Bluepill with STM32F4

racemaniac
Tue Dec 27, 2016 9:31 pm
I love the formfactor of the bluepill, but sometimes wished it had a bit more power.
So… i ordered some stm32f401 & f411 chips, (and a hot air smd rework station XD), and gave it a try to get one of these nice processors on a bluepill :).
(ok, a few tries :p)
STM is really good at keeping pin compatibility between their processors. all essential things (power supply, crystals & usb) are on the same pins on most processors (i did find an exception somewhere, always check with the cubemx tool). So i ordered a few of the 4 series chips that are also 48 pins to give it a try :).
If you look up these microcontrollers, you’ll notice it’s not a QFP package, but QFN, which is pretty annoying to work with, but if my current attempt worked, then it’s quite doable with a hot air station. and the pads also extend to the side a bit, so if a pin isn’t soldered properly, you should be able to add some solder to it with a fine tip and a steady hand.

After getting to know my hot air station a bit, i now have a bluepill with a stm32f401ceu6 that i’ve been able to program, and that is blinking the bluepill led :). Not sure yet how well my soldering job was and if all pins will work, but this is a good start XD.

Now could we somehow convince the chinese companies making bluepills/maple minis to make these? imagine being able to buy the likes of this for < 10$ XD.

If everything is succesful, this little bluepill now has 2 DACS, 3 I2C ports, 3SPI ports (of which 2 can do I2S) and can also be a usb host, not just a device . And it can go to 84Mhz (and the spi ports are thus also faster ). And to top it off, 96kb ram, 512kb flash!


RogerClark
Tue Dec 27, 2016 10:23 pm
Thats super cool.

I wonder what the price difference is between teh F103C and the F401 (at 100 off quantities)

The manufacturer would probably be willing to make a batch of these, if there was sufficient order quantity e.g. 100 +

I wonder who makes the Black Pill (or the Blue Pill), as it may be worth us getting in touch with them and asking about a price.


zmemw16
Wed Dec 28, 2016 1:24 am
first – oh why didn’t i … …

um, baite mini maple with a 401

any others the same type of substitution might work on/with?

on aliexpress, you’re swamped with all the nucleo-401’s offered
on the stm32f401ceu6 chip, 3-4ukp, farnell uk are listing 5.50 area

someone is offering 50 for £1950, i suspect there’s a missing zero typo in there, well i’d hope so.

stephen


racemaniac
Wed Dec 28, 2016 7:18 am
the compatible chips are the stm32f401, 411, 412, 413 and 423
I’ve also got a few 413’s on the way from digikey (since i can’t find those on aliexpress).
The’re really insane 0_0 1.5Mb flash, 320kb ram, dacs, plenty of spi i2c i2s, you name it, sdio, usb host, …. it’s all there in that tiny chip that fits on a bluepill/maple mini /…
There usually is 1 small difference with the pinout of the stm32f103: they have one output pin less, because one of the pins you’re supposed to put a capacitor on for the internal reference voltage. but if not using that feature, you probably don’t even have to bother :) (and otherwise it’ll be like adding the bluepill parallel resistor for usb).
also if we’d convince a chinese factory to produce boards like this, they might want to swap out the qfp pad for something more suited for qfn :). it fit’s on there, but it was not really made for it XD.

and you can indeed find some mucleo’s 401 on aliexpress etc… but it’s again a stupid uno sized board, and 20$ is just too much for such a clumsy thing >_<.
you can indeed find the 401 for about 4-5€, and the 411 for 5-6€ a piece, so making a modded bluepill/maple mini isn’t that expensive XD.

And a maple mini with the better chip is indeed also possible :). In my previous dealings with the boards however (a while back i did the same with an stm32f303 on bluepill/maple mini) i noticed that the baite pcb is a bit more delicate to switch the microcontroller on. and since it costs a lot more, i stuck with bluepills from then on. With my SMD rework station it may work better now, i’ll give it a try (finally a usage for all the maple mini, bluepill, blackpill, … boards i’ve been hoarding XD)


ahull
Wed Dec 28, 2016 11:45 am
racemaniac wrote:t
The’re really insane 0_0 1.5Mb flash, 320kb ram, dacs, plenty of spi i2c i2s, you name it, sdio, usb host, ….

racemaniac
Wed Dec 28, 2016 12:08 pm
ahull wrote:racemaniac wrote:t
The’re really insane 0_0 1.5Mb flash, 320kb ram, dacs, plenty of spi i2c i2s, you name it, sdio, usb host, ….

ahull
Wed Dec 28, 2016 1:42 pm
12-bit ADC reaching 2.4 MSPS

stm32f413_f423_image.jpg
stm32f413_f423_image.jpg (36.5 KiB) Viewed 2070 times

michael_l
Wed Dec 28, 2016 5:14 pm
F103 power has been ok for me but I’m running out of RAM :-)

Would be awesome to get a board with BP form factor and F4!


zmemw16
Wed Dec 28, 2016 7:01 pm
what does the blue pill plus pin out diagram look like at the edges ?

a complete re-write or just a few pins ?

stephen


Rick Kimball
Wed Dec 28, 2016 7:20 pm
It seems like there are a couple of lqfp 48 parts available in the stm32l4xx line, the stm32l433cct6 and the stm32l443cct6. These don’t have as much ram or flash (64k/256k) but might be an easier replacement, * assuming the pin outs are the same * Both are a step up from the f103’s 20k

I wonder if you can just buy the bluepill pcb?

-rick


racemaniac
Wed Dec 28, 2016 8:56 pm
zmemw16 wrote:what does the blue pill plus pin out diagram look like at the edges ?

a complete re-write or just a few pins ?

stephen


racemaniac
Wed Dec 28, 2016 9:02 pm
Rick Kimball wrote:It seems like there are a couple of lqfp 48 parts available in the stm32l4xx line, the stm32l433cct6 and the stm32l443cct6. These don’t have as much ram or flash (64k/256k) but might be an easier replacement, * assuming the pin outs are the same * Both are a step up from the f103’s 20k

I wonder if you can just buy the bluepill pcb?

-rick


RogerClark
Wed Dec 28, 2016 9:55 pm
I tried upgrading a Maple mini to a GD32 some time ago, but as the GD32 was removed from another board, it had a tiny bit of solder on it, and I ended up damaging the Maple mini by pulling a track off the PCB when I tried to position the GD32

So Its probably best to do this upgrade on the cheapest board e.g. Black Pill and not using a salvaged STM32 ;-)


racemaniac
Thu Dec 29, 2016 7:48 am
RogerClark wrote:I tried upgrading a Maple mini to a GD32 some time ago, but as the GD32 was removed from another board, it had a tiny bit of solder on it, and I ended up damaging the Maple mini by pulling a track off the PCB when I tried to position the GD32

So Its probably best to do this upgrade on the cheapest board e.g. Black Pill and not using a salvaged STM32 ;-)


RogerClark
Thu Dec 29, 2016 8:45 am
I think I’ll order some more Black Pill’s as they have a better USB connector, as I’ve already broken the usb connector on 2 x Red Pills in the last year.

racemaniac
Thu Dec 29, 2016 10:55 am
RogerClark wrote:I think I’ll order some more Black Pill’s as they have a better USB connector, as I’ve already broken the usb connector on 2 x Red Pills in the last year.

racemaniac
Sat Dec 31, 2016 8:03 am
i’ve done some more experiments with replacing chips:
for me the bluepill is the only option. The maple mini has tiny pads that are only suited for qfp, not for qfn… and the blackpill has a lot of smd components near the microcontroller… it could work, but you’ll have to fix up all the tiny resistors/capacitors afterwards >_<

*edit* after some testing i’ve noticed that if i put the 401 in a higher clockspeed, it often crashes while setting up the clock. i’m going to have a look at if it has to do with the VCAP pin that isn’t connected yet. at 24Mhz it’s running stable, at 72Mhz it often crashes.


racemaniac
Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:05 pm
Ok, after some waiting for the bigger value ceramic capacitors to arrive from china, i finally continued with this project, and i’ve got some great news :)
After adding the required capacitor (4.7µF between PB11 & ground, and yes it HAS to be ceramic), my bluepill with the stm32f411CEU6 is now running stable at 96Mhz :). (basically the fastest it can go. it’s rated to 100Mhz, but then USB won’t work as you can’t configure a 48Mhz clock).
So if you want to go for a stm32f411 bluepill, it’s possible and it works :).

I’ve yet to do more extensive tests with this little beast, but all signs are starting to point to the fact that this works :p.


zmemw16
Tue Jan 17, 2017 12:49 am
what package were the ceramic caps ? leads or smd
any convenient cap to replace and / or rewire the pads

is that PB11 the bluepill pin on the pcb, or pb11 on the cpu or something entirely different ?

any other mods needed ?

stephen


racemaniac
Tue Jan 17, 2017 6:58 am
zmemw16 wrote:what package were the ceramic caps ? leads or smd
any convenient cap to replace and / or rewire the pads

is that PB11 the bluepill pin on the pcb, or pb11 on the cpu or something entirely different ?

any other mods needed ?

stephen


racemaniac
Fri Jan 20, 2017 8:07 am
I’ve been using it a bit more yesterday, seems to be working well :)
i’m experimenting with its i2s hardware, and it’s also working :). (but my i2s chip i’m using isn’t >_<. it’s going to drive me crazy :p ).
ah well, i’ve got a couple of others to try with too, mission for the weekend: get A i2s DAC properly working :p.

victor_pv
Fri Jan 20, 2017 8:18 pm
Rick Kimball wrote:It seems like there are a couple of lqfp 48 parts available in the stm32l4xx line, the stm32l433cct6 and the stm32l443cct6. These don’t have as much ram or flash (64k/256k) but might be an easier replacement, * assuming the pin outs are the same * Both are a step up from the f103’s 20k

I wonder if you can just buy the bluepill pcb?

-rick


racemaniac
Mon Feb 06, 2017 7:59 pm
racemaniac wrote:I’ve been using it a bit more yesterday, seems to be working well :)
i’m experimenting with its i2s hardware, and it’s also working :). (but my i2s chip i’m using isn’t >_<. it’s going to drive me crazy :p ).
ah well, i’ve got a couple of others to try with too, mission for the weekend: get A i2s DAC properly working :p.

victor_pv
Tue Feb 07, 2017 5:20 pm
racemaniac wrote:racemaniac wrote:I’ve been using it a bit more yesterday, seems to be working well :)
i’m experimenting with its i2s hardware, and it’s also working :). (but my i2s chip i’m using isn’t >_<. it’s going to drive me crazy :p ).
ah well, i’ve got a couple of others to try with too, mission for the weekend: get A i2s DAC properly working :p.

racemaniac
Tue Feb 07, 2017 6:23 pm
victor_pv wrote:racemaniac wrote:racemaniac wrote:I’ve been using it a bit more yesterday, seems to be working well :)
i’m experimenting with its i2s hardware, and it’s also working :). (but my i2s chip i’m using isn’t >_<. it’s going to drive me crazy :p ).
ah well, i’ve got a couple of others to try with too, mission for the weekend: get A i2s DAC properly working :p.

ag123
Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:14 am
there is a thread on ‘tiny’ stm32f4 boards here
http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1977
as well

one of the smallest and well designed development boards with many pins broken out is possibly the micropython boards
https://store.micropython.org/#/products/PYBv1_1
various other boards is reviewed in the ‘tiny stm32f4’ boards thread above

for the f4 (f405, f407) boards, i think the soc itself makes up the bulk of the cost itself as it is after all a rather complex and rather large soc ( compared to the f1) default config with 196k sram and 512 – 1m flash


ag123
Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:33 am
oh from ST itself! :D
http://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/n … 432kc.html

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