Maple Mini clone/BluePill differences?

Howdy!

Putting aside the pinout differences and a few dollars, do the Maple Mini clones offer any advantages/disadvantages over BluePills?

It appears that the Maple Minis should have a USB bootloader pre-installed, but can this be relied upon?

Any other issues/differences?

Technically the MM has 128k Flash and the BP has 64k, however most of the STM32F103C8 MCUs actually have 128k flash because STMs production yields are so high.

MM has additional transistors on the board to correctky comply with the USB spec to reset the USB
BP , and virtually all other generic boards dont have this hardware.

We only managed to get the BP to reset the USB using a hack that breaks the USB spec. Some people have a problem with the BP USB, but as those people dont have a MM to compare it with, its hard to know if this is because of the hack or for other reasons.

MM generally have better build quality, stronger USB connector, a User button, and some other differences in the power supply circuit ( but I cant remember the full details)

RogerClark wrote:Technically the MM has 128k Flash and the BP has 64k, however most of the STM32F103C8 MCUs actually have 128k flash because STMs production yields are so high…)

Look in the wiki for the pin info, there are differences

Also. Maple mini GPIO can be accessed by the pin number on the silkscreen, you can also use the STM Port/Pin e.g. PA9 but you’d need to cross reference which pin number that is

that user button on MM makes it easy to get into ‘perpetual boot loader’ mode

RogerClark wrote:Look in the wiki for the pin info, there are differences

Also. Maple mini GPIO can be accessed by the pin number on the silkscreen, you can also use the STM Port/Pin e.g. PA9 but you’d need to cross reference which pin number that is

bluepill features i like:

o If you use an stlink/bmp programmer, it has easier access to the swd pins
o the 5v is available on a pin
o I like paying for 64k and getting 128
o I can get them from ebay, for the Baite maple mini I have to go to aliexpress

MM is the smallest
Most robust
Is guaranteed to have 128k Flash

Anyone who’s code actually takes more than 64k and wants to be able to make more of their project in the future, would probably be best using the MM in case STM get wise to people using all 128k, and starts making sure F103C8’s are only 64k.

BTW. The original Maple Mini (not the current clones, even the Baite clone) had a separate supply for the analogue ground, which greatly improves the ADC noise performance, but AFIK none of the clones now have that

part of the attractiveness of the BP i guess is the gamble that you could get 128k for the price of 64k, but as it goes it is a gamble, for what’s worth stm may one day just price it the same as 128k eliminating the incentive

Rick Kimball wrote:bluepill features i like:

o If you use an stlink/bmp programmer, it has easier access to the swd pins
o the 5v is available on a pin
o I like paying for 64k and getting 128
o I can get them from ebay, for the Baite maple mini I have to go to aliexpress

edogaldo wrote:Rick Kimball wrote:bluepill features i like:

o If you use an stlink/bmp programmer, it has easier access to the swd pins
o the 5v is available on a pin
o I like paying for 64k and getting 128
o I can get them from ebay, for the Baite maple mini I have to go to aliexpress

before i ‘discovered’ those blue pills, i run into this board and got 1 piece of it
https://www.olimex.com/Products/Duino/S … e-hardware
obviously the price differential is quite a lot more % wise but it did seem today that stm32f103RBt6 has quite a few more pins compared to say the maple mini etc, e.g. that olimex actually added an ‘ext’ connector and an uSD card adapter on spi 2. olimex’s board is also 1 of the more feature packed board i see around e.g. that it has an on board lipo charger and lipo connector, separate LDO regulator for analog pins and to top if off olimex added the arduino connectors which makes shields usable. but of course it comes at a somewhat premium
one thing i actually like about olimex is that they publish the schematics on their product web and has some decent manuals for their boards
i’ve got an lcd + buttons shield like this https://www.dfrobot.com/product-51.html it actually works on the olimex’s board. just that 3.3v makes the display too feint to be visible. i’ve read somewhere that one could use negative voltages on the control pin to fix the feint display, but i’ve yet to try that out.

interestingly olimex seemed to be getting more into esp32
https://olimex.wordpress.com/

RogerClark wrote:One claims to have a STM32F103RCB8 but the F103RC is physically bigger, and probably would not fit on a board of that size, and the photos look identical

did anyone get those VE or ZG board to share your stories?
as for me for the VE i jumped to the ‘higher’ f4 series drooling over its 168mhz processor with fpu, usb otg etc only later do i realise a lot of new / different codes is needed to make it work

interestingly there are some rather ‘highly integrated’ boards/kits like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-ARM-STM32 … 2552827279
this may be more convenient & possibly cheaper than buying the components separately

actually sooner than later the ebay & aliexpress vendors may start to call the board blue pill, black pill, black vet6 etc as it is the names we are calling them here, this forum has a global impact

ag123 wrote:did anyone get those VE or ZG board to share your stories?
as for me for the VE i jumped to the ‘higher’ f4 series drooling over its 168mhz processor with fpu, usb otg etc only later do i realise a lot of new / different codes is needed to make it work

interestingly there are some rather ‘highly integrated’ boards/kits like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-ARM-STM32 … 2552827279
this may be more convenient & possibly cheaper than buying the components separately

if it is only a display then it is ‘very expensive’, the ad is rather misleading
yup i think you are right just the lcd parallel 16 bit interface lcd, hardly anything mentioned about the stm32 board itself
be careful
1) ask more questions about the boards, the parts included etc (i.e. the bom), clarify if it is only lcd etc
2) get the schematic (in particular if it is a stm32 board)
many of the aliexpress / ebay vendors are pretty short esp on details about the board / kit and the schematics

yup it doesn’t seem like a likely bundle
a f103zet board itself is priced at $20
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beyond-New-Deve … 2685563380
hence it is an unlikely bundle with the lcd for extra dollar more

I grabbed a few of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/351590646697

This is one of the larger, more “reputable” board sellers on eBay, and it appears to be the Baite version.

My wish now is for someone to release an Atmel-ARM or STM32 board that mirrors the Arduino Nano/Micro pinout, so we have a drop-in replacement for projects that use them! (I’ve been mulling over making one, but the pin-pitch on the STM32 is just a bit tight for hand-assembly!)

well that’s the ‘baite’ (maple) mini, i’m using that currently
won’t the pinouts be different for atmel chips? my goof, i thought u meant using atmel-arm chips on an stm board
i think stm actually have those 1 min googling … there u go here is it:
http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?t=663
but it is an f3 !

@ag123
did i forget to mention that schematics for the Black F407 VET/ZET/ZGT boards are on the wiki, along with other info.
did i forget to mention that the price are all in £11 to £15 range and bar a connector polarity issue seems to be a pretty
standard fsmc based interface.
whilst the ‘black’ compatible displays are indeed pricey, i can’t think of a reason the £5-£10 ones wouldn’t work, subject to care being taken on the pin outs and polarity.
don’t which 103zets you were looking at, but $20(£15.52) now seems to me is charging for its rarity value
sorry, not the board i thought it was, it does indeed seem to be worth it for the attached hardware, schematic?
stephen

hi stephen,
no worries, i’m not referring to the f407 series boards, those are well and in the wiki
yup, i’m referring to the particular lcd as well as those particular f103vet boards, i do agree that they are simply charging a *rarity premium* as it is otherwise too ‘common sense’ to conclude that an f407vet6 black board simply has (much) better value

arh, so same comment as mine, pricey display
similar question then, is there a schematic available? any silk screen on the main board or layout for the display pinning?

search for a 34way with pins(if i count correctly), screen blurb says it’s a ILI9341, touch screen t_* signals at one end 4 8080 signals at the other (RD/WR/xx/yy)
google image is your friend
looked through the openedv.com/posts/list/13192.htm, plenty of pics in chrominum, unfortunately none in the orientation to read the pin naming.
that long sil header breaks out the display connector(most of?) from a pic of the reverse main board.
34way 2.8″ seem to be quite common, with ILI9341 more so

stephen