Spark Logic

STM32F303CC on Cheap Mini Dev Board: Support for SMT32F3

MGeo Wed Feb 03, 2016 10:02 am

I have a project where I have converted the low cost STM32F103C8 based mini development board to an STM32F303CC board. The extra performance of the F3 and its FPU were needed here for real time PID control purposes. The conversion was straight forward chip swap although I found it pushed my soldering skills some. The cost impact to the BOM is about $0.50 extra in quantity for the F3. In exchange you get an FPU and way more flash.

Project link here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2583330
See post #2 for details on the chip swap.

I’m hoping for broader support of the F3 as a target in Arduino. It is pin compatible with F1, so it would be a straight forward change for the China board suppliers to swap chips on the mini dev board. It would open up high performance real time closed loop applications to low cost Arduino STM32 applications.

Thanks,
George

Replies

mrburnette Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:27 pm

@MGeo:

The official M3 support policy is: http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?t=41

But after watching your video, I’m in the “wow mode” at your successful attempt at F3 transplant. I’ve done some work with my hot-air device and I’m a competent soldering person having my first soldering iron at age 11 to assemble a Knight Kit super-regenerative receiver. But I do not think I would tackle what you did. Congrats.

Maybe your callout for F3 Arduino support will inspire some of our members; who knows?

Ray

mrmonteith Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:34 pm

George,
Great work. I didn’t know about the Chip Quick stuff. That was interesting in itself.

One thing you get that I noticed is a DAC on the 303, which the 103 didn’t have. I’m sure there are other differences. It would be great to see these come out using the same board.

Michael

racemaniac Wed Feb 03, 2016 7:26 pm

mrmonteith wrote:George,
Great work. I didn’t know about the Chip Quick stuff. That was interesting in itself.

One thing you get that I noticed is a DAC on the 303, which the 103 didn’t have. I’m sure there are other differences. It would be great to see these come out using the same board.

Michael

MGeo Thu Feb 04, 2016 10:51 am

Thanks everyone for the nice comments.

mrburnette wrote:@MGeo:
Maybe your callout for F3 Arduino support will inspire some of our members; who knows?
Ray

racemaniac Thu Feb 04, 2016 12:56 pm

MGeo wrote:
From Mouser.com
STM32F103C8: 2,500: $2.94
STM32F303CC: 2,500: $3.87

mrmonteith Thu Feb 04, 2016 1:55 pm

The 103 boards are costing me about $3.53 with free shipping. I doubt that it will cost them triple. If they can use the same boards they might go for it. It’s a matter of them getting the message.

I’ve been looking at the STM32F4 Stamp that one guy came up with. He’s not making any more but the information is out there to make new boards. I’m sure it will cost me a lot more to make it but looks intriguing still. It’s based on the STM32F405. A big jump in power too.

I guess it comes down to if you need that kind of processing power is it worth the cost difference? For me anything under $20 is reasonable enough not to worry. But I’ve got enough keeping me busy right now. Not enough time to play with all my toys. :lol:

racemaniac Thu Feb 04, 2016 2:11 pm

mrmonteith wrote: I guess it comes down to if you need that kind of processing power is it worth the cost difference? For me anything under $20 is reasonable enough not to worry. But I’ve got enough keeping me busy right now. Not enough time to play with all my toys. :lol:

mrburnette Thu Feb 04, 2016 2:19 pm

mrmonteith wrote:
<…>
I’ve been looking at the STM32F4 Stamp that one guy came up with. He’s not making any more but the information is out there to make new boards. I’m sure it will cost me a lot more to make it but looks intriguing still. It’s based on the STM32F405. A big jump in power too.

RogerClark Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:59 pm

I cant see a lot of demand for a $20 board, when there is now the RPiZero and the CHIP , and many other similar boards in the sub $20 category, which have much more computing power, as well as more ram etc.

The price point on the ESP32 will also be interesting, as currently the price / performance on the ESP8266 is quite compelling, to the point where its worth using purely as a MCU even if you don’t want WIFi.

Also, Nordic Semi have announced an updated Bluetooth Low Energy SoC to supersede the nRF51 series, called, not surprisingly the nRF52, which is cortex M3.
Im not sure on pricing, but I was buying nRF51 modules, for around $5, which have 256k flash and 16k ram, but the nRF51 only runs at 16MHz
So anyone wanting an MCU and BLE ….

Too many choices;-)

Rick Kimball Fri Feb 05, 2016 4:33 am

Hopefully I didn’t miss someone already mentioning this board …
Have you all been following the new Nucleo boards, the Nucleo-32 series? Specific to this conversation would be the NUCLEO-F303K8. They are a small form factor and use the smaller 32pin chips but still have an onboard st-link v2:
Nucleo Development Boards for STs 32Pin STM32 MCUs_popup.jpg
Nucleo Development Boards for STs 32Pin STM32 MCUs_popup.jpg (45.63 KiB) Viewed 1839 times

mrmonteith Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:50 pm

Rick,
That looks purdy. :o I have to quit looking at shiny new boards.

Michael

bianchifan Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:43 pm

MGeo wrote:
STM32F103C8: 2,500: $2.94
STM32F303CC: 2,500: $3.87

racemaniac Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:46 pm

Wahoo :)
I just did a transplant of a F303CBT6 onto a maple mini board, and i just programmed it via an stlink v2, and it’s working XD. I’ve got blink running on it. :D.

Where can i take this little board from here? Is there a bootloader so i could program it via the usb port?
Should i change some settings in the board files? (i’m atm just programming it as if it’s an STM32F3Discovery).

For now i’m pretty proud i made it this far already XD. this is the first serious SMD soldering i did (i ruined one board when trying to desolder using my soldering iron, then on the next board gave it a try with my heatgun, and that was a LOT easier (even though it’s a way too big heat gun that isn’t meant for SMD work XD)).

MGeo Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:49 am

bianchifan wrote:
I wouln’t need 2500 pcs, never ever..

bianchifan Sat Mar 05, 2016 11:46 am

MGeo wrote:At the time of this post, this link has them for US $ 5.48/ea for 5 pcs with free shipping

sheepdoll Sat Mar 05, 2016 6:34 pm

MGeo wrote:.
.. The point of the original post was to lobby for support of the F3 platform in the hope that demand might build. …

umejopa Wed Feb 08, 2017 5:12 pm

Will try this get some sampel of 303cc and use the heatgun to remove the 103 but it hard to hand solder the 303 and get a short that i dont find so have to find some solder paste and try again .
Jonas

umejopa Thu Mar 16, 2017 6:59 pm

Now I get my solder flux and geting soldering right.
ST-Link work …

RogerClark Thu Mar 16, 2017 8:56 pm

The Koduino, Arduino core written by Avik De ( look on github) was written purely to support the F3.

It uses the Standard Peripheral Library and is constructed in totally a totally different way to Libmaple.

I think STM also intend to bring out their own core for the Nucleo F3, but its a long way down their To Do list, so I dont think its likely to be released any time soon.

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