books

Nucleo Boards
Programming with
the STM32CubeIDE
Hands-on in more than 50 projects

Dogan Ibrahim
Nucleo Boards Programming
with the STM32CubeIDE
Hands-on in more than 50 projects

Dogan Ibrahim
● This is an Elektor Publication. Elektor is the media brand of
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● Acknowledgements
The following figures and pictures in this book, numbered: 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 2.2, 2.3, 2.9, 2.10 through 2.20,
2.22 through 2.32, 4.1, 4.2, 6.1, 14.1, 15.1 through 15.10, 16.2, and 16.7 are taken from these STMicroelectronics
sources:
• UM1724 User Manual, STM32 Nucleo-64 Boards (DocID025833 Rev 14);
•R
 M0351 Reference Manual STM32L4x5 and STM32L4x6 advanced ARM®-based 32-bit MCUs (DocID024597 Rev 5).
The pictures of Nucleo Expansion Boards in Chapter 16 of the book are taken from the following STMicroelectronics
Internet source:
http://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/stm32-nucleo-expansion-boards.html?querycriteria=productId=SC1971.
All the above figures/pictures are used with the written permission of:
© STMicroelectronics. Used with permission.

The author would like to thank to Michael Markowitz of the STMicroelectronics for giving permission to reproduce
the above pictures/figures, as well as for providing sample Nucleo expansion boards for use in the projects
contained in the book. The author is also grateful to Elektor International Media for editing and publishing the book.

● The author and publisher have used their best efforts in ensuring the correctness of the information contained
in this book. They do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by
errors or omissions in this book, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other
caus

● British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

● ISBN 978-3-89576-416-5 Print

ISBN 978-3-89576-416-6 eBook
ISBN 978-3-89576-416-7 ePub

● © Copyright 2020: Elektor International Media B.V.

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●4
 Content

PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.2 STM32 Nucleo development boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.2.1 STM32 processor family numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1.2.2 Nucleo-32 development boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1.2.3 Nucleo-64 development boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.2.4 Nucleo-144 development boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.3 The Nucleo-L476RG development board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.3.1 Two-part board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.3.2 The power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

1.3.3 The LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1.43.4 Pushbutton switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1.3.5 Jumper JP6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1.3.6 The ST-LINK/V2-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1.3.7 Input-Output connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

1.3.8 The demo software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

1.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

CHAPTER 2 • STM32 Nucleo Processor Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.2 Arm processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.2.1 Cortex-M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.2.2 Cortex-R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.2.3 Cortex-A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.2.4 Cortex-M processor comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.2.5 Processor performance measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.2.6 Cortex-M compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.2.7 Choice of an STM32 processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.3 The STM32L476RGT6 microcontroller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.3.1 Basic features of the STM32L476RGT6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.3.2 Internal block diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.3.3 General purpose inputs and outputs (GPIOs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

2.3.4 Electrical characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.3.5 The power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.3.6 Low power modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.3.7 The clock circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.3.8 Analogue to digital converter (ADC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.3.9 Digital to analogue converter (DAC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.3.10 Timers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.3.11 Interrupts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

CHAPTER 3 • S
 TM32 Nucleo Software Development Tools (Toolchains) . . . . . . . . 56

3.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

3.2 Integrated development environments supporting the Nucleo boards . . . . . . . . . . 56

3.3 Embedded Workbench for Arm (EWARM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

3.3.1 Installing the EWARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

3.4 Arm Mbed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

3.5 MDK-ARM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

3.6 TrueSTUDIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

3.7 System Workbench for STM32 (SW4STM32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

3.8 STM32CubeIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

3.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

CHAPTER 4 • Example Project — Using the Mbed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

4.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

4.2 Using the ARM Mbed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

4.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

CHAPTER 5 • S
 TM32CubeIDE Nucleo-L476 Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

5.1.1 STM32cubeIDE GPIO library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

5.2 Project 1: Lighthouse flashing LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

5.3 Project 2: Alternately Flashing LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

5.4 Project 3: ‘Moving’ LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

5.5 Project 4: Binary Up Counter with LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

5.6 Project 5: Random Flashing LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

●6
 

5.7 Project 6: Pushbutton and LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

5.8 Project 7: Control of Multiple LEDs by 2 Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

5.9 Project 8: LED Dice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

5.10 Project 9: 7-Segment LED Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

5.11 Project 10: Two-Digit Multiplexed 7-Segment LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

5.12 Project 11: External interrupt to control an LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

5.13 Project 12: Two-digit Interrupt-Driven 7-Segment Event Counter . . . . . . . . . . . 157

5.14 Project 13: Four-Digit 7-Segment LED Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

5.15 Project 14: Interrupt-Based Up/Down Counter with Four-Digit 7-Segment LED
Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

5.16 Project 15: Multiple External Interrupts Sharing the Same Interrupt Line . . . . . 180

5.17 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

CHAPTER 6 • Timers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

6.2 STM32 timers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

6.3 Setting a timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

6.4 Project 1: Timer Interrupt to Flash LED Every Second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

6.5 Project 2: 4-Digit 7-Segment LED Up Counter with Timer Interrupts . . . . . . . . . . 195

6.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

CHAPTER 7 • LCD Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

7.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

7.2 Project 1: Using parallel LCDs – Displaying Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

7.3 Project 2: Using LCDs – Simple Up Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

7.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

CHAPTER 8 • Using the Analogue to Digital Converters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

8.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

8.2 The STM32 ADC conversion modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

8.3 Project 1: Analogue Voltmeter (polling ADC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

8.4 Project 2: ADC with Multiple Inputs (polling ADC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

8.5 Project 3: Single-input ADC with Conversion Interrupt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

8.6 Project 4: Analogue Temperature Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

8.7 Project 5: ON-OFF Temperature Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

8.8 Project 6: Multiple-input ADC with DMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

8.9 Timer-driven ADC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

8.10 External-driven ADC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

8.11 ADC calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

8.12 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

CHAPTER 9 • Using the Digital-to-Analogue Converters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

9.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

9.2 Project 1: Sawtooth Waveform Generator with Manual DAC Driving . . . . . . . . . . 277

9.3 Project 2: Squarewave Generator with Manual DAC Driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

9.4 Project 3: Sinewave Generator with Manual DAC Driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

9.5 Project 4: Arbitrary Waveform Generator with Manual DAC Driving . . . . . . . . . . . 287

9.6 Project 5: Arbitrary Waveform Generator with timer-based DMA . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

9.7 Hardware waveform generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

9.8 Project 6: Hardware-based Triangular Waveform Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

9.9 Noise signal generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

9.10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

CHAPTER 10 • Pulsewidth Modulation (PWM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

10.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

10.2 Basic theory of pulsewidth modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

10.3 Operation of the PWM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

10.4 Project 1: Mosquito Repeller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

10.5 Project 2: Continuously Variable Duty Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

10.6 Project 3: Multiple PWM Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

10.7 Project 4: Potentiometer-controlled Duty Cycle Control of PWM Waveform. . . . . 325

10.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

CHAPTER 11 • Serial Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

11.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

11.2 UART ports of the Nucleo-L476RG development board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

11.3 Serial communication program on a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

11.4 Project 1: Displaying Text on the PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

11.5 Project 2: Simple Up Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

11.6 Project 3: Times Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

●8
 

11.7 Project 4: Practising Elementary Multiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

11.8 Project 5: Displaying Ambient Temperature on the PC Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

11.9 Project 6: Communicating with Arduino (Displaying Temperature) . . . . . . . . . . 369

11.10 UART in interrupt mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

11.11 Project 7: Communicating with Arduino – UART Interrupt Mode . . . . . . . . . . . 376

11.12 Using UART in DMA mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

11.13 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

CHAPTER 12 • The I2C Bus Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

12.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

12.2 The I2C Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

12.3 STM32L476RG I2C ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

12.4 Project 1: Port Expander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

12.5 Project 2: EEPROM memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

12.6 Project 3: TMP102 Temperature Sensor Chip Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

12.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

CHAPTER 13 • SPI Bus Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

13.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

13.2 Nucleo-L476RG SPI pins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

13.3 Project 1: Port Expander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

13.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

CHAPTER 14 • Program Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

14.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

14.2 Project 1: Simple Debug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

14.3 Project 2: Debugging the GPIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

14.4 Project 3: Displaying Characters in Debug Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

14.5 Project 4: Using ‘printf’ to Display Data in Debug Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

14.6 Project 5: Using the ST-Link Virtual COM Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

14.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

CHAPTER 15 • STM32L4 MCU Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

15.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

15.2 Low power modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

15.3 Power modes transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

15.4 Low power peripherals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

15.5 Debugging in low-power modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

15.6 Measuring Nucleo current consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

15.7 Project 1: Sleep Mode Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

15.8 Project 2: Stop Mode Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

15.9 Project 3: Standby Mode Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

15.10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

CHAPTER 16 • Using the Expansion Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

16.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

16.2 Industrial Digital Output Expansion Board (X-NUCLEO-OUT01A1) . . . . . . . . . . . 453

16.3 Project 1: Flashing an LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

16.4 Brushed DC Motor Driver Expansion Board (X-NUCLEO-IHM13A1) . . . . . . . . . . 459

16.5 Motion MEMS and Environmental Sensor Expansion Board (X-NUCLEO-IKS01A2) 461

16.6 Project 2: Reading the Temperature from the X-NUCLEO-IKS01A2

Expansion Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

16.7 Project 3: Using the X-CUBE-MEMS1 Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

16.8 Wi-Fi Expansion Board (X-NUCLEO-IDW01M1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

APPENDIX • FreeRTOS For the STM32 MCU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

A.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

A.2 Multitasking kernel advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

A.3 The need for an RTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

A.4 The FreeRTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

A.5 FreeRTOS project with the STM32MCubeIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

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 PREFACE

PREFACE

Arm (previously written as ARM; arm) is a family of processors based on the RISC archi-
tecture that requires fewer transistors than conventional processors. As a result, Arm pro-
cessors cost less, have reduced power consumptions, and are therefore desirable for use
in portable battery-operated devices. Currently, a very large percentage of smartphones,
laptops, tablet computers, and portable games devices are all designed using the Arm ar-
chitecture. Most Arm processors have 32-bit instruction sets with floating point support. It
is estimated that over 100 billion Arm processors were produced in the year 2017.
Arm-Cortex is a family of 32-bit RISC processors consisting of Cortex-M0/M0+/M1/M3
and Cortex-M4. Lately, new models such as Cortex-M323 and Cortex-M33 are available.
Although 8-bit microcontrollers have been very popular in the past, the devices in the Cor-
tex-M series have become widespread replacements.
The STM32 Nucleo family of processors is manufactured by STMicroelectronics. These are
low-cost Arm microcontroller development boards. This book is about developing projects
using the Nucleo-L476RG development board with the STM32CubeIDE software. In the
early chapters of the book the architecture of the Nucleo family is briefly described.
All the projects in the book have been designed using the STM32CubeIDE software devel-
opment tool which can be downloaded free of charge from the STMicroelectronics website.
The book covers many projects using most features of the Nucleo-L476RG development
boards where the full software listing for STM32CubeIDE are given for every project with
the description of each software. The projects range from simple flashing LEDs to more
complex projects using modules and devices such as GPIO, ADC, DAC, I2C, SPI, LCD, power
management, analogue inputs, and others. In addition, several projects are given using the
compatible Nucleo Expansion Boards. These Expansion Boards plug on top of the Nucleo
development boards and provide features such as industrial input/output, DC motor drive,
stepper motor drive, environmental MEMS sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope, Wi-Fi, and
many more.

All the projects in the book have been fully tested and are working. The following sub-head-
ings are given for each project where possible:
• Project Title
• Description
• Aim
• Block Diagram
• Circuit Diagram
• Program Listing (based on STM32CubeIDE)

Complete program listings for each project can be obtained from the book support and
resources page on the Elektor website, www.elektor.com/xxxxxxx.
I hope you find the projects interesting and the book becomes a useful source of reference
for your future STM32 Nucleo projects based on the STM32CubeIDE.

Prof Dr Dogan Ibrahim

London, 2020

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards

1.1 Overview
This Chapter is about the STM32 Nucleo development boards, and brief specifications of
their various guises are described here. In addition, the popular Nucleo-L476RG board used
in the projects in this book is described in greater detail.

1.2 STM32 Nucleo development boards

STMicroelectronics is a company with a reputation of supplying quality microcontroller de-
velopment boards and assorted hardware and software development tools. The Nucleo
family of low-cost development boards comprises small but powerful boards based on the
32-bit Arm (also: ‘ARM’) Cortex architecture. These development boards are targeted for a
large audience, including students, professional engineers, and hobbyists at all levels. The
boards are compatible with the popular Arduino, mbed, ST-LINK, and ST Morpho, making
them accessible to users with different backgrounds.
There are over 30 different boards in the Nucleo family, aimed to satisfy the needs of al-
most all types of user. The Nucleo boards come in three different sizes: small (Nucleo-32),
short (Nucleo-64), and long (Nucleo-144) where the numbers refer to the pin counts of
the MCUs. These three groups are further divided into three sub-groups: ultra-low power
(green), mainstream (blue), and high performance (magenta).
The ultra-low power boards are based on the STM32 L family and these boards are targeted
for low-power applications, such as watches, smart meters etc. Examples of the ultra-low
power boards are: Nucleo-L011K4, Nucleo-L031K6 and Nucleo-L432KC. There are three
sub-categories in the STM32 L family:
• L0, Arm Cortex-M0+
• L1, Arm Cortex-M3
• L4, Arm Cortex-M4

About half of the STM32 Nucleo boards are in the mainstream category. Examples of the
mainstream boards are: Nucleo-F303K8, Nucleo-F042K6, Nucleo-F303RE etc. There are
three sub-categories in the mainstream category:
• F0, Arm Cortex-M0+
• F1, Arm Cortex-M3
• F3, Arm Cortex-M4

The high-performance boards have large memories and faster MCUs. Examples of high-per-
formance boards are: Nucleo-F410RB, Nucleo-F401RE, Nucleo-F722ZE, etc. There are
three subcategories in the high-performance category:
• F2, Arm Cortex-M3
• F4, Arm Cortex-M4
• F7, Arm Cortex-M7

The Nucleo-32 boards are small (50 mm × 19 mm) and Arduino Nano compatible. The
Nucleo-64 and Nucleo-144 are Arduino Uno compatible and they also have ST Morpho ex-
tension connectors which carry the MCU pins. There are large number of Arduino Nano/Uno
compatible shields available in the market and these shields can easily be used with the

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 CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards

Nucleo boards, making it easy to quickly develop projects based on them.

Depending upon the model, the Nucleo boards have flash program memory sizes from
16 KB up to 2 MB, and RAM memories from 4 KB to 320 KB. The clock frequency varies
from 32 MHZ to 216 MHz.
Figure 1.1 shows a comparison of the Nucleo boards.

Figure 1.1: Nucleo boards. (©STMicroelecronics. Used with permission)

1.2.1 STM32 processor family numbering

Table 1.1 shows the STM32 processor family codes and their basic specifications.

Code Processor Max. speed (MHz) Max. flash (KB) Description

F0 Cortex-M0 48 256 Widely used
F1 Cortex-M3 72 1024 Widely used
F2 Cortex-M3 120 1024 High performance
F3 Cortex-M4 72 512 Widely used
F4 Cortex-M4 180 2048 High performance
F7 Cortex-M7 216 2048 High performance
H7 Cortex-M7 400 2048 High performance
L0 Cortex-M0 32 192 Low power
L1 Cortex-M3 32 512 Low power
L4 Cortex-M4 80 1024 Low power
L4+ Cortex-M4 120 2048 Low power

Table 1.1: STM2 family processor numbering.

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

The STM32 processors are numbered as follows:

STM32xxyyzpqr

Where
xx is the processor code as shown in Table 1;
yy is a number;
z is the MCU pin number count as shown in Table 1.2.

Code (z) Pin count

A 169
B 208
C 48
F 20
G 28
H 40
I 176
J 72
K 32
M 81
N 216
Q 132
R 64
T 36
U 63
V 100
Z 144

Table 1.2: MCU pin counts.

p is the size of the flash memory as shown in Table 1.3;

Code (p) Flash memory (KB)

4 16
6 32
8 64
B 128
Z 192
C 256
D 384
E 512
F 768

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 CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards

G 1024
H 1536
I 2048

Table 1.3: Flash memory size.

q is the processor’s case type as shown in Table 1.4;

Code (q) Casing

T LQFP
H UFBGA
Y WLCSP

Table 1.4: Processor casing.

r is the operating temperature range as shown in Table 1.5.

Code (r) Temperature range

6 –40 to 85 ºC
7 –40 to 105 ºC

Table 1.5: Temperature range.

An example of a processor type number is given below.

STM32L031K6T6:  L0 family, number 31, 32 pin device, 32 KB flash memory, LQFP type
packaging, –40 to 85 ºC operating temperature range.

1.2.2 Nucleo-32 development boards

Figure 1.2 shows an example Nucleo-32 board, the Nucleo-L031K6. This is an ultra-low
power low-cost board incorporating the STM32L031K6T6 microcontroller. The board is Ar-
duino Nano compatible allowing many Arduino shields to be used with the board. This board
has the following features:
• 32 MHz Cortex M0+ microcontroller in 32-pin package
• 32 KB flash memory
• 8 KB RAM
• 1 KB EEPROM
• Real-time clock
• Serial interfaces (USART, SPI, and I2C)
• Three LEDs (USB communication, power, user)
• Pushbutton Reset
• Flexible power supply options: ST-LINK USB VBUS or external sources
• Arduino Nano compatible expansion connector
• ST-LINK/V2-1 debugger/programmer with mass storage, virtual COM port, and
debug port

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

• Support for Integrated development Environment software (IAR, Keil, Arm

Mbed, GCC-based IDEs).

Figure 1.2: Nucleo-32 development board (Nucleo-L031K6).

1.2.3 Nucleo-64 development boards

Figure 1.3 shows an example Nucleo-64 board, the Nucleo-F091RC. This is a mainstream
board incorporating a 64-pin MCU. The board is Arduino Uno compatible and as such, a
large array of Arduino shields can be used with the board. This board has the following
features:
• One user LED
• One user pushbutton switch
• 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator
• ST morpho connector
• Arduino Uno expansion socket
• Flexible power-supply options: ST-LINK USB VBUS or external sources
• ST-LINK/V2-1 debugger/programmer with mass storage, virtual COM port, and
debug port
• Comprehensive free software libraries
• Support of a wide choice of Integrated Development Environments (IAR, Keil,
Arm Mbed, GCC-based IDEs)

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 CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards

Figure 1.3: Nucleo-64 development board (Nucleo-F091RC).

1.2.4 Nucleo-144 development boards

Figure 1.4 shows an example Nucleo-144 board, the Nucleo-F722ZE. This is a high-per-
formance board incorporating a 144-pin MCU. The board is Arduino Uno compatible. The
features of this board are:
• Ethernet compliant with RJ45 connector
• ST morpho connector
• ST-LINK/V2-1 debugger/programmer with mass storage, virtual COM port, and
debug port
• ST Zio connector
• 3 user LEDS
• 2 pushbutton switches
• 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator
• Flexible power-supply options: ST-LINK USB VBUS or external sources
• Comprehensive free software libraries
• Support of a wide choice of Integrated Development Environments (IAR, Keil,
Arm Mbed, GCC-based IDEs)

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

Figure 1.4: Nucleo-144 development board (Nucleo-F7222ZE).

1.3 The Nucleo-L476RG development board

The Nucleo-L476RG board is one of the most popular Nucleo development boards. This is
a 64-pin ultra-low power board (see Figure 1.1). This board is used as the example de-
velopment board in all the projects in this book. Therefore, full details of this board are
given in this section so that the readers are familiar with this board. Further details about
the Nucleo-64 boards can be obtained from the STMicroelectronics User Manual UM1724,
STM32 Nucleo-64 boards, 2017.

1.3.1 Two-part board

The Nucleo-L476RG board measures 70 mm × 82.5 mm. As shown in Figure 1.5, the board
consists of two parts: the smaller ST-LINK part with the mini USB port, and the MCU part.
The ST-LINK part of the PCB can be cut if desired to reduce the overall board size. If this is
done the MCU part can only be powered by VIN, E5V and 3.3 V through the VIN on CN7 ST
morpho connector, or 3.3 V on CN6 Arduino connector. It is possible to program the MCU
after the ST-LINK part is cut by connecting wires between CN4 on the ST-LINK board and
SWD signals on connector CN7 (pin 15, SWCLK; and pin 13, SWDIO).

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 CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards

Figure 1.5: Nucleo-L476RG board parts. (©STMicroelecronics. Used with permission).

The components on the top side of the board are shown in Figure 1.6. Some of the impor-
tant components that you may need to know their locations on the board are:
• CN1: mini USB socket
• CN2: ST-LINK/Nucleo selector
• B1: User pushbutton
• B2: Reset button
• LD1: red/green communications LED
• LD2: green user LED
• LD3: red power LED
• Arduino connectors
• ST morpho connectors

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

Figure 1.6: Components on the top side of the board.

(©STMicroelecronics. Used with permission).]

The bottom side of board is shown in Figure 1.7.

Figure 1.7: Bottom side of the board. (©STMicroelecronics. Used with permission).

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 CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards

1.3.2 The power supply

Power to the board is normally supplied through the mini USB connector CN1 using a USB
cable, connected to a PC. It is also possible to use an external power source VIN (7 V to
12 V), E5V (5 V) or +3.3 V.

Powering through the mini USB connector

When powered through the CN1 mini USB port (U5V), a jumper must be connected be-
tween pin 1 and pin 2 of jumper JP5 on the MCU board as shown in Figure 1.8. Notice that
this is the default state of this jumper.

Figure 1.8: Powering the board through the mini USB port.

Jumper JP1 on the ST-LINK board can be configured depending on the maximum current
consumption of the MCU board. This jumper should be OFF (default state) for an allowed
current of 300 mA, and it should be ON for an allowable current of 100 mA. If the total cur-
rent consumption of the board exceeds 300 mA then it is important that an external power
supply must be used through VIN or E5V.

Powering through external inputs

External power can be applied through VIN or E5V inputs. When power is to be supplied by
an external power supply, the following jumpers must be configured:
• jumper JP5 pin 2 and pin 3 connected;
• jumper JP1 OFF (removed).

VIN can be supplied through pin 8 of connector CN6 or pin 24 of connector CN7. The volt-
age range must be between 7 VDC to 12 VDC. The maximum current capacity should be
800 mA when the input voltage is 7 V, 450 mA when the voltage is between 7 V and 9 V,
and 250 mA when the voltage is greater than 9 V and less than 12 V.
E5V can be supplied through pin 6 of connector CN7. The voltage range is 4.75 V to 5.25 V,
with maximum current capacity of 500 mA.
When power is supplied through VIN or E5V, it is still possible to use the USB connector for
communication, programming or debugging. In this situation, the board must first be pow-
ered using VIN or E5V and then the USB cable should be connected to the PC.
The following procedure should be followed if external power will be used and at the same
time the USB connector will be used for communication/programming/debugging:
• connect pin 2 and pin 3 of jumper JP5;
• remove jumper JP1;
• connect external power VIN or E5V;
• make sure that LD3 is turned ON;
• connect the USB connector to your PC.

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

External power input +3.3 V

It is also possible to power the board using external +3.3 V power supply. The range of this
supply must be between +3 V to +3.6 V. When powered through the +3.3 V, the ST-LINK
board is not powered and therefore the programming and debugging features are not avail-
able. This is usually the case when the ST-LINK part of the PCB has been cut. The +3.3 V
external power supply must be applied to pin 4 of connector CN6.
Notice that when powered by USB, VIN or E5V, +5 V power is available at pin 5 of CN6 or
pin 18 of CN7. These pins for example can be used to provide power to an extension board
(e.g. to an Arduino).

1.3.3 The LEDs

LD1 is a tricolour LED (green, orange, red) providing visual indication about the ST-LINK
communication. The default colour of this LED is red and it turns green when communica-
tion is in progress between the PC and the ST-LINK. The various states of LD1 are:
• slow blinking Red: at power-ON before USB initialization;
• fast blinking Red: after first communication between PC and ST-LINK/V2;
• red ON: initialization between PC and ST-LINK/V2 is complete;
• green ON: after successful target communication initialization;
• blinking Red/Green: during communication with target;
• green ON: communication finished successfully;
• orange ON: communication failure.

LD2 is a green colour user-controlled LED. This LED is connected to pin 11 of connector
CN10 (STM32 I/O pin PA_5) on the Nucleo-L476RG board. The Arduino D13 port pin is also
connected to LD2. Applying logic 1 turns ON the LED.
LD3 is the red power LED that indicates when +5 V power is available on the MCU board.

1.3.4 Pushbutton switches

There are two pushbutton switches on the MCU board called B1 and B2. B1 is the user
button and is connected to STM32 I/O pin PC_13 (pin 23 on connector CN7 on the Nu-
cleo-L476RG board). B2 is the Reset button used to reset the MCU.

1.3.5 Jumper JP6

This jumper is labelled IDD and can be used to measure the current consumption of the
MCU by removing the jumper and then connecting an ammeter to the jumper pins. This
jumper is ON by default.

1.3.6 The ST-LINK/V2-1

The ST-LINKV2-1 programming and debugging tool is integrated in the Nucleo boards and
it makes the boards Mbed Enabled. ST-LINK/V2-1 supports only SWD for STM32 devices.
The ST-LINK/V2-1 does not support SWIM interface and the minimum supported applica-
tion voltage is limited to 3 V. The ST-LINK/V2-1 supports virtual COM port interface on USB,
USB software renumeration, mass storage interface on USB, and USB power management
request for more than 100 mA power on USB.
There are two different ways to use the embedded ST-LINK/V2-1 depending on the CN2
jumper settings. When both CN2 jumpers are ON (the default state) then the ST-LINK/

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 CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards

V2-1 functions are enabled for on-board programming. When both CN2 jumpers are OFF
then the ST-LINK/V2-1 functions are enabled for external CN4 connector (SWD supported).
Before connecting the Nucleo-64 board to a Windows PC, a driver for ST-LINK/V2-1 must
be installed. This can be downloaded from the following site. You will have to register at
the site so that you can download the driver. At the time of writing this book the driver was
called en.stsw-link009.zip and found here:
http://www.st.com/en/development-tools/stsw-link009.html#getsoftware-scroll

1.3.7 Input-Output connectors

Figure 1.9 shows the input-output connectors for the Nucleo-L476RG board. Notice that dif-
ferent models may have different pin configurations and you should check the appropriate
User Manual for the correct configuration of the model you are using. CN5, CN6, CN8 and
CN9 are Arduino Uno compatible connectors. CN7 and CN10 are the ST morpho connectors
that carry most of the MCU signals.

Figure 1.9: Nucleo-L476RG I/O connectors.

(©STMicroelecronics. Used with permission).

The Arduino Uno connector pin configuration on the Nucleo-476RG board is shown in
Table 1.6.

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

Connector Pin Pin name STM32 pin Function

1 NC - -
CN6 POWER 2 IOREF - 3.3V Ref
3 RESET NRST RESET
4 +3.3V - 3.3 V input/output
5 +5V - 5 V output
6 GND - Ground
7 GND - Ground
8 VIN - Power input
1 A0 PA0 ADC12_IN5
CN8 ANALOG 2 A1 PA1 ADC12_IN6
3 A2 PA4 ADC12_IN9
4 A3 PB0 ADC12_IN15
5 A4 PC1 ADC123_IN2
6 A5 PC0 ADC123_IN1
RIGHT CONNECTORS
10 D15 PB8 I2C1_SCL
CN5 DIGITAL 9 D14 PB9 I2C1_SDA
8 AREF - AVDD
7 GND - GND
6 D13 PA5 SPI1_SCK
5 D12 PA6 SPI1_MISO
4 D11 PA7 TIM17_CH1 or SPI1_MOSI
3 D10 PB6 TIM4_CH1 or SPI1_CS
2 D9 PC7 TIM3_CH2
1 D8 PA9 -
8 D7 PA8 -
CN9 DIGITAL 7 D6 PB10 TIM2_CH3
6 D5 PB4 TIM3_CH1
5 D4 PB5 -
4 D3 PB3 TIM2_CH2
3 D2 PA10 -
2 D1 PA2 USART2_TX
1 D0 PA3 USART2_RX

Table 1.6: Arduino UNO connector pin configuration.

1.3.8 The demo software

The Nucleo boards are shipped with a pre-loaded demo software. To run the demo software
on the Nucleo-L476RG board, follow the sequence below:

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 CHAPTER 1 • STM32 Nucleo Development Boards

• check that jumper JP1 is OFF, JP5 is ON, JP6 is ON, and CN2 are ON;
• connect the Nucleo-L476RG board connector CN1 to a PC with a mini USB cable
(Type A to mini-B cable). The red LED LD3 (PWR) and LD1 (COM) should light
up. LD1 (COM) and green LED LD2 should blink;
• press button B1 (left button);
• click button B1 and you should see the blinking rate of the green LED LD2
change accordingly.

If the demonstration software is run successfully then the board should be ready for use
in projects.

1.4 Summary
In this Chapter we have learned about the types of STM Nucleo development boards. In
addition, the specifications and configuration of the popular Nucleo-L476RG board have
been described in greater detail, and the steps to run the demonstration software on the
Nucleo-L476RG are given. This is the development board used in all the projects described
in this book.
In the next Chapter we shall be looking at the STM32 processor architecture.

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

CHAPTER 2 • STM32 Nucleo Processor Architecture

2.1 Overview
In this Chapter we shall be looking at the internal architecture of the STM32 Nucleo pro-
cessors. This is important for developing efficient programs and projects. The popular STM-
32L476RGT6 microcontroller used in all the projects in this book will be considered as an
example Arm processor.

2.2 Arm processors

The choice of a microcontroller for a particular application depends on many factors such
as the following:
• cost
• speed
• power consumption
• size
• number of digital and analogue input/output ports
• digital input-output port current capacity
• analogue port resolution and accuracy
• program and data memory sizes
• interrupt support
• timer support
• USART support
• special bus support (e.g. USB, CAN, SPI, I2C, and so on)
• ease of system development (e.g. programming)
• working voltage

For example, if you need to develop a battery powered device such as a mobile phone or
a games device, then very high clock speed as well as long battery life are main require-
ments. But if you are developing a traffic lights controller then very high performance is
not a requirement. In general, as the clock speed goes up so does the power consumption
and as a result a trade-off should be made in choosing a microcontroller for a specific ap-
plication.
Arm has been designing 32-bit processors for over 20 years and in the last few years they
have also started to offer 64-bit designs. In actual fact, Arm is a company specialized in
designing the processor architecture and they do not manufacture or sell processor chips.
Arm makes money by licensing their designs to chip manufacturers. The manufacturers
use the core Arm processors (e.g. the core CPU) and integrate with their own peripherals
to end up in a complete microcontroller chip. Arm is then given royalty fees for each chip
manufactured by the third-party companies. Companies that use Arm core processors in-
clude Apple, Atmel, Broadcom, Cypress Semiconductors, Freescale Semiconductors, Analog
Devices, Nvidia, NXP, Samsung Electronics, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Renesas, and
many others.
Arm was originally known as the Acorn Computers and they have developed the first Acorn
RISC Machine (Arm) architecture in the 1980s to use in their personal computers. First Arm
processors were co-processor modules used in the BBC Micro series. After failing to find
suitable high-performance microprocessor chips in the market, Acorn decided to design
their own processors. In 1990, the research section of Acorn formed the ARM Ltd.

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 CHAPTER 2 • STM32 Nucleo Processor Architecture

Currently Arm is the most widely used processor in terms of quantity manufactured. Over
50 billion Arm processors have been produced as of 2014, where 10 billion were produced
in 2013 only. The Arm 32-bit architecture is the most widely used in mobile devices where
about 98% of all mobile phones sold in the year 2005 used at least one Arm processor. The
Arm architecture is known to offer the best MIPS-to-watts ratio as well as MIPS-to-$ ratio
in the industry, and the smallest CPU size.
The small size, low power consumption, and low cost make Arm an ideal processor in em-
bedded applications. Arm processors are based on an instruction set called Thumb. With
clever design this instruction set takes 32-bit instructions and compresses them down to
16-bits, thus reduces the hardware size, which also reduces the overall cost. The processor
makes use of multistage pipelined architecture that is easier to learn, build, and program.
Arm processors are based on the RISC (Reduced instruction Set Computer) architecture
and are available as 32-bit or 64-bit multi-core structures. RISC processors, as opposed
to CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) processors have smaller number of instruc-
tions and fewer transistors (hence smaller die size), as a result they can operate at higher
speeds. Unimportant or not frequently used instructions are removed, and the pathways
are optimized to result in superior performance.
It is important to realize that Arm’s core architecture is only a processor and it does not
include graphics, input-output ports, USB, serial communication, wireless connectivity, or
any other form of peripheral modules. Chip manufacturers build their systems around the
Arm core design and therefore different manufacturers offer different types of Arm based
microcontrollers.
Over the last 20 years or so Arm (ARM) had developed many 32-bit processors. Figure
2.1 shows some of the popular members of the Arm processor family. The first successful
member was the ARM7TDMI which had high code density and low power consumption. This
processor, based on the Von Neumann architecture, was operating at 80 MHz and was used
in early mobile phones. ARM9 was developed in 1997 with Harvard architecture and oper-
ated with 150 MHz, thus offered higher performance. ARM10 and ARM11 were developed
in the years 1999 and 2003, respectively. Both processors were based on the Harvard ar-
chitecture. ARM10 operated at 260 MHz and ARM11 operated at 335 MHz. Around the year
2003 Arm decided to improve their market share by developing new series of high-perfor-
mance processors. As a result, the Cortex family or processors were created. The Cortex
family consists of three processor families: Cortex-M, Cortex-R, and Cortex-A. We shall now
briefly look at these families.

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

Figure 2.1: Overview of the Arm processor family.

2.2.1 Cortex-M
Cortex-M series are built around the ARMv6-M architecture (Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M0+)
and the ARMv7-M architecture (Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4). These processors are specif-
ically designed for the microcontroller market, offering quick and deterministic interrupt
responses, low power consumption, low cost, fairly high performance, and ease of use. The
Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4 are very similar in architecture and have the same instruction set
(Thumb 2) with the difference that the Cortex-M4 offers digital signal processing (DSP) ca-
pability and has optional floating point unit (FPU). Cortex-M4 with its DSP and floating-point
capability is an ideal processor for the IoT and wearable applications. For cost sensitive
and lower performance applications the Cortex-M0 or the Cortex-M0+ can be used. The
Cortex-M0 processor has small gate count (12K gates) and consumes only 12.5 µW/MHz.
The Cortex-M0+ consumes only 9.85 µW/MHz and is based on a subset of the Thumb 2
instruction set and its performance is slightly above that of Cortex-M0 and below that of
the Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4. Cortex-M7 is a high performance processor that can handle
fast DSP and single or double precision floating point operations and is mainly used in ap-
plications where higher performance than the Cortex-M4 is required.

2.2.2 Cortex-R
Cortex-R series are real-time higher performance processors than the Cortex-M and some
members are designed to operate at high clock rates in excess of 1 GHz. These processors
are commonly used in hard-disk controllers, network devices, automotive applications, and
in specialized high-speed microcontroller applications. Cortex-R4 and Cortex-R5 are the
early members and can be used at clock speeds of up to 600 MHz. Cortex-R7 is a newer
member that incorporates 11-stage pipeline for high performance, and it can operate in
excess of 1 GHz. Although the Cortex-R processors are high performance their architecture
is complex and these processors consume high power, making them unsuitable for use in
mobile battery powered devices.

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 CHAPTER 2 • STM32 Nucleo Processor Architecture

2.2.3 Cortex-A
Cortex-A are the highest performance Arm processors designed for use with real-time
operating systems in mobile applications such as in mobile phones, tablets, GPS devices
and so on. These processors support advanced features for operating systems such as An-
droid, ioS, Linux, Windows etc. In addition, advanced memory management is supported
with virtual memory. Early members of the family included processors such as Cortex-A5
to Cortex-A17, based on the ARMv7-A architecture. Latest members of the family are the
Cortex-A50 and Cortex-A72 series designed for low power and very high-performance mo-
bile applications. These processors are built using the ARMv8-A architecture which offers
64-bit energy-efficient operation with the capability of more than 4 GB of physical memory.

2.2.4 Cortex-M processor comparison

A comparison of the various Cortex-M series processors is given in Table 2.1. As can be
seen from this table, Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M0+ are used at low speed and low power
consumption applications. Cortex-M1 is optimized for use in programmable gate array ap-
plications. Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4 are medium power processors used in microcontroller
applications with the Cortex-M4 supporting DSP and floating-point arithmetic operations.
Cortex-M7 is a high-performance member of the family which is used in applications requir-
ing higher performance than the Cortex-M4.

Processor Description
Cortex-M7 High performance processor, used in applications where Cortex-M4 is not fast
enough, supports DSP and single and double precision arithmetic
Cortex-M4 Similar architecture as the Cortex-M3 but includes DSP and floating point arith-
metic, used in high-end microcontroller type applications
Cortex-M3 Very popular, low power consumption, medium performance, debug features,
used in microcontroller type applications
Cortex-M1 Designed mainly for programmable gate array applications
Cortex-M0+ Lower power consumption and higher performance than the Cortex-M0
Cortex-M0 Low power consumption, low to medium performance, smallest Arm processor

Table 2.1: Cortex-M processor comparison.

2.2.5 Processor performance measurement

Processor performance is usually measured using benchmark programs. There are many
benchmark programs available and one should exercise care when comparing the per-
formance of various processors as the performance depends upon many external factors
such as the efficiency of the compiler used and the type of operation performed for the
measurement.
Many attempts were made in the past to measure the performance of a processor and
quote it as a single number. For example, MOPS, MFLOPS, Dhrystone, DMIPS, BogoMIPS,
and so on. Nowadays, CoreMark is one of the most commonly used benchmark programs
used to indicate the processor performance. CoreMark is developed by Embedded Micro-
processor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC, www.eembc.org/coremark) and is one of the
most reliable performance measurement tools available.

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Nucleo Boards Programming with the STM32CubeIDE

Table 2.2 shows the CoreMark results for some of the commonly used microcontrollers.
As can be seen from this table, Cortex-M7 achieves 5.01 CoreMark/MHz, while the PIC18
microcontroller achieves only 0.04 CoreMark/MHz.

Processor CoreMark/MHz
Intel Zeus 8.01
Cortex-M7 5.01
Cortex-A9 4.15
Espressif ESP32 4.13
Cortex-M4 3.40
Cortex-M3 3.32
Cortex-M0+ 2.49
Espressif ESP8266 2.38
Cortex-M0 2.33
dsPIC33 1.89
PIC24 1.88
MSP430 1.11
PIC18 0.04

Table 2.2: CoreMark/MHz for some commonly used microcontrollers.

2.2.6 Cortex-M compatibility

Processors in the Cortex family are upward compatible with each other. Cortex-M0 and Cor-
tex-M0+ processors are based on the ARMv6-M architecture, using the Thumb instruction
set. On the other hand, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4 and Cortex-M7 are based on the ARMv7-M
architecture, using the Thumb 2 instruction set which is a superset of the Thumb instruction
set. Although the architectures are different, software developed on the Cortex-M0 and
Cortex-M0+ processors can run on the Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4, and Cortex-M7 processors
without any modifications provided the required memory and input-output ports are avail-
able.

2.2.7 Choice of an STM32 processor

Developers may find it difficult to choose the correct STM32 processor for the correct pro-
ject. STMicroelectronics offers a MCU selection tool which makes it easy to choose the pro-
cessor with the features you are interested in. This tool is available at the following website:
http://www.st.com/web/en/catalog/mmc/FM141/SC1169

2.3 The STM32L476RGT6 microcontroller

In this book we shall be using the highly popular Arm microcontroller STM32L476RGT6 in
the STM Nucleo-L476RG development board. In this Chapter we shall be looking at the
features of the STM32L476RGT6 microcontroller. This microcontroller type STM32L476 be-
longs to the family ‘STM32L476xxxx’ where R is for 64 pins, G is for 1 MB flash memory, T
is for LQPF package, and 6 is for industrial temperature range –40º to+85ºC. The internal
architecture of this microcontroller is very complex and we shall only look at the important

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 CHAPTER 2 • STM32 Nucleo Processor Architecture

modules used in most projects, such as I/O, timers, ADC converter and DAC converter,
interrupts, I2C, USART, and so on. Interested readers can get detailed information from
the manufacturer’s datasheets available for download on the Internet. Readers should note
that the structure of the STM32 family of processors is similar and after becoming familiar
with the STM32L476RGT6, it should not be too difficult to learn the structure of the others
in the family.

2.3.1 Basic features of the STM32L476RGT6

The STM32L476RGT6 microcontroller is based on the Cortex-M4 architecture and has the
following basic features (Further information can be obtained from the ST datasheet STM-
32L476xx, DocID025976, 2017):
• Arm Cortex-M4 32-bit CPU with FPU
• 80 MHz max CPU frequency
• Operating voltage 1.71 to 3.6 V
• 1.25 DMIPS/MHZ performance (Drystone 2.1)
• 4 to 48 MHz crystal oscillator
• 32 MHz crystal oscillator for RTC
• Internal 16 MHz RC oscillator
• Internal 32 kHz RC oscillator
• Internal 100 kHz to 48 MHz oscillator
• 3 PLLs for system clock
• 1 MB flash memory
• 128 KB SRAM
• 16× timers
• 3× SPI and 3× I2C interfaces
• 3× USART, 2× UART, 1× LPUART interfaces
• 2× SAI and 1× CAN interfaces
• 4× digital filters for sigma-delta modulators
• 1× Real Time Clock (RTC)
• LCD interface (8 × 28 or 4 × 32)
• 51× General Purpose I/O (GPIOs)
• 12× capacitive sensing channels
• 3× 16 channel 12-bit ADC
• 2× 12-bit DAC
• 14 channel DMA
• Temperature sensor
• Random number generator
• Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)
• USB, SDMMC and SWPMI communication interface
• 2× analogue comparator and 2× operational amplifiers
• 64-pin package

2.3.2 Internal block diagram

Figure 2.2 shows the functional block diagram of the STM32L476xx processor. The 80 MHz
Arm Cortex-M4 CPU is shown at the middle top of the figure. The digital connectivity mod-
ules are at the top left, the GPIOs are at the bottom left, the LCD interface is at the top

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