inbuilt USB, for simplicity I am using an FTDI USB-TTL converter connected to USART1.

I'm very familiar with arduinos, and would like to use the Maple language/IDE for my projects. Is it possible to flash the STM32 with the maple bootloader (much as I often do to turn blank AVRs into arduinos)? Will I have an issue trying to use UART1 for the bootloader rather than the inbuilt USB?

Many thanks for any thoughts or ideas!

Andy

Posted 3 years ago #
tormod
Member

The maple bootloader implements USB DFU, that is USB from one end to another. I am not sure I understand your questions, but yes, you can install the maple bootloader on your STM32 (with necessary modifications when it comes to pin-out for buttons and USB connect) and then use the built-in USB connected to your computer (and the dfu-util program).

On the other hand, if you want to use the UART, you can not use the maple bootloader, but you can use the built-in (ROM) serial bootloader of the STM32 (and a corresponding program, e.g. stm32flash, talking to the virtual COM port from your FTDI converter).

Posted 3 years ago #
bubulindo
Member

Just one heads up... as far as I see, the bootloader uses one of the pins to lower one of the USB lines. You may have to include that in your design to use Maple Bootloader.

Posted 3 years ago #
cowana
Member

I've already got the boards I want to use, so I won't be able to to use the built in USB as it is not wired for it.

My board allows for using the serial bootloader of the SMT32, standard JTAG programming or STM's SWD interface. Is it possible to use the Maple IDE with any of these methods?

Andy

Posted 3 years ago #
tormod
Member

The Maple IDE calls dfu-util to program the Maple, so I guess you could change some setting or script (batch file), to call a program like stm32flash instead. The Maple IDE does some signalling on the run-time virtual serial interface to get the Maple into bootloader mode, you'll have to adapt the run-time code accordingly or manually force your board into bootloader mode when you want to reprogram it.

http://leaflabs.com/docs/bootloader.html

Posted 3 years ago #
cowana
Member

Does the Maple IDE generate a .hex/binary file when code is built? If so, it would be pretty simple to manually flash this onto the chip via the bootloader. My board has a switch to select whether the serial bootloader is run or not on startup.

Andy

Posted 3 years ago #
tormod
Member

Yes, dfu-util needs a binary file, so that is necessarily created by the IDE. I don't know where it is stored (maybe a debug setting will reveal this) but the path is given as an argument to dfu-util so you can create a fake dfu-util to figure it out in the worst case.

Posted 3 years ago #
cowana
Member

Running the build process (on BareMinimum.cpp) produces:

Going to build using 'armcompiler' (ARM)
Compiling core...
No libraries to compile.
Compiling the sketch...
Linking...
Computing sketch size...

C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Temp\build8493332378109621767.tmp\BareMinumum.cpp.bin :
section size addr
.data 12936 0
Total 12936

So it looks like that's where the binary file is!

Once I've soldered up the board I can try sticking files on via stm32flash. Do I need to add my board parameters to the list of boards? It uses a RET6 chip (as does one of the MAPLE boards), so I'd imagine it would be pretty similar.

Andy

Posted 3 years ago #

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