STM32F103 any good?

[Rasz]

Yes, GD and STM are almost compatible. One difference that I know is that PLL has more bits to provide more frequency ratios, for example, to get proper USB clock even if MCU isn't at the same frequency as STM.

BTW, for those who wish to see that the GD die isn't a clone of STM at all, here is a nice link, which also explain why the Flash is much faster on GD than STM :

http://zeptobars.com/en/read/GD32F103CBT6-mcm-serial-flash-Giga-Devices

now THAT is fascinating, imagine if there was a way to use that SRAM as real ram and not serial flash buffer

[Sal Ammoniac]

Yes, GD and STM are almost compatible. One difference that I know is that PLL has more bits to provide more frequency ratios, for example, to get proper USB clock even if MCU isn't at the same frequency as STM.

BTW, for those who wish to see that the GD die isn't a clone of STM at all, here is a nice link, which also explain why the Flash is much faster on GD than STM :

http://zeptobars.com/en/read/GD32F103CBT6-mcm-serial-flash-Giga-Devices

now THAT is fascinating, imagine if there was a way to use that SRAM as real ram and not serial flash buffer

Yes, fascinating. If his post was a day later, I probably wouldn't have believed it and assumed it was an April Fools Day joke.

[technix]

the SDK for GD32 was a carbon copy of STM32 SDK

Some changes to the stm libraries are needed to support the higher clock rates. Other than that, you can literally use the stm32 library to develop code for gd32.

It won't be long before someone develop a LGPL-licensed replacement (like avr-libc and avr-gcc.) Then there is no control over ST on the SDK. GD will have all the intention to do that.

[martinayotte]

Simply go to stm32duino.com, there is already GD32 support.

[textshell]

The small chinese boards that are all over aliexpress and ebays as "minimal system board" are possibly made by Haoyu electronics. At least that’s what the german store watterott gives as manufacturer. They even have schematics:
http://www.haoyuelectronics.com/Attachment/STM32F103C8T6-DEV-BOARD/STM32F103C8T6-DEV-BOARD-SCH.pdf

Also if anyone wants to understand what is really needed and why for the gcc toolchain (linkerscripts, etc) i wrote a blog series about bringing up such a board[1] just using the register headers and a linaro bare-metal gcc. (questions and ideas improvements welcome too of course). Without a single line of assembler. But it might contain c++

[1] http://tty.uchuujin.de/2016/02/stm32-from-scratch-bare-minimals/

[dannyf]

I have used those boards under keil (from 3.24 to 4.x), iar (through 6.4), coide (1.x plus an old gcc), and arduino, programmed through stlink and jlink, with cmsis and stdperipheral libraries.

They are some of the easiest think to do: either copy over an existing project or click some butons under coide. 30 seconds tops will get you up and running.

They are amazing values, especially coupled with stlink clones.

[textshell]

does anyone have a recommendation what debugger adapter works well with a pure open source toolchain (i.e. gdb, maybe openocd or something else?) and JTAG and SWD?

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

stlink v2 works fine, but its the only one I've tried but I have only tried it with SWD though I think it does JTAG.

[Sal Ammoniac]

does anyone have a recommendation what debugger adapter works well with a pure open source toolchain (i.e. gdb, maybe openocd or something else?) and JTAG and SWD?

The most robust debugger I've worked with is the Segger J-Link. Works with GDB and does both JTAG and SWD. The EDU version is only $60/€48.

[Jeroen3]

Segger has an ethernet version! Slap on a small wifi router and you have wireless debugging.
But I use a uLink, got one when they dismantled the department I was an intern.

[neslekkim]

this thingy ? https://github.com/texane/stlink

[neslekkim]

The small chinese boards that are all over aliexpress and ebays as "minimal system board" are possibly made by Haoyu electronics. At least that’s what the german store watterott gives as manufacturer. They even have schematics:
http://www.haoyuelectronics.com/Attachment/STM32F103C8T6-DEV-BOARD/STM32F103C8T6-DEV-BOARD-SCH.pdf

Also if anyone wants to understand what is really needed and why for the gcc toolchain (linkerscripts, etc) i wrote a blog series about bringing up such a board[1] just using the register headers and a linaro bare-metal gcc. (questions and ideas improvements welcome too of course). Without a single line of assembler. But it might contain c++

[1] http://tty.uchuujin.de/2016/02/stm32-from-scratch-bare-minimals/

This looks cool, i bought some of those boards, but newer got around to do anything, this blogseries would help jumpstarting it.
But, what about an 0 post, prerequisites for software setup?

[dgtl]

this thingy ? https://github.com/texane/stlink

This works well, been using it on a lot of projects. My setup is:
* gcc-arm-embedded from https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded
* eclipse + cdt
* gnu arm plugin for eclipse
* texane stlink gdb server
The linker script and cpu init code can be generated using cubemx and then customized for own needs (I'm not using any st-provided hal libs, only the cpu header file).

[textshell]

Also if anyone wants to understand what is really needed and why for the gcc toolchain (linkerscripts, etc) i wrote a blog series about bringing up such a board[1] just using the register headers and a linaro bare-metal gcc. (questions and ideas improvements welcome too of course). Without a single line of assembler. But it might contain c++

[1] http://tty.uchuujin.de/2016/02/stm32-from-scratch-bare-minimals/

This looks cool, i bought some of those boards, but newer got around to do anything, this blogseries would help jumpstarting it.
But, what about an 0 post, prerequisites for software setup?

Yes, maybe i should add something more about prerequisites. For now the README.md on github (linked from every post) has the software versions i use. But it’s somewhat minimal because most of everything is just part of my OS (Debian linux). I guess on windows setup would be a bit more painful. But i think even for windows the gnu toolchain is not too complicated to get.

And as i don’t use any IDE like eclipse or anything like that, you only need stm32flash and the arm bare-metal version of the gcc toolchain.

If you have any questions, i’m happy to help.