If you are planning to work on USB data transfer, then you might not get accurate results. But as per the schematics of several Blue Pill boards, all those are using a 10KΩ resistor. According to the reference manual of the MCU, the USB D+ (named USBDP) must be pulled high to 3.3V using a 1.5KΩ resistor. The other issue related to USB is the usage of wrong pull-up resistor. You can use hot glue to cover the connector. First, the soldering quality of the microUSB port is very poor and if you frequently remove and insert the cable into this port, then there is a high chance that the microUSB connector will come off the board. The next two issues are related to the USB.The solution is to use an external regulated power supply, if you have the option. These regulators do not have any thermal protection and are easily damaged. Though some boards have used genuine LM1117 3.3V regulators from TI, most of the cheap development board are found with small, knock-off regulators from an unknown manufacturer. The first main issue is the 3.3V regulator.I have taken these issues from various forums and faced some problems (USB related) myself. If you are planning to buy the cheaper version (which probably most of us will), then there are some known issues with the boards that you have to be aware of. Also, note that some IO pins are 5V tolerant, which means that you can connect 5V compatible IO on those pins without any worry. The following image shows the pin configuration of the board along with different functions supported by each pin.Īs you can from the above image, each pin of the STM32F103C8T6 MCU can have multiple functions (but only one has to be selected). On either long edge of the board, there are pins for connecting various Analog and Digital IO and Power related stuff. 3.3V regulator (on the bottom) – converts 5V to 3.3V for powering the MCU.SWD Interface – for programming and debugging using ST-Link.BOOT Selector Jumpers – BOOT0 and BOOT1 jumpers for selecting the booting memory.microUSB port – for serial communication and power.A Reset Switch – to reset the Microcontroller.It contains the main MCU – the STM32F103C8T6 in a Quad Flat Package.The other features of the board are as follows: So, it is obviously a cloned version (probably a counterfeit STM32 MCU?) and there are many cloned versions of the board available in the market.Ĭoming to the Blue Pill board itself, you get the board and two male header strips for you to solder on to the board (shame that they don’t came pre-soldered). I got this board for approximately $2.5 (₹180) in my local electronics store. As you can see, the layout of the board is very simple and some might even confuse it for an Arduino Nano.Īn important thing about these boards is that they are very cheap, cheaper than the cloned version of Arduino UNO. The following image shows the front and back sides of a typical STM32 Blue Pill Board. USB to U(S)ART converter).Ī Brief Note on STM32F103C8T6 Development Board As an added bonus, you can easily program this board using your Arduino IDE (although with some tweaks and additional programmer i.e. STM32F103C8T6 is a very powerful Microcontroller and with its 32-bit CPU, it can easily beat Arduino UNO in performance. This microcontroller is based on ARM Cortex-M3 Architecture manufactured by STMicroelectronics. it is slow, running only at 16 MHz, has very limited internal hardware and doesn’t have enough processing power or RAM and Flash to run a FreeRTOS based application (technically, you can run FreeRTOS on Arduino but it is not ideal).Īn alternative to Arduino is the STM32F103C8T6 microcontroller-based development board, which is often called as the Blue Pill (Matrix reference). But we all know the limitations of an Arduino board (let us make the discussion about Arduino UNO as it is the most popular Arduino out there) i.e. In the past decade, Arduino has been the go-to board for quick prototyping, hobby projects or as a beginner’s development board to jumpstart their electronics career.
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