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16-Jul-23 6:45

I am learning STM32 development and almost all the information available on it is trapped in webinar length videos.

I strongly suspect that the reason for this is the bloody CubeMX software which requires you to use combo boxes, and tree views, and other nonsense to set up the initial code for the project.

There is a project file it creates that has these settings, but the format opaque like old school visual basic forms.

People don't think.

When you make software that is fundamentally not declarative it means its data is not serializable. Even if you make it declarative but only you know the format, then you're forcing people to do it visually, which means YOU CANNOT EASILY WRITE INSTRUCTIONS on how to use it.

Microsoft finally figured it out with Visual Studio .NET.

I wish the CubeMX tool would work the same way. D'Oh! | :doh:

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx

PIEBALDconsult16-Jul-23 6:54

PIEBALDconsult

16-Jul-23 6:54

Be glad you don't do SSIS.

Ron Anders16-Jul-23 7:12

Ron Anders

16-Jul-23 7:12

Ask chatGBT. It's crazy what he/she/them/thar/it knows.

Mike Hankey16-Jul-23 12:53

16-Jul-23 12:53

I don't know if the articles I wrote for STM32 are relevant to what you are doing but I'll throw them out there.

They don't use the CubeMX stuff, are register level but allow a lot more flexibility.

ARM Tutorial Part 1 Clocks[^]
ARM Tutorial Part 2 Timers[^]

Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine for those I can not!
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - An updated version available! JaxCoder.com
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honey the codewitch16-Jul-23 13:07

16-Jul-23 13:07

Oooh thank you. This is actually just what i need at the moment.

I'm trying to make a nucleo F767ZI board talk 8-bit i8080 parallel to an ILI9488 controller.

I gleaned enough from TFT_eSPI (by Bodmer) to understand the basic concepts, but not quite enough to derive my own outside the Arduino framework, which is the goal.

That's how I'm challenging myself to get going in this arena.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx

Mike Hankey16-Jul-23 13:14

16-Jul-23 13:14

I learn a new platform by taking one section at a time and learning all I can about it then going on to another section.

This time I documented my experience.

After those 2 articles I got into the DMA and started to write an article but went on vacation so didn't have time to finish it.

Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine for those I can not!
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - An updated version available! JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: Simon Says, A Child's Game

honey the codewitch16-Jul-23 13:25

16-Jul-23 13:25

You mean scanning the hardware reference manuals? Unsure | :~

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx

Mike Hankey16-Jul-23 13:30

16-Jul-23 13:30

I hat reference manuals, they are so hard for me to understand and contain so little information.

Whoever writes them ought to be fired.

I bought several different devices and the programmers for them. The DMA article I'm working on uses the NUCLEO- F722ZE.

Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine for those I can not!
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - An updated version available! JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: Simon Says, A Child's Game

honey the codewitch16-Jul-23 13:32

16-Jul-23 13:32

So what do you use to learn with? Now you've got me curious. I've been trying to wrap my head around all this and the only significant material i can find is in long youtube videos which somehow still manage to be cryptic.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx

Mike Hankey16-Jul-23 13:40

16-Jul-23 13:40

The problem finding any material on the STM32 using register level programming, most everyone uses CubeMX in there articles and videos.

So I use a variety of methods to learn;
1) This guy is pretty good but god is he boring...#1. Intro to STM32F4 Register Based Programming || Clock Setup || LED Blinking || NO HAL - YouTube[^]
2) Read the various manuals and fill in the blanks
3) Just muddle through it and spend hours figuring it out

I have a learning disability so it's hard for me to grasp things by reading, I'm a hands on guy!

Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine for those I can not!
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - An updated version available! JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: Simon Says, A Child's Game

honey the codewitch16-Jul-23 13:59

16-Jul-23 13:59

Mike Hankey wrote:
it's hard for me to grasp things by reading, I'm a hands on guy!

I'm very much the same way. I tell people that the way I learn best is to challenge myself to do something I can't do until finally, I can. It's how I learned C++. It's how I learned programming.

I do get a lot of mileage out of reading the *right* code though. Sometimes that's just a nice, direct way to present a solution. Smile | :)

Thanks for pointing me to Mr. Boring. I'll give him a shot.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx

pkfox16-Jul-23 22:52

pkfox

16-Jul-23 22:52

He sounds like one of the old fashioned I speak your weight machine voices

In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP

Choroid17-Jul-23 6:13

Choroid

17-Jul-23 6:13

Brain Memory confusion NEW profile photo
Don't know why I started memorizing profile pics
to see who was responding
Have often wondered how we select profile badges ?
Real Men wear Yellow T Sh*t's

Mike Hankey17-Jul-23 6:18

17-Jul-23 6:18

I hated the other pic and I tried another, newer pic but it wouldn't accept it for some reason.

That and I like to keep people on their toes. Smile | :)

Give me coffee to change the things I can and wine for those I can not!
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - An updated version available! JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: Simon Says, A Child's Game

Peter Shaw17-Jul-23 5:01

17-Jul-23 5:01

I'm going to be doing an online user group meeting for a couple of UK .NET focused user groups in November.

My intention will be a 90 minute session taking you from very first steps through to getting some simple circuits running on an ESP32 using the .NET Nano framework and C# language.

Dunno if it will be of any use to you, and yes I am aiming for a 90 min (ish) session, but probably in 2 parts.

I'll most likely announce it first on my twitter stream @shawty_ds once the dates are finalised, and have been discussing it in public with those involved for the past week or so now.

honey the codewitch17-Jul-23 5:28

17-Jul-23 5:28

I'm actually moving away from the ESP32 and over to STM32 for my commercial stuff.

The ESP32 has got too many issues to be of use for me professionally going forward. We've had no end of grief with CDC serial under the Arduino framework when we made the mistake of trying to use that on our control boards, and the ESP-IDF comes with a number of caveats.

As it is, I've about exhausted the possibilities with it.

Thanks though.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx

Peter Shaw17-Jul-23 10:03

17-Jul-23 10:03

I've not tried it personally, but .NET Nano framework I have been told, also runs on the STM32

I'm using ESP32 in my demo as that's what I have in my collection of boards, I don't currently posses an STM32, everything I show however, I've been told should work on the STM32.

The session is still in planning at the moment though, won't be until about November when it's aired.

Cheers
Shawty

honey the codewitch17-Jul-23 17:17

17-Jul-23 17:17

Ooof, garbage collection on kilobytes of RAM. Personally, not a fan, but then I'm sort of a C and C++ purist, who is still sideeying rust, so don't mind me over here.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx

Peter Shaw19-Jul-23 5:25

19-Jul-23 5:25

Yea I hear you there, C/C++ and recently rust are where I am.

That said, you might be surprised at how efficient the GC actually is Smile | :)

honey the codewitch19-Jul-23 5:31

19-Jul-23 5:31

It's efficient for *some* things.

I used to use it in ISAPI application because they're basically glorified string manipulation engines. String based heap frag is a bear in an environment like that, so I used Boehm Collector to garbage collect my strings and containers. My apps were fast, and stayed fast under load. That was well before ASP.NET.

It's not efficient for general use, compared to C++/RAII without the STL, which is how I recommend coding in IoT with C++.

Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx

Peter Shaw19-Jul-23 5:39

19-Jul-23 5:39

Yikes... ISAPI!! still gives me nightmares that does, as does COM, COM+ and DCOM.

.NET Nano is fairly new, nothing to do with MS either (even though they heavily sponsor it etc) it's based very much on the newer core modern .NET stack, and it's Jose Simone and his team that are behind it (Used to be part of that Meadow IoT platform I think)

Not trying to persuade you otherwise here by the way Smile | :)

I've long been a supporter of C/C++ on restrained devices like that, started years ago before the IoT craze as it is now with the likes of the PICMicro.

I just find it quite interesting that C#, a language I quite often get asked to do large enterprise LOB apps in, can run on something like the ESP32, and am frequently surprised by just how well it performs.

I compared it to running modern .NET full/core on an rPI and Nano on an ESP32 kicked it's backside!