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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Cortex M4 as alternate platform

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McLaren
Newbie

Joined: 28/06/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 11
Posted: 11:08am 18 Oct 2011
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Gentlemen,

Having very limited funds, I was wondering how difficult it would be to port Maximite functionality over to the new ST Micro STM32F4Discovery board? This is an ARM Cortex M4 board (1MB flash/192KB RAM) with hardware FPU (floating point unit), DMA, etc. The board includes USB programmer/debugger, a 3-axis accelerometer, a microphone, a DAC, and a class D audio amp. And if the $17 price isn't enough to make you to salivate, ST is actually giving them away to users in the US and Canada (I received a free board last week).

Regards, Mike

Edited by McLaren 2011-10-19
Mike McLaren, K8LH
 
Olimex
Senior Member

Joined: 02/10/2011
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 226
Posted: 11:26am 18 Oct 2011
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it's funny as on your link Mouser sells the chip alone at higher price than the discovery board Basic too ...?
 
vasi

Guru

Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697
Posted: 07:00pm 18 Oct 2011
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  McLaren said  And if the $17 price isn't enough to make you to salivate, ST is actually giving them away to users in the US and Canada...


The price not (it will be much expensive when it will arrive on the Romanian market), but the board, yes. Specially the hardware FPU unit, flash and the USB over-current LED indicator.

Vasi
Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang
 
donmck

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Joined: 09/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1313
Posted: 07:03pm 18 Oct 2011
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As Tsvetan says, something seems a little out of wack here.

The micro is 3 times the price of the PIC32 micro, and I assume they are putting out a cheap board to encourage sales of the micro, which may or may not be an ongoing event.

Porting to another platform will require quite a lot of work, even if the hardware differences are not noticeable. But these differences, I have no idea about.

We are currently in the process of porting from the Maximite standard schematic to the new DuinoMite schematic, and this basically, is just changes to the pin mapping. This is still a work in progress.

I would think it will take someone with a personal interest in doing this, and the dedication to put in the hours to make it work.

The bottom line is even if you got it working, you still need add on boards to cater for VGA, KBD, (Arduino?), and 26 pin standard header if you wanted it to do the tasks that the current Maximite can do.

I do believe that it is only a promotional board, and if they got hit big time with orders for thousands from one source, it wouldn't be a promotional board for much longer.

But face value, the board is a great price, yes.

Cheers Don...

Edited by donmck 2011-10-20
https://www.dontronics.com
 
donmck

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Joined: 09/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1313
Posted: 11:19pm 18 Oct 2011
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MERCHANDISE TOTAL:

$21.94
SHIPPING CHARGE:
$39.00
Order Total:

$60.94

OH, $39 postage for 1.
I think I will give it a miss

Cheers Don...
https://www.dontronics.com
 
McLaren
Newbie

Joined: 28/06/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 11
Posted: 11:30pm 18 Oct 2011
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All valid points Gentlemen. Thank you.

It does seem that ST Micro is subsidizing the Discovery series kits. After almost a year, the STM8S-Discovery is still available ($8.00 at Mouser). The STM32VL-Discovery is still available too ($9.88 at Mouser). But, who knows how long they'll be willing to keep doing this.

Cheerful regards, MikeEdited by McLaren 2011-10-20
Mike McLaren, K8LH
 
CircuitGizmos

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Joined: 08/09/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 1425
Posted: 11:37pm 18 Oct 2011
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If you want one Don, I'll drop it in the post for you.
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
donmck

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Joined: 09/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1313
Posted: 11:46pm 18 Oct 2011
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  CircuitGizmos said   If you want one Don, I'll drop it in the post for you.


Thanks CG, but it was just an exercise, please don't go to the trouble, as I would doubt if I would ever do anything with it.

Cheers Don...

https://www.dontronics.com
 
vasi

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Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697
Posted: 07:38pm 19 Oct 2011
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  McLaren said  But, who knows how long they'll be willing to keep doing this.

Cheerful regards, Mike


If that's the only way to sell them, then, don't worry.
Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang
 
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