solarvent Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 Hello community,this is my first post here (and I guess this is related to the very good documentation for all question around this complex system). I already assembled my own SEQ V2 based on that old PIV 18F452. Now I want an upgrade, and of course I very attracted by that nes V4 with STM32! Since I do not have too much time in making soldering tests I thought about the following alternative: at ebay a company from Thailand is selling complete evalutaion boards with an included:- socket for LCD- SD-card slot- USB interface- RS232 interface for boot-loading- some other options which might be helpful.The price is roughly 30€ + 6€ shipping and ?€ duty - quite interesting! Just search for "STM32".The drawbacks are: I of course have to adapt my I/O configuration to the given connectors, possibly some pins have to be redefined in the software! And this variant has only 128kByte of Flash and 20kByte of RAM.Here are my questions:- are the available Flash and RAM sufficient for the SEQ V4 implementation?- have some of you made own test with this or other evaluation kits (like the primer 2)?Thank yousolarvent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 Thats an interesting one,im guessing you would be missing essential CORE components that do not come in the evaluation board?The optos are the most obvious that spring to mind.Guessing that the SIL pins on that eval board, are directly connected to the pins of the STM32 microcontroller,youd have to build an additional circuit connected to those pins, to have a complete CORE module.Which would defeat the purpose of buying one, because youd have to design an additional board yourself and solder it!Im no expert on this, so i could be speaking waffle for all i know! ;)Btw there will be Core 32 modules with a pre-soldered STM32 chip on the board available,so at least that saves you time soldering 1 component yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 The drawbacks are: I of course have to adapt my I/O configuration to the given connectors, possibly some pins have to be redefined in the software! And this variant has only 128kByte of Flash and 20kByte of RAM.My apologies, i just saw this now and you realize you need to create your own I/O circuit.If it was me, i know that it would take me tonnes more time to design an I/Othan to just buy the STM32 kit, and solder it.Are you sure you could do it faster the other way around? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK. Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 Hi Solarvent,this is my first post here (and I guess this is related to the very good documentation for all question around this complex system). I already assembled my own SEQ V2 based on that old PIV 18F452.it really surprises me every time to read from people who use a MIDIbox since years, but never had to ask for help. :)The price is roughly 30€ + 6€ shipping and ?€ duty - quite interesting! Just search for "STM32".In SmashTV's MIDIbox Shop you will get the PCB + presoldered STM + kit components for ca. 32 EUR- some other options which might be helpful.But we are missing a lot of components which are useful for MBHP related purposes, like the 3.3V->5V level shifter for two LCDs, two MIDI IN/OUTs, etc.You should also consider, that the STM32 board from SmashTV comes with MIOS32 bootloader, so that the application can be uploaded via USB (no need to use a RS232 bootloader interface in order to program the MIOS32 bootloader into flash)And this variant has only 128kByte of Flash and 20kByte of RAM.A killer - I guess it's only a STM32F103RB derivative. Not only the flash/RAM is limited. There are only 8 (instead of 16) DMA channels, etc...- are the available Flash and RAM sufficient for the SEQ V4 implementation?No, MBSEQ V4 currently requires ca. 200k flash and ca. 60k RAM.For future versions I'm planning to use the complete flash of course.have some of you made own test with this or other evaluation kits (like the primer 2)?Yes, there is a "MIOS32_BOARD" option for the first Primer, it works but it's just a toy (especially because of the smaller STM32F103RB derivative)An adaption for Primer2 is feasible w/o much effort, but I don't have this board right here.You won't save time and/or money by buying this evaluation board.As Smithy already wrote: you would have to add the additional components (like MIDI ports and 74HC595 based LCD levelshifters) on a prototype board anyhow.Thats basically more effort than soldering a MBHP_CORE_STM32 kit Best Regards, Thorsten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 Yay, i got something right for once! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solarvent Posted September 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 So I heard about another negative influence: the duty is not neglectible from Thailand: it could be around 30% and additionally 19%VAT would be added!!!!!So I really prepard to go for the just released PCB from SmashTV. Unfortunatly the shipping cost should be 29$ to Germany. Since tobsens bulk order seemed to fail - somebody else who's gonna take the lead?And thank you for the helpful replies!solarvent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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