Breadboard Friendly ARM Board Based On STM32F4

breadboard-friendly-stm32-dev-board

Umm yeah… this is more like it. The STM32F4Stamp is a project which [Frank Zhao] put together to make his ARM prototyping process more like is was back when everything came in a DIP format. As you can see, it’s just narrow enough to leave one row open on the breadboard for jumper wires.

Don’t get us wrong, we do really like STM’s own Discovery Boards for the hardware they deliver at a very low price. But the dual-row pin headers on the larger versions (all except the F0 variant) make it tricky to connect your peripherals. This is pushed to the point that a large percentage of hacks we’ve seen with the Discovery boards are actually just to make connecting external hardware easier.

You may be thinking that there’s a lot missing from this board, but we disagree. Obviously there’s still a USB port which can be used to power the board via a 3.3V regulator. But since the STM32 chips have a built-in bootloader the USB connection can also be used to flash firmware to the processor. Nice! It’s open hardware if you want roll your own. For your convenience we’ve embedded the schematic after the break, along with [Frank’s] demo video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJDpkEFYyiw

stm32f4stamp-schematic[via Dangerous Prototypes]

 

31 thoughts on “Breadboard Friendly ARM Board Based On STM32F4

  1. The pins on the discovery F4 stick up, as well as down, so you can use standard machine pin wires to plug in the top and run them to the breadboard. Just buy a buttload of them from dealextreme for a couple bucks.

    You only get 5 pins per column on a breadboard so any board you plug in is going to be too big.

  2. So if I unscrew my breadboard from it’s base and then saw it in half along the centre line and then spread the halves apart so the module can plug into the inner pins of the breadboard THEN this module is “breadboard friendly” !!! Hmmmm

  3. ST still doesn’t get it. Sure their hardware is decent, but the software is terrible. The compiler is crippled, and everything is windows only. The USB interface isn’t even HID, so you’re stuck unless you want to write your own drivers.

    1. OpenOCD works just fine with the STM32 discovery boards and you can build your own GCC toolchain or download a prebuilt one. I’m sure ST “get it” just fine.. They support platforms that all the guys that write code for manufacturers that their order parts in 10,000+ volume use and don’t worry too much about a few people that order in single units and run “weird” platforms.

    2. You couldn’t be more WRONG if you tried!

      1. Their software works just fine
      2. ARM gcc compiler is not crippled at all
      3. I can compile STM32 programs on OSX Linux or Windows without difficulty
      4. STM32F4’s USB interface driver has both host and device modes, it can either be a HID or connect to a HID, no problems

      One can only wonder about your deliberate misinformation and what axes you grind

  4. Yikes, I really hate to break it to everyone, but this already exists. The Cerb40 has been around for over a year and is on its second revision, which is excellent. It is a DIP40 format (I believe), fits easily in a breadboard, and uses the same STM32F405 processor. It comes with a .NET MF build, but can easily be flashed with anything else. And it’s cheap, just under $30. I have used them and they work great.
    See it here: https://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/450

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