Nucleo ST-Link firmware update

The Nucleo boards I received had an older ST-Link firmware which didn't work very well. Follow the instructions on this link to update your board.

Toolchain setup

I worked a short time with the libmaple libraries, but found that they are outdated. You can opt for two toolchains. Either use the Stm32duino toolchain, based on libmaple, or use the newer HAL MX toolchain.

1. Download a recent version of the Arduino toolchain from the Arduino website. Some Linux versions, like Fedora have a version of Arduino included, but that version is almost always outdated. Let's assume that you extracted it to ~/Programs.
2. • For the HAL MX toolchain, follow the instructions about "How to use STM32 in the ARDUINO IDE".
   • For the STM32Duino toolchain, follow the instructions on Set up STM32 "blue pill" for Arduino IDE.

Build and upload your first program

Command line

Create ~/Arduino/blinky_nucleo/blinky_nucleo.ino with the following contents

#line 1 "blinky_nucleo.ino"  
#include "Arduino.h"  
void setup();  
void loop();  
#line 1  
void setup() {                      
 pinMode(13, OUTPUT);  
}  
void loop() {      
  digitalWrite(13,HIGH);  
  delay(1000);  
  digitalWrite(13,LOW);  
  delay(1000);  
}  

Build your project (replace /home/ctack with your own home folder):

~/Programs/arduino-1.6.5/arduino --verify --board Arduino_STM32:STM32F1:nucleo_f103rb --pref target_package=Arduino_STM32 --pref build.path=. --pref target_platform=STM32F1 --pref board=nucleo_f103rb /home/ctack/Arduino/blinky_nucleo/blinky_nucleo.ino --verbose  

This can also easily be set in the QtCreator build settings

Upload the binary to the Nucleo:
On my computer, the Nucleo appears as "/run/media/ctack/NODE_F103RB"

cp ~/Arduino/blinky_nucleo/build/blinky_nucleo.cpp.bin /run/media/ctack/NODE_F103RB  

If you don't need debugging, you could set the above command line up in the run settings of QtCreator.

Pitfalls

1. When debugging or uploading code with the STLINKV2 and using the UART connection of the STLINKV2, be sure not to flood the STLINKV2 with serial data. The device will loose USB connection. The solution is to disconnect the UART lines from the STLINKV2 to your debugging target.

Working with Arduino libraries

The above toolchain only wants to build and link libraries when they are in the ~/Arduino/libraries folder. An extra conditions is that the name of the library must match the folder name.
Libraries that you check out from git don't always have that structure. An elegant workaround is to use symlinks.

1. Check your library out to a random folder

   git clone [email protected]:LieBtrau/arduino-xterm.git ~/git/arduino-xterm

2. Make a symlink to the Arduino library

   ln -s ~/git/arduino-xterm/Xterm ~/Arduino/libraries

Setting up your debug environment

You can follow the steps as decribed in STM32L053 Nucleo toolchain setup. Below only the differences with the SMT32L053 setup are described.
You can test the openocd connection with:

openocd -f board/st_nucleo_f103rb.cfg  

The QtCreator BareMetal setup is different for this nucleo board. Use "usr/share/openocd/scripts/board/st_nucleo_f103rb.cfg" instead of "/usr/share/openocd/scripts/board/stm32l0discovery.cfg"
Screenshot of bare metal plugin setup for STM32F103
Screenshot of Devices Setup
Screenshot of Kit setup (top)
Screenshot of Kit setup (bot)
Screenshot of Run Settings

Serial ports

The behavior of the serial ports might depend on the programmer used. Select "USBtinyISP" to get the following settings:

Object	UART	TX	RX	Remark
Serial	UART2	D1	D0	Connected to debugger
Serial1	UART1	D8	D2
Serial2	UART3	PC10	PC11

• See Nucleo pin mapping for the mapping of Serial objects to port pins.