STM32F103C8T6 ARM STM32 Minimum System Development Board
December 9, 2022
Other boards and chips
I got charmed by the F103 back in 2016 and it was my introduction to ARM microcontrollers
and the STM32. Since then I have discovered other STM32 parts and the RP2040 has
entered the scene. Here is a quick rundown (ignoring other important aspects like
the number of GPIO pins, how many uarts and i2c interfaces and all of that.
- STM32F103 - 64k flash, 20k sram, 72 Mhz, $3
- STM32F411 - 512k flash, 96k sram, 84 Mhz, $5
- RP2040 - 2M flash, 264k sram, 133 Mhz (dual core), $4
For many things the STM32F103 (aka "blue pill") is entirely adequate.
They are best programmed with the extremely inexpensive STlink v2 dongle.
The STM32F411 is a big brother and something to consider if you have some
application where the F103 just won't do. I also uses the STlink v2 and
the same development tools.
The RP2040 came along in January of 2021, well after I got started with the blue and black pill boards.
It certainly fits into the same niche with significantly more impressive specs and an amazing price.
You don't need any special dongle. It shows up on USB as a mass storage device and you just copy
your image file to it. As new as it is, I have virtually no experience with it.
If I was going to start fooling with the RP2040, I would download the datasheet, then start
looking at what David Welch has done with it:
Feedback? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Tom's Computer Info / tom@mmto.org