Author Topic: Which IDE for STM32F4??  (Read 15134 times)

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Offline MagnumTopic starter

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Which IDE for STM32F4??
« on: November 02, 2017, 07:53:55 pm »
Hello,
until now I was only working with Arduinos using their IDE and UECIDE.
Now I bought a reference board with a STM32F415 and don't know which IDE to use. The examples for the board were made with KEIL MDK, but that software seems to be quite expensive if the code exceeds 32kb. Which (free) IDE can be recommended?

Many thanks.

Magnus
 

Offline Kjelt

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2017, 09:28:37 pm »
Although not the best if you want free you are best off IMO with the STCube (peripheral configuration / library) and SW4STM (sytem workbench) which is a free IDE, compiler from ST.
 

Offline ebclr

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2017, 09:34:47 pm »
You can run a free KEIL on the cloud with mbed

https://www.mbed.com/en/

You have many choices

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/extended-query.html?querycriteria=productId=LN1200$$associatedTo=SS1577

 

Offline sevenTech

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2017, 10:04:12 pm »
I must also highly recommend System Workbench (aka AC6). If you are learning with ST mcus, you will probably download firmware pack for your board (STM Cube will download it for you)...inside you can find variety of examples for your discovery board for Keil, Attolic and system workbench (inside folder named SW4STM32).
You can simply import these pre-created project, build and flash and it should work...no more work needed.

If I shall write about power of IDEs like System workbench or Attolic I must note that they are both eclipse-based. It can be difficult to learn at first - eclipse is really huge IDE ecosystem - it can be used for HTML, java, PHP, python...
Even in corporations these eclipse based IDEs are used frequently. Even in times I used to work in ST we used ARM modified eclipse IDE.

Difference between Attolic and System workbench and other eclipse based IDEs is mainly that they use eclipse as the core IDE and pack it with set of plugins. Attolic is more commercial based for advanced tasks like profiling etc and system workbench is developed by ST to ease development with ST mcus. So you import project and after that debugger, compiler should work..no more hassle.

Maybe Keil can be simpler for start...but the flexibility of eclipse based IDE cannot be beaten
 

Online rstofer

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2017, 10:15:18 pm »
Get a copy of "Mastering STM32" and follow along.  You will install Eclipse and GCC.  The toolchain will install easily.

https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32

There is a PDF on the Internet.  I think it is a subset but I didn't check carefully because I own the book.
 

Offline MagnumTopic starter

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2017, 11:19:55 pm »
Thank you for all the feedback.
I installed the Keil MDK, I can load the project but unfortunately it is too big. I can modify the code to make it smaller, but then I won't be able to go back to the original anymore.
I installed now the System workbench, but I am not quite sure if it supports my processor (STM32F415).

Many thanks for your replies.
 

Offline donotdespisethesnake

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2017, 11:25:28 pm »
System Workbench from AC6. Eclipse is pretty much taking over as standard IDE for MCUs. It's not necessarily to everyone's liking, but once you find how to navigate the quirks you can apply the knowledge to other Eclipse based IDEs. You also have the choice of rolling your own from scratch, using a pre-package free version, or a pre-package subscription version. Erich Styger's blog is fantastic if you go anywhere near Eclipse, and even if you don't :) https://mcuoneclipse.com/

Otherwise traditional IDEs such as Keil, IAR, Crossworks etc are more or less expensive but have good support and limited free/cheap versions.

mBed is OK if you don't need debug, and don't mind losing all your work or having random service outages.

Bob
"All you said is just a bunch of opinions."
 

Offline bobaruni

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2017, 04:14:56 am »
Very fast to install and use and it's free.
https://www.embitz.org/
 
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Online newbrain

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2017, 07:57:04 am »
For free IDEs you've already got a number of good suggestions.
One thing to add about Atollic True Studio vs. System Workbench is that the former supports many different (ARM) MCUs, while he latter is STM32 specific. If one decides to switch vendor or widen one's MCU knowledge, there's no need to relearn the quirks of a vendor specific IDE.

If you are on Windows and not opposed to fork out a reasonable amount of money, my personal preference is VisualGDB on Visual Studio: VS is a top level IDE (Community edition is free as in beer), and VGDB bridges it towards GDB and GCC in a mostly seamless way.

If a large and complex IDE is not to your liking, you might also consider Visual Studio Code: it's an Open Source,  multi platform (Windows, OS-X and Linux) editor, lightweight, fast and very flexible.
To use it as a MCU development environment, though, one needs to do some plumbing: install an ARM gcc/gbd, OpenOCD, the STM Cube and a couple of needed extensions, and also prepare a basic project and Makefile.
Nandemo wa shiranai wa yo, shitteru koto dake.
 
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Offline martinayotte

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2017, 01:41:30 pm »
There is also stm32duino.com
 

Offline mbless

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #10 on: November 03, 2017, 03:33:11 pm »
Get a copy of "Mastering STM32" and follow along.  You will install Eclipse and GCC.  The toolchain will install easily.

https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32

There is a PDF on the Internet.  I think it is a subset but I didn't check carefully because I own the book.

I second this.
 

Offline MagnumTopic starter

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #11 on: November 04, 2017, 01:41:24 pm »
Thanks for all the suggestions. But it seems I am stuck. All IDEs I tested don't support the STM32F415. As this one is on the board I have to use I have to get KEIL running. The code is approx 2kB too large for the free edition to compile.
I am also trying to find a different board but with no success yet.
The board I am using is a MAXIM MAXREFDES67. It can measure voltage, current and temperature (type K). It has a 24bit ADC with a effective resolution of approx. 22bits. The boards needs keyboard inputs via serial for the setup, I want to modify the code that I can communicate with it via SPI. Shouldn't be a big deal if I get Keil running.
 

Offline mubes

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2017, 01:49:32 pm »
I'm surprised no one has mentioned https://gnu-mcu-eclipse.github.io...or perhaps I missed it. It's very powerful and will do everything you need. By definition it's Free.

Regards

Dave
 

Offline alterbaron

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2017, 07:36:10 pm »
I'd suggest using OpenOCD, gcc/gdb and Visual Studio Code.
I'd also suggest using CMake for build tooling.

VS code can integrate with gdb, so you can do in-circuit debugging, inspection of variable values, stepping, breakpoints .etc from within the GUI, though personally, I prefer to use gdb from the shell.

If you use CMake, you can get a free extension for VS code that can read your CMakeLists file, automatically populate info for intellisense, and allow you to build with the push of a button. It's also easy to script post-build operations using CMake, for instance, reporting the executable size, generating annotated assembly, flashing firmware, .etc
 

Offline mrm2007

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #14 on: November 08, 2017, 12:07:58 pm »
Thanks for all the suggestions. But it seems I am stuck. All IDEs I tested don't support the STM32F415. As this one is on the board I have to use I have to get KEIL running. The code is approx 2kB too large for the free edition to compile.
I am also trying to find a different board but with no success yet.
The board I am using is a MAXIM MAXREFDES67. It can measure voltage, current and temperature (type K). It has a 24bit ADC with a effective resolution of approx. 22bits. The boards needs keyboard inputs via serial for the setup, I want to modify the code that I can communicate with it via SPI. Shouldn't be a big deal if I get Keil running.

Hi,

 Are you sure?

 With STM32SW , i can easily create a new project with STM32F415 ,OGY , RTG,VGT ,ZGT Series MCUs.

 I also use EmBitz and it support STM32F415 like STM32SW.

 I also checked the Keil, and Keil support for stm32F415 is also same as SWM32SW.
 

Offline Gabri74

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #15 on: November 08, 2017, 01:40:56 pm »
All IDEs I tested don't support the STM32F415

Atollic True Studio supports it on the latest update (8.1).
The free version does not have any compile/debug limitation but will display an nag screen from time to time asking you to upgrade to the pro version (which has some advanced debugging/profiling capabilities)
It's multi platform (I'm using it on Linux).

A side node regarding Keil uVision: you can easily find keygen to unlock it on the internet, but I highly discourage to do so because at least one is known to be a trojan and with all the free tools available I don't think it's worth the risk.
Moreover the Keil project format, although being in xml readable format, it's a complete mess and is really difficult to use under version control or to export to build on other tools in the future.
 

Offline MagnumTopic starter

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #16 on: November 10, 2017, 12:11:08 pm »
Thanks for the info, I'll recheck Atollic and STM32SW.
 

Offline apurvdate

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #17 on: November 11, 2017, 06:15:12 am »
there is also CooCox IDE..
i tried it for blinky n serial comm for my stm32F401 nucleo board..
but i shifted to TI's TM4C so didn't spend much time with it later..
 

Offline knapik

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #18 on: November 11, 2017, 06:46:35 am »
I bought an STM32F4 board a little while back and have recently gotten the time to play around with. I couldn't stand the ads in Atollic, but I'm quite happy with System Workbench.
 

Offline AndyC_772

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #19 on: November 11, 2017, 07:20:27 am »
For completeness, I'd highly recommend checking out CrossWorks.

Not free, but at US$150 for the personal non-commercial licence it's extraordinarily good value for what you get:

http://www.rowley.co.uk/arm/

Offline Siwastaja

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #20 on: November 11, 2017, 11:30:08 am »
A capable text editor of your choice, make, and gcc.

Plusses:
- Quick and easy start
- Well standardized, well known and documented
- Perfectly portable in any workflow, easily shared with others
- No time wasted trying to reverse engineer through what the IDE does behind your back
- What you learn is directly applicable with any computer or MCU architecture

Minuses:
- Can't think of any
 

Offline technix

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #21 on: November 11, 2017, 12:51:40 pm »
My personal favorite stack is stock Eclipse CDT + GNU MCU Eclipse + GCC ARM Embedded + OpenOCD + GDB.

The code generated by Cube tend to be fairly bloated. You can take hints from their code, but third party libraries and a rewrite usually results in much smaller code (at the same optimization level. First-hand experience on STM32F042 USB stack which takes 13kB using Cube but 5kB using third party USB stack and rewritten pin mux driver.)
 

Offline AndyC_772

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #22 on: November 11, 2017, 06:52:08 pm »
A capable text editor of your choice, make, and gcc.

Plusses:
- Quick and easy start
- Well standardized, well known and documented

Please can you post a link to a clear, up-to-date and accurate description of how to get started compiling and debugging code on a specific processor using this method?

Offline Siwastaja

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #23 on: November 11, 2017, 10:06:59 pm »
A capable text editor of your choice, make, and gcc.

Plusses:
- Quick and easy start
- Well standardized, well known and documented

Please can you post a link to a clear, up-to-date and accurate description of how to get started compiling and debugging code on a specific processor using this method?

No! Now that you say that, I realize I was 100% bullshitting right there without even realizing it :-DD. For example, with STM32, it took about half a year of absolute and total pain I thought I'd never forget, but somehow apparently did forget after all. I wish I could go back in time and tell the past myself: "you'll be okay, don't give up, and psst: the issue is that the linker scripts on that Swedish Ubuntu guy's website are broken, initializing the stack pointer incorrectly aligned!"

Yeah, I think I was delusional while writing that, mixing up reality and wishful thinking.

I think what I wrote is kind of idealistic, but due to total lack of simple, up-to-date documentation and simple installation packages, the inherently more complex choice of multitude of often vendor specific IDEs end up giving a much quicker and less painful start. Probably simply because that's what they are developed for and tested against.

So, what I said should never be said to a beginner. I grew up through the IDEs, too, and I guess today the path is kind of Arduino --> bloat libraries & bloat IDEs --> questioning them --> learning.

(Lately, my projects have been becoming so complex and big, that any setup time has become irrelevant. At the same time, I have gained more experience, and I'm starting to find the "bare" ways most efficient, forgetting that when I was a beginner, it was easier to just click a few buttons without knowing what's going on.)

Sorry.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2017, 10:46:18 pm by Siwastaja »
 

Offline AndyC_772

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Re: Which IDE for STM32F4??
« Reply #24 on: November 12, 2017, 09:22:16 am »
Lol :) I'm so glad it's not just me that's had no success at all getting a free IDE up and running in a timely manner.

CrossWorks uses gcc under the hood, but that's not what you're paying for. You're paying for the UI which allows you to just specify what you want to do, and it works out the arcane and cryptic syntax needed to make things happen.

My customer, after all, is paying for (say) an STM32 project with a boot loader and some reserved Flash memory for persistent configuration settings - not three weeks learning where to put the dots in the right place in a linker script.


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