STLINK V3-PWR

[uer166]

Perhaps your factory fixtures are tight on space, mine generally are not and so I prefer the ruggedness and reliability of a shrouded, keyed 0.100 pin header to the real-estate savings offered by STC14..

I am happy that ST's opinion differs from yours. The 5x2 (not 7x2!) non-shrouded 0.05" headers that the vanilla STLINK-V3 is compatible with is an absolute godsend for cost and size; I wouldn't even use Tag-Connect anymore since it's larger in the latching version and the 0.05" header works on PCBs other than 1.6mm.

[LogicalDave]

@uer166 I'm happy you like the STC14. Again, since it appears I was not clear, I was complaining about:

• The connector on the STLink, not the target. As you point out, you can use any size connector on the target (e.g. 5x2 instead of 7x2); it doesn't have to match the STLink connector.
• The STLink is a tool for development and factory use.  Particularly during development, when boards are frequently connected/disconnected, 0.050 connectors and ribbon cables are fragile
• It's easier to adapt down in pitch than up.
• The change in header pitch makes it harder to use the STLink V3 with existing boards - and there are almost certainly vastly more existing than new designs.  That will change over time, but for now, it's harder to put the STLinkV3 into service with existing systems.  Even 4x 0.100" pins (SWDIO, SWCLK, VCC, GND) in addition to the STC14 would have solved the problem for most users. Smart companies care about backward compatibility and easy migration paths.

Clearly you're right that the STLink design team's opinion differed from mine. That doesn't mean they always get it right the first time or that they don't value user feedback...yours or mine.

With respect to placing connectors on the target, I agree that 5x2 0.50" connectors will be much cheaper than the 7x2 Samtec STC14 connectors used on the STLink V3 (although those have an amazingly small footprint). I'd like to find some good, inexpensive, keyed 5x2 0.050" non-shrouded connectors; would you mind sharing which ones you are using?  For targets, I've been concerned about using 0.050" connectors, particularly non-shrouded, because the pins tend to be easily bent/damaged; have you found any good tricks for protecting them?

Finally, I agree that the TAG Connect is a niche solution, and perhaps increasingly so.  Someone else brought them up, but I've used them for low volume or pilot runs before a test fixture is made, the obvious advantage over STC14 is that it adds zero cost to the production boards, but you're right that if a low cost STC14 or 5x2 0.50" connector is available, the TAG Connect has less to offer and those dang latches (on the latched versions) are pretty annoying.

[AVI-crak]

I can buy STC14 for $30 for 1 set - but I don't want to.
STC14 is made by only one company and the licence conditions are atrocious. You are not allowed to manufacture STC14 connectors for less than $30.
The situation is exactly the same with edge connectors - the connector itself costs almost nothing, but the licence is beyond humanity.
On the other hand TAG Connect is made literally in 10 minutes from junk, needles are freely available almost for free. You don't have to replicate the original design, I like the clip-on design better.

[voltsandjolts]

Cross-ref to someone who was having trouble with SWO on the STLINK V3-PWR

Turns out I'm an idiot and had misconfigured my clocks. I had thought my HSE was 25MHz, as it is in my other designs, but for this one I used 10MHz. After fixing that SWO logging works, but fails when messages are sent too fast. I'm not even sending all the fast, messages are sent at about 60Hz.

I kept everything the same but replaced the V3PWR with a V3SET and V3MINIE and those work fine. SWO logging never stops. This leads me to believe the V3PWR is a piece of shit.

I guess I should not have tried using ST programmers. I'll try a J-Link Mini.