STM32F107 Development Board - cheap

[dipchip]

Hi,

  Like a few others... I spend a lot of time on Ebay looking for bargains.  Found this,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ViewTool-Ficus-STM32F107VCT6-Development-Board-12-Modules-/221414791177

At 80 USD, wow... there's enough stuff there to keep someone busy for a while.

--Chip

[micropcb]

With those 12 modules supplied, it looks to be a good buy.
Also the board support package is available at
http://www.viewtool.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=192%3Adriver-down&catid=39%3Asoftdownload&Itemid=18&lang=en
for anyone to have a look at the codes.
Currently downloading it but the download speed seems to be poor for me.

Added after a while..

Finally finished downloading the BSP. It is quite a detailed one with projects in Keil Microvision4 covering almost all the interfaces provided on the board.

[RedAlert]

There is also S&D cost - at least for me...
for starters I found this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111297094334

[micropcb]

One of the best options for a starter in STM32 is the STM32VL Discovery board from STMicroelectronics itself.

Details at http://www.st.com/web/en/catalog/tools/FM116/SC959/SS1532/PF250863. It can be directly ordered from that page.

Several ebay shops are also selling these. One such item is at
http://www.ebay.com/itm/STM32F0DISCOVERY-STM32F051R8T6-STM32-Cortex-M0-Development-Board-Embed-STLINK-V2-/251122878547?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a78170853

The advantage of the Discovery board is that it has a built in ST-Link debugger / programmer to debug Discovery applications and other target board applications.

Best regards.

[dipchip]

Hey all,

  I had forgotten to check out the rest of this guy's store.  After returning and poking around, I found this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/STM32F103-Development-Board-ENC28J60-3-2-LCD-RS232-RS485-CAN-SPI-I2C-Micro-SD-/221415640804?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338d668ee4

As the link implies, this is an F103 and is only 64 USD.  Amazing.  This setup looks an awful lot like the WaveShare offerings.
I wouldn't be surprised if the plug-in modules are the same pin-outs.  I thought the WaveShare stuff was very good, but just
a little pricey for me.  This new lot offers pretty much the same thing at maybe 30% less.  Bad news for WaveShare, good news
for us, we can only benefit from the competition.

@RedAlert,  Love the name.. used to play that a lot  Your example is the other end of the spectrum, very minimalistic.  I am
sure you can find lots of vendors that offer free shipping if you look.

@Micropcb, You absolutely nailed it bud, the STM32VL is a great board for pffftt... 10 bucks!!!  I built a docking board for mine
where the VL becomes a daughter card so to speak.  The docking board supplies a 5V regulator, SPI and I2C breakouts, and a
serial connector.  I also added some LEDs for status and such.... hmm.. I just happen to have a picture of it too

This board is useful.  I'll post the design files in the next day or two.

--Chip

[b555b]

Note that this kind of dev boards with plugin modules are also available for other families of processors and for FPGA. For example from Waveshare Electronics , the same plugin modules can be used with various main boards (various Cortex from STM and NXP, AVR, PIC, FPGA from Xilinx and Altera, etc). It's a good way to experiment with various type of microcontrollers and peripherals.
I have never bought directly from that seller, so I don't know if it is safe or not (china based), but all these products can be found from various sellers on Aliexpress (for example this one) which from my experience is as safe as eBay.

[dipchip]

This link is to an Altium project for the VL docking board.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/hf6ilgavnqszi1x/STM32_VL_Docking_Board.zip

The VL and battery footprints were custom and in a larger private library.  I used the Library Splitter utility in Altium to separate out the relevant parts/footprints for this board, they are included in a subdir call _Lib.  The project file references these as a relative path so there shouldn't be any problems, let me know if this does not work for you.

BTW, Mouser (US) sells the STM32VL for around 11 USD.  Don't buy the VL off eBay unless you have no other choice.
ST is also offering a new line of board similar to the ValueLine series.  They are calling it "Nucleo", Mouser has the STM32F4 version for 12 USD.. really hard to beat.

--Chip

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Last time I posted a project file here, it got 25 downloads and only 1 thank you.... think about it.