STM32F051R8T6 microcontroller for fafafafree! (Canada and US only)

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Gust got mine in the mail. It took about a week.
http://www.st.com/internet/evalboard/product/253215.jsp


Vid review.
http://hackaday.com/2012/05/30/video-review-stm32f0-discovery-board/

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Thanks, but where did you order it, free?
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Follow the first link and click the blue button that says " register for your free kit".

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US/Canada only. Maybe amend post to reflect this?

Thanks
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Oh right.  Got it

[kd7eir]

Just ordered mine.  Thanks for telling us about this.

[Bored@Work]

The rubbish is so cheap, you really don't need free samples to get a discovery board.

At work we have a few of the other discovery boards, with all kinds of MCUs. But they are currently all gaining dust. This is because of ST's piss-poor attitude when it comes to non-Windows developing environments. We even rejected free boards last time they were thrown in our direction. The ST rep didn't get it when told in no uncertain words what's wrong with ST. And so the search for a reasonable, friendly, trustworthy MCU manufacturer continues ...

[bullet308]

I have one on order as well, though the upcoming 32-bit Arduino may be of more utility to me (and a lot of other people).

Trying to be the Next Arduino with a closed-source, Windows-only development environment does not strike me as a winning proposition, though.

[kd7eir]

I have one on order as well, though the upcoming 32-bit Arduino may be of more utility to me (and a lot of other people).

Trying to be the Next Arduino with a closed-source, Windows-only development environment does not strike me as a winning proposition, though.

I am waiting somewhat patiently for the Arduino Due as well.  It's very, very late.  Rather ironic for a product named Due...  The STM32 will NEVER compete with the Arduino because STM just does not have the proper mindset.  Open is a four letter word at STM.

[8086]

Nobody cares about EMEA these days 

[free_electron]

Look, it's really simple ST, or any processor manufacturer for that maater, is not in the business of making free development tools. What is provided is a rapid protoyping platform to allow prospective clients to play with the cpu , on the OS that 99% of the customers want, and that is windows. Sorry, but those are the facts of life.

For development tools ST will happily provide you with kickstart versions of the compilers from Keil, IAR , Atollic , Cosmic and others.

The discovery is not intended to be the next arduino. It is a rapid prototyping platform to allow prospective clients to play with the cpu.

And that's it. No need to search for some hidden motive. There is none.

[pullin-gs]

closed-source, Windows-only development environment does not strike me as a winning proposition, though.

Being able to focus on creating a product utilizing a foundation of stable/static development tools is critical.
Why on earth would I want to be burdened by searching out or creating OS tools?
Nowadays time is golden.
I spend my clock cycles hacking microcode for my projects, not searching/hacking code for the chip's supporting tools.

[kd7eir]

I prefer to use Windows, though I have OS X and Linux in my home.  I just think that the prices companies charge for their development tools is ridiculous.  If you want me to adopt your chips, make it cheap and easy for me to develop for them.

[Bored@Work]

What ST misses is that open source is no longer only a playground for kids and hobbyists. And that it is no longer about what ST wants or doesn't want.

I work for a company where we do very reliable, redundant, large, never to fail systems. In our market you turn to us if you have the cash and want the non-nonsense stuff with real service. The volume is peanuts compared to consumer products. We have moved over to a lot of open source, including development environments on Linux. It is so much easier to cross-compile for an embedded Linux on a Linux machine than using Windows crap. It is not economic to keep several development environments. And before you ask, yes, one can build very reliable redundant systems with specially tuned Linux instead of needing to turn to specialized operating systems.

You know something is wrong in the world of semiconductor manufacturers, when big fat Intel talks to you and helps out with prototype equipment, engineers, contacts in their open source development centers, etc. while other semiconductor manufacturers just snort in your general direction when you mention open source. Especially, when these are ARM manufacturers.

Just while we talk here, there are tens, maybe hundreds of thousand engineers worldwide busy bringing up some embedded Linux on all kinds of ARM SoCs. As with us, it is much easier to do that job when you cross compile on another Linux. Any ARM manufacturer snorting on open source and hindering customers to do what needs to be done to get the job done is removing itself from that business. Not providing proper information, e.g. for the programming protocol, is one way to throw a spanner in the work of your customer. 

Regarding the DISCOVERY boards, ST hasn't thought that through. Their price clearly indicates that they want to attract students, amateurs, etc. The old "you need to get them while they are young". They are clearly not targeting the professional market with these dev boards. The competition in that area is not about spending budgets, but about the minds and hearts of future engineers and decision makers. And those already voted with their feet, they want open source. So ST's DISCOVERY strategy fails, because they show the same attitude towards the hobbyists as they show towards professional developers who want to use open source non-Windows development environments.

Our DISCOVERY boards gain dust, because the do not allow us, prospective clients, to play with the CPUs under the conditions WE want.

Further, what ST didn't get is that it is no longer about being in the open source business or not. They are, because their customers are. And the overall industry trend is that fewer and fewer people buy naked chips. Instead they expect proper software support, libraries, drivers, etc. for their development environment of choice. From the chip maker, not some third party supplier. The more complex the chip is the more support is expected from the chip maker these days.

[free_electron]

a long post ..

ST releases all source for the libraries and examples. So what more 'openness' do you want ?
You get a dirt cheap board and all the sourcecode there is.
ST does NOT make compilers ( actually they do through the 'Portland Group' but those are major $$$ )

Your ranting and raving about developing for linux on linux is easier : the discovery boards cannot run linux anyway. it's got no MMU , not enough ram or rom. So: pointless to even bring this up. You are not developing linux on linux for the discovery.
If we are talking Spear processor: that's a different story .. there ST has Linux builds. The same for the settopbox chipsets. There it is linux only.

ARM manufacturers.

That says nothing. Out of all the different arm cores out there , and their implementations, only a few are linux capable. The cortex Mx machines are not target towards linux. Period. STM32 is cortex Mx. pull your own conclusion.
As for ARM : if that iwould follow your definition of 'open source' then please do explain whay a toolchain like ARM's own RVDS costs 10K$ a year ... per user ...

You got your concept of 'open source' mixed up... Open source means : we give you the sourcecode. That does not preclude charging for it ...
If you want to run montavista linux ( which is one of themost used linux distros in embedded ) you are going to pay through the nose...
So the ST development tools (the compiler/programmer) is 'free' as in 'zero paid', not 'free' as in i get the source. But the source that runs on the cortex is 'open source' ( with some right reserved , like you shall not use this library on a competitors chip )
 

And those already voted with their feet, they want open source.

which is provided. there are no secrets to the code provided, you get all the sources.

Instead they expect proper software support, libraries, drivers, etc.

which you get. you have all the source. There are exmpales and libraries for all peripherals. ST made even sure it works with multiple compilers ! They have the libs formatted for the popular toolchains from IAR , Keil and a few others. If you have a different toolchain : the libs source is available in ANSI C and should thus be usable.

As i have said in other posts : i do not get this fanatiscism about an operating system. An operating system is like a motor in a car. you don't go and sit in front of the car and look at the motor.. you use the car to get from point a to point b. If today you have a little red convertible sportscar and you need to move something large which won't fit the car you have three options :
1- rent an suv or van
2- buy an suv or van keeping your car
3- sell your car and buy an suv or van

1 is the most reasonable option if it is for a one-time deal
2 gives you flexibility if you move things frequently and now you have two cars in the family
3 ... you have to live with the fact that you will never be able to drive the coastal highway , roof down , sun on year head , wind in  your (thinning) hear , hot chick by your side (you wish) .. but have to ramble on in the big gas guzzling clunker...

Hardware is cheap , computers can dualboot.
a computer and operating system is just a piece of equipment used to run applications. That's it. The 'holy war' of windows vs linux vs osx should be done in that other topic here : the religion topic.

[Bored@Work]

Your answer makes it clear you don't get it. It is not about what a supplier thinks is right. It is about what customers and future customers think is right.

If a supplier doesn't perform as we expect, we move on. If a supplier thinks it is OK to withhold necessary informations like debugging protocols, we move on. Junk solutions like dual boot disrupt the workflow, and if a supplier insists on them we move on. A supplier is not in a position to dictate how we need to set up our environment. We, not a supplier, know what is best for us. If a supplier despises our way of working we'll definitely not fall in love with them. The "fixation" with an OS is there, because we need special features in which we have invested, including the skills of the employees. This is where we generate value and part of how we outperform competitors.

[8086]

The more poisonous, anti-social comments I read online, the more I realise one shining fact: People are ONLY interested in "being right" and having the last word. It's a cheap, throw-away microcontroller board, nothing more. Move on, it's irrelevant to real life in the greater scheme of things.

Seriously folks, can we just be kind?

We can be "kind" and get nothing done, or speak our minds and better the world.

[8086]

The more poisonous, anti-social comments I read online, the more I realise one shining fact: People are ONLY interested in "being right" and having the last word. It's a cheap, throw-away microcontroller board, nothing more. Move on, it's irrelevant to real life in the greater scheme of things.

Seriously folks, can we just be kind?

We can be "kind" and get nothing done, or speak our minds and better the world.

You can be kind too, whilst not being a know it all, and being arrogant (not aimed to you btw). I never realised being kind was a separate, exclusive thing from life - don't be bitter, just saying

Kindness is good, and I don't actually see anyone actually being very unkind or hateful in this thread, but "kindness" as you use the word - meaning being "wet" and trying not to have an opinion, is ultimately pointless.

What you call arrogance is what others call voicing an opinion.

[8086]

The more poisonous, anti-social comments I read online, the more I realise one shining fact: People are ONLY interested in "being right" and having the last word. It's a cheap, throw-away microcontroller board, nothing more. Move on, it's irrelevant to real life in the greater scheme of things.

Seriously folks, can we just be kind?

We can be "kind" and get nothing done, or speak our minds and better the world.

You can be kind too, whilst not being a know it all, and being arrogant (not aimed to you btw). I never realised being kind was a separate, exclusive thing from life - don't be bitter, just saying

Kindness is good, and I don't actually see anyone actually being very unkind or hateful in this thread, but "kindness" as you use the word - meaning being "wet" and trying not to have an opinion, is ultimately pointless.

What you call arrogance is what others call voicing an opinion.

Nice judgement call - you mis-understood me. I was talking about bickering, not anyone in particular. It's obvious when someone starts on about which OS is better, which way the thread is likely to go, that's all my point was.

There's no pacifying some people; you're nasty and considered wrong, or you're kind and condemned for it. It's alright with me - you don't define me, so have a great day bro.


It's alright, I won't carry this on - take care

Okay "bro".

Have a fantabulous day! 

[free_electron]

If a supplier doesn't perform as we expect, we move on.

you do have that right. no problem there.

If a supplier thinks it is OK to withhold necessary informations like debugging protocols

Want the protocol ? Sign an NDA. No problem. They'll happily provide.

If a supplier despises our way of working

it is not a matter of despising. nobody despises anything. You get a board and all the source for it. You can use whatever tools you want or see fit. For the main traction platform (like it or not : still windows ... ) ST throws in a few free things of their own. You don't have to use them. There's plenty of other companies out there that have development platforms ( like iar , keil and others ) , but good luck finding one that works on linux...  Simply install wine and go with it.

As for the debugging protocols : those are open too. There is plenty of companies that have debuggers. Keil has one , Segger has one , IAR has one, Lauterbach has one , American Arium has one , Nohau has one , there's a few others and st provides the ST link for free as well. Even some 3 man and a donkey company like MikroE in eastern europe has one. So all these people have debugger probes and IDE's.

Here you have at least 10 different development environments and about as many debuggers, and you are still not happy ... who is being difficult here ? If you absolutely must have the pink unicorn version.... you are out of luck ... nobody has that one. You can go sit in a corner and pout but that does not help you forward.

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You get what you pay for. Its fucking free. For someone just starting out in EE; this is great. My work bench consist of a soldering iron, solder, A pair of pliers, and an Arduino mega kit. Ill take it. 

[T4P]

I mean like at that price or free it has more functionality then a Arduino Mega!
Or at half the price of the mega and get a ... F4-discovery

But they really should not have limited the offer to Canada and US only

[pullin-gs]

I like chevy's myself.....its the only make of car around that changes it's oil by itself!
That blue smoke is pretty cool also.