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Beginner's Guide to STM8

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Introduction The STM8 series of 8 bit microcontrollers are made by ST. The STM8 micorocontrollers have seen their price dramatically reduced by ST and can be easily found on sites like Ebay and Ali Express. They are quite poweful but unfortunately there are very few online resources to help anyone get started. I will share the information i have gathered while i worked with these devices. Development board  If you have been reading some of my earlier posts you will have noticed that in order to work with microcontrollers you will need a development board and a programmer. The development board is similar to what's commonly called an Arduino but in our case with an STM8 in it. The programmer can be purchaed and it required to write all your code into the microcontroller. Below are some example of each The picture below shows a development board that can be purchased easily online. the board is called STM8 Discovery. If you are getting started with STM8 and

Beginner's guide to Arduino

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Arduino Getting Started Tutorial Introduction Arduino is a very popular term you will find on the internet if you are an electronic hobbyist. Most people picture Arduino as that popular blue board (Arduino Uno) that is used in many projects. In fact Arduino goes way beyond that. Based on the Arduino website it is described as a platform. However I would describe it more as a very clever standard. With the evolution of microcontrollers in the industrial world, hobbyists wanted to use them for their projects. If you do not know what a microcontroller is you can have a look here: Link . However getting into microcontrollers can be daunting as programming skills are required, hardware cost and software costs need to be considered.   The Arduino comes to the rescue by providing the advantages and bonus features below: 1) A single free and open source software easy to download and install. 2) A single standardized programming language that is easy to learn. 3) Standar

Beginner's Guide to STM32CubeMX

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STM32 CubeMx tutorial Introduction Welcome to this STM32 Cube Mx tutorial. You might be wondering what is it all about? Don’t worry you will find the answers here. STM32 Cube Mx is a free software provided by ST Microelectronics who builds the STM32 line of micro controllers. One issue with these devices is that a lot of code needs to be written to initialize the device. The STM32 Cube Mx is a GUI that makes life much easier. It helps reduce the burden regarding initializing the micro controller. Bear in mind though that it will not write the code regarding the operation you want to make. Lets take an example, suppose I want to use a STM32F100VGT6 and blink an external LED. The STM32 Cube Mx will help me get the micro controller setup and get an output port ready for me. Unfortunately it will not tell the micro controller that I want to blink the led and at what speed I want the LED to blink. I have however given a small glimpse on how to turn switch on an output port at