Getting Started with STM32 and Nucleo Part 1: Introduction to STM32CubeIDE and Blinky - Digi-Key

We’re kicking off a new video series! This time, we create a set of tutorials around getting started with the STM32 ARM microcontrollers. To begin, we go over the STM32 naming convention for its processors and introduce the Nucleo development boards.
The STM32 series is based on the ARM Cortex architectures. Specifically, we’ll be looking at the STM32 Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers. To make life easier, we’ll be using STMicroelectronics’ official Nucleo development boards (the Nucleo-L476RG in particular).
In this video, we install the STM32CubeIDE and write a simple C program that blinks an LED. We will be using ST’s Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) to make controlling pins easier and code more portable. Finally, we briefly look at how to use the built-in step-through debugger with STM32CubeIDE.
Related Items
497-15881-ND - NUCLEO-L476RG www.digikey.com/product-detai...
497-15980-ND - NUCLEO-F042K6 www.digikey.com/products/en/d...
WRITTEN TUTORIAL
If you would like to see the steps performed in this video in written form along with the code, please see the tutorial here: www.digikey.com/en/maker/vide...
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Related Projects www.digikey.com/maker/search-...
Download STM32CubeIDE: www.st.com/en/development-too...
STM32 HAL documentation (click on family from graphic and then Resources tab) : www.st.com/en/embedded-softwa...
Maker.io - www.digikey.com/en/maker
Digi-Key’s Blog - TheCircuit www.digikey.com/en/blog
Connect with Digi-Key on Facebook / digikey.electronics
And follow us on Twitter / digikey

[@user-wj5qd5fy1n]

Definitely the best intro into stm32, which I have ever seen. Simple explanation, straight to the point. You are the man!

[@MegaMaheshsharma]

Thanks Shawn, found it very helpful to get started. That portion on getting HAL document gave a good head-start. I was quickly able to create blinky on my Nucleo-144 board.

[@iforce2d]

An exceptionally well put together video, thanks!!

[@marbles3662]

Wow , you nailed it , great tutorial , I love the way you kept it brief and effective.

[@electronichome1153]

No idea how I missed this course 3 yrs ago.... Thanks Shawn!

[@stm3252]

Frankly, It's the best tutorial how to start with stm32 microcontrollers. Thank very much for this video!

[@ymp175]

Woah this is one of the best tutorial videos I have seen! I absolutely love the step-by-step style, it is great for us newbies who get overwhelmed by all those options and buttons in the software. Thank you so much!

[@asura-2467]

Sir, thank you for the guidance. For absolute beginners like me this video was too helpful.

[@pedrosena2499]

Excellent tutorial! I just have been working in a project using exactly the methods that Shawn presents, but I've got to many troubles in the begining. Congrats Shawn! Your tutorial is completely clear and combine the theory and practice very well!

[@georgehowell2848]

Great video, not too fast and not too slow, staight to the point and covers a load of stuff. Brilliant, definitely one of the best I've seen. Intro music is quite loud compared to speech but minor point.

[@johnfornehed5503]

Wow! Good job! Wish I'd watched this earlier. Thank you for publishing this video. So much, to the point, in a short video.

[@dibraniuk]

super lesson! thank you so much! I spent a ton of time until i found this great tutorial.

[@interestingengineering291]

exceptional intro duction to this topic. I love you guys

[@Fubar12341]

Super Tutorial, Well presented and as an Old Duffer I particularly like the written version as well ! Thanks

[@satviksharma3722]

This was absolutely great!! Thanks a lot!!

[@lubos4639]

Clear as a bright day fantastic video.

[@spacewolfjr]

You are a legend Shawn! I have a STM32 F4 Discovery collecting dust in my stash so this is a great opportunity to get back to using it. Thanks!

[@ShawnHymel]

Woohoo! I'm curious to know how the Discovery boards compare to the Nucleo.

[@DiegoEfe]

Same here! I don't even know when and why I bought the STM32 F4 Discovery.

[@ovalwingnut]

Outstanding 👍😎 "I'm hooked"! 💙❤💚💛💜

[@SemionCobileanschii]

Thank you!!! I'm switching from AVRs to ARM - you're like a light in the dark

[@noweare1]

Only downside is that you may have trouble finding libraries in the stm world compared to the avr (arduino)

[@paulrudman1349]

Very helpful and really well done.

[@slip0n0fall]

These are excellent videos - STM needs to take a page from your playbook.

[@thierrybeaulieu4403]

10:20 is the most important section that there is. I've struggle so much with libraries and not understanding where to find the right documentation. Thanks!

[@SaieenTwist]

Really great tutorial and still valid now in 2024.

[@GameAssetsGarden]

Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing.

[@bertbrecht7540]

So much info packed into 14 minutes. Thanks! I would love a tutorial on single chip programming using CUBE ID. If this could include soldering the chip onto a breakout board or using an adapter, that would be awesome. Nucleo's and Black Pills are great but I would love to buy just the chip and move forward from there.

[@zetaconvex1987]

Thanks. A very nice introduction.

[@judeagwoko2698]

Awesome! thanks for this great video.

[@Obamjur]

Great presentation, the best I found so ever on web about this STM32Cube IDE 1 Subscribed !

[@Pompelli]

BRO HAS SAVED MY LIFE

[@carlosruizmora3111]

I've been learning STM32. It can be a bit scary at the first time, but you need to remember that this is the real stuff: this is the kind of systems used in the industry to create the products we buy. I just love STM32. It is the most friendly ARM Cortex-M platform I know for newbies to learn to code for 32 bit MCUs.

[@ShawnHymel]

Agreed! There is a bit of a steep learning curve, but once you find your way around the IDE and HAL (or CMSIS or whatever abstraction layer you decide to use), it becomes much easier.

[@Asyss_Complex]

Do you know some good books to learn how to program this microcontroller?

[@Nocturnes1984]

Im just starting to learn C# at school and we will be using this next semester. It looks scary idd…

[@heemangshuchattopadhyay9859]

Can i have your email id

[@SandhanSarma]

Great Tutorials , as always! Kindly make a playlist for the stm32 series.

[@dariocardajoli6831]

Just read the datasheet lol

[@nataliawebster1841]

Dario Cardajoli lió

[@TheEd101288]

Thank you so much for this tutorial

[@David-yp9oz]

Thank you so much for this and the one you did for I2C. This is the gold standard for how these concepts should be explained. Will you be doing more in the future? Really looking forward to that. Especially if you did one for SPI and RTOS. Thank you!

[@ShawnHymel]

Glad you liked them! A super basic intro to RTOS is next, but no plans for SPI. If these few do well enough, I might try to do more STM32 stuff (as I'm really enjoying the platform). Additionally, I'd love to dig deeper into FreeRTOS, but it's not on the list at the moment.

[@Factory400]

Digikey is one of the few of my vendors that actually provides real value to the customer. This is a good example. Most others are just order taking middlemen that add cost.......

[@ParswaNathTheo]

Very Helpful. Thanks.

[@qorje]

Thanks, very helpful!

[@nicholasrazo9438]

He looks like Phil Lester mixed with Bill Nye. Great video btw!

[@embeddedmicrocontroller]

Really good work

[@jdarnell123]

Excellent and very clear video Shawn! I liked and subscribed. 🙂 Not to be corny, but this is a really exciting time. I finished my EE senior design project a long time ago using a Motorola 68HC11. Good Lord, the things we can do now... and for dirt cheap! Keep rockin' the great content!

[@andruss2001]

Nice video. Thanks! 👍

[@Graham1904]

The best tutorial

[@nicoladellino8124]

Nice video, TNX👍

[@undercrackers56]

I really enjoy and appreciate your videos Shawn. Would you consider making a video to explain the differences between ARM devices (M3, M5, etc.). Thank you.

[@chan270]

Very Helpful.

[@lenninlc]

STM32 always ♥️

[@d3stinYwOw]

Great video, as always! For all people interest, STM32CubeIDE is based on Eclipse IDE, which can be used to program STM32 chips, too. GNU MCU Eclipse is the best plugin for ARM programming in Eclipse IDE and derivatives :)

[@ShawnHymel]

Thanks! I believe the "Mastering STM32" book uses the GNU MCU Eclipse IDE and has you build the STM32 toolchain around it. The only thing that's a pain is having to use CubeMX as a separate software (if you wish to use it at all).

[@d3stinYwOw]

@@ShawnHymelYou can use packages from GNU MCU Eclipse project like compiler to build your tool chain easily :)

[@mikefrith8862]

@@d3stinYwOw How does CubeIDE compare with CubeMX?

[@mikefrith8862]

Nevermind, missed that comment from Shawn.

[@Bianchi77]

Nice video, thanks :)

[@forestxu8369]

great! thanks!

[@iancu_de_hunedoara]

Pure genius

[@Yankee14ed]

Thanks for the awesome video, Shawn! One request I have for a video tutorial I'd like to see, is how to move from a development board to a custom production board, while still maintaining the ability to flash, debug, and develop new code. That's something I always find challenging and confusing, even having done it at work with microcontrollers from several different manufacturers. It would be a fun extension of the excellent KiCad tutorials you made last year! Anyhow, thanks for the great video tutorial, as always.

[@ShawnHymel]

Good to know, I'll keep it in mind! I've found that board standup with STM32 to be pretty straightforward. I've been working on a custom STM32 breakout board to learn as well. The schematic is here (if you'd like to take a look at it): github.com/ShawnHymel/YAS-0/blob/master/Hardware/STM32F070_Breakout/STM32F070_Breakout.pdf I just broke out the SWD pins to some headers. From there, you can just attach an ST-LINK to program it (5 pins): www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/stmicroelectronics/ST-LINK-V2/497-10484-ND/2214535 www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/adafruit-industries-llc/2548/1528-1982-ND/6827110 So, getting it to debug and run code like a Nucleo has been pretty easy. However, I've not found a good way to upload compiled code in a production-like manner. I believe there is a separate STMicro program to make that happen, but I haven't dug into it much.

[@robertparenton7470]

Thank You!

[@dinesh_damodar]

explained very clearly. please share videos on stm32wb series microcontroller for bluetooth data transmission.

[@tommyyhli]

Thank you so much 🙏 I have no idea there is a HAL manual

[@minilotofacile1]

muito bom , voce e um genio , muito obrigado

[@nguyenphuc-vu6qu]

thanks😊

[@ianknight4013]

Just got my NUCLEO-L432KC today, this video makes getting into it and the STM32CubeIDE real easy, thank you... Much better that the ST Intro video, oh that terrible music, which elevator company did they get it from :-)

[@Hermaeus7]

Nucleo 144 - you must call HAL_GPIO_Init(port, &init_structure) before you can use the pin.

[@noon1117]

He looks like a grown-up Young Sheldon 😁

[@ramymagdy3482]

nice work, detailed yet simple. is the DK iot studio part coming soon?

[@chepel5663]

Muy bueno.

[@bertbrecht7540]

So excited to get started. The Nucleo-L476RG is sold out. Any suggestions for a substitute? I like the low power and 1mb flash.

[@deno265]

If anyone encounter the problem like I did, where it doesn't get switched to debug perspective ( at 13:07 ), solution is to get the stm32cubeprogramer from st site and do the full chip erase.

[@kitKat-by6kk]

i find the nucleo 32/64/144 kit naming convention, generally reflects the amount of physical pins, and hence a gauge to the IO available....

[@fenderrexfender]

f401re is a nice board

[@sixsunss8032]

the opening music always remind me of family guys

[@rgopinath8841]

ty

[@CookiePepper]

Nucleo and ST-LINK are the best.

[@ulissesazevedoleitao153]

Very nice presentation!!! But I have had some problems with following the tutorial. When I load the configuration of my board (STM32F401RE) it does not show the predefined port like in the video. So there is no LD2 connected to PA5. What is wrong? Have I missed any installation step?

[@The2Coolest2]

Wonderful. The debugger connection just keeps getting lost when I run the project and so no LED blinking occurs. Of course, why should I expect anything to go right on the first go. Whatever. Edit: So in Debug mode I saw the program would stop inside the MX_ETH_Init(); call, I couldn't keep sitting there through the step through process in it (was taking forever) to see why, so I commented it out. Now my board can blink. I'm using the STM32F746 Nucleo-144

[@praveenraj7983]

good

[@gizmoguyar]

These are really great tutorials. Clear and easy to follow, but not extremely drawing out and verbose like many other. I'm starting to learn the STM32 family as the next step of faster microcontrollers after AVR. However I'm confused as to why there needs to be so much complexity and overhead in the code. Libraries upon libraries calling other libraries. Layers and layers deep. It seems to result in extremely slow code. The whole reason I'm moving to STM32 is because many of my projects require very fast executing code. For example, using HAL_GPIO_TogglePin as shown in this video produces a maximum frequency of about 800 kHz. For a 72 MHz processor (in my case), this seems really slow. Especially when it's trivial on an 16 MHz ATMega to toggle an output pin at over 2 MHz. I've also compared the speed of calculations (dividing and multiplying uint16_t, etc.) and it seems like there's little to no gain over a 16 MHz AVR processor. Is there a way to cut through all these layers of abstraction and just get down closer to the bare processor?

[@ShawnHymel]

Yes, the HAL libraries can be quite bloated. They make things a little easier to use and code more portable among the STM32 chips. However, as you've noticed, all that abstraction has a cost. The "purest" way to interact with the chips is to perform direct register reads and writes. You'll need to study each chip's datasheet to learn about its specific registers. For example, here is "blinky" on an STM32-F070CB (note that it does not include the system clock setup, which you would still need to do prior to this code): // Registers volatile uint32_t *AHB1_RCC = (uint32_t*)0x40021000; volatile uint32_t *RCC_AHBENR = (uint32_t*)((void*)AHB1_RCC + 0x14); volatile uint32_t *GPIOC_MODER = (uint32_t*)0x48000800; volatile uint32_t *GPIOC_ODR = (uint32_t*)((void*)GPIOC_MODER + 0x14); // Bits const uint8_t IOPCEN = 19; // GPIO Port C clock enable const uint8_t MODER13_0 = 26; // GPIO port mode register pin 13, bit 0 const uint8_t MODER13_1 = 27; // GPIO port mode register pin 13, bit 1 const uint8_t ODR13 = 13; // Output data register pin 13 // Connect peripheral to AHB1 bus *RCC_AHBENR |= (1

[@sefalibhakat143]

👍👍

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

I bought a Nucleo-H743ZI2 and follwed your instructions faithfully, but I couldn't get Blinky working. It would compile OK, but when I tried to run it, it said "Debug has encountered a problem. Error in final launch sequence: Error launching GDB server. Session terminated" On advice from the ST community, I used OpenOCD as a debugger instead of GDB. It's working now - I can blink an LED. On the ST Community forum, it turned out I wasn't the only one with the same error - and the same solution.

[@Fnta_discovery]

Hi dear. I’d love you to give the manner or advice so that I can understand STM32 because when I see a code HAL I panicked suddenly. Best regards 😢

[@boubalex5846]

would you like to make more videos about STM32?

[@Ray-ej3jb]

HI Shawn, can't find the answer to this, the end of the board which has the STLink section on, can this be broken/snapped off and used as a standalone programmer for a custom board?

[@gabrielcabrerasanchez1542]

Thanks for the video, I have a question for you, i have a nucleo-f429zi, when i did al the steps in the video my nucleo board don't do anything, but when I program it in Keil Studio on line, yes it's functional, Do you know why i have that problem?

[@TheObeze]

If we are to blink the led not on the board would the procedure be the same? I am trying, but I can't seem to get it to work

[@Ariel-fe5yq]

Hi, I am following this tutorial and I have a problem: When I try to debug I get this messege: "Error in initializing ST-LINK device. Reason: (4) No device found on target." If I try to debug again i get this messege: " localhost:61234: The system tried to join a drive to a directory on a joined drive." what should I do? thanks.

[@nishith.vpoojary3486]

At 13:07 instead of the switch box, I get "No ST-LINK detected! Please connect ST-LINK and restart the debug session." error box. What should I do??

[@petermoller6230]

as a new beginner I feel so lost haha but that's where everyone begins right?

[@tobiask8490]

great series, but unfortunatelly not working for me ☹️ I have the same nucleo board L476RG and cube IDE running on mac and when I start debugging I get: Waiting for debugger connection... Debugger connected Debugger connection lost. Shutting down... I tried adding "monitor flash mass_erase" to initializations commands, but it didnt help. Also every time I try to Run it, my HDD gets 1,28 GB less free space, which is very strange as the cube IDE folders keep the same size 🤯 . Any suggestions what to try with such a weird behaviour?

[@Dan-fk7vg]

3:00 Look at that stock level.

[@mhdsbk]

Can I use nuclio for image recognition

[@Nocturnes1984]

I learned C# at school....what language should I pick at start? C++?

[@theblackdouglas4772]

Can you do a video for the same board but using a 16X2 LCD with it?

[@zxcvbnmqwertyuioasdf]

Hi, when I try to debug the code as he teaches in 12:55 the IDE says "NO ST-LINK detected". I am with my board conected to my USB port. Someone knows how to fix this problem?

[@athapapa22]

Hey, very good job. I am using stm32f769i disco but nothing happens when I run the code! I have used GPIOJ,GPIO_PIN_5 in my case! Any thoughts?Thanks

[@stevergr9039]

Thanks for your Tutorials! However I followed step by step and as we go into debug mode @13:10 I get an error saying: ‚arm-none-Sabine’s-geb.exe stopped working‘. Can you guys help me out on this one? Thanks a lot guys

[@MrSeanMatton]

Same... Running windows 8 and getting arm-none-eabi-gbd.exe on download/debug. Did you ever find a solution?

[@drumrocket99]

Any idea why I configure everything fitting to my Nucleo F429ZI board and the LED's still don't toggle? The code compiles and gets uploaded without any problems

[@walterhynson2898]

you forgot all about the "stlink" driver which must be installed before you plug in the board...also the board you show does not have a usb socket the board has a ST LINK which talks to the board...your lectures are great please keep them going and rem us arduino folk like to see led arrays spitting out characters ,tft panels bright and sensors giving informationand if you can please explain how to use Arduino libraries with the STM boards thanks

[@ethanpigou3496]

How do you download this stlink driver?

[@noweare1]

ST provides chm files which are hyperlinked documentation. Much better than the pdf files.

[@curlybracket]

I want to ask you if you know the solution to stm32cubeide Not available for download

[@hamiltongao7702]

Thanks for your amazing video. However, I've encountered a problem right after I choose debug as stm32 application. STMicroelectronics ST-LINK GDB server. Version 6.0.0 Copyright (c) 2021, STMicroelectronics. All rights reserved. Starting server with the following options: Persistent Mode : Disabled Logging Level : 1 Listen Port Number : 61234 Status Refresh Delay : 15s Verbose Mode : Disabled SWD Debug : Enabled InitWhile : Enabled Waiting for debugger connection... Debugger connected Waiting for debugger connection... Shutting down... Exit. How can I fix this problem, thanks!

[@TeamEnFil]

I've gone through the steps for setting up my development board, but when I click the sections such as Connectivity I immediately see conflicts. Different parts of it are in conflict, how have they left it in this state if I've selected the board?

[@pawelp.340]

one very important notice: STM32 IDE DOES NOT ACCEPT national letters in folders names. Will fail in various moments, so move your installation, workspace and firmware locations to simple short (maybe 8chars) folders. Or maybe there's workaround but I don't know any yet.

[@elakeee2921]

how can we Read and extract the uploaded code from STM32F405RGT6 ? And need to upload to another chip

[@Hybrid.Robotics]

I keep losing the configuration panel when I am writing code. How can I get that panel back? I need to know how I can get the configuration tool back. Is it in a different perspective?

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

At 8:09, I can't understand the relevance of the 840MHz clock boasted by the STM32H743. I can't see how that is derived in the clock diagram. Can somebody please explain it? Is there any part of the chip that runs at that speed, or is it the sum of 64MHz to each of 13 peripherals?

[@metamaverick]

The clock tree for each STM32 variant is (sometimes/often) different. This means different PLL multipliers and dividers may be present on one variant while not present on another. I am not sure where you found 840MHz as far as I know the max core clock for the STM32H743 is 480MHz...maybe you just have a typo. But to address your comment, it is in fact a core/system clock which can then be used to also derive other clock frequencies for peripherals. So with this faster core clock your code will execute faster leaving time for other tasks to be handled if needed.

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

@@metamaverick Woops - 840/480 MHz - I must be numerically lysdexic. My comment was 6 months ago, and although I still haven't really got started, I had got past the 480 MHz query. I got back to the chip again last night, and I'm intending to do some work on it. Watch this space - if you have a lot of patience.

[@rajaniyer6840]

Save option is not showing for me. What should I do?