Creating a low-cost pin-compatible Arduino/Due board using an STM32L471

aaaa the flood-fill changes if you alter the POW net class clearance!!! aaaa must remember to put them back to 10mil when doing the gerbers.

i reaaally don't want to have to hit "Approve" on over 180 DRC errors, i might miss one or two of them. or ten. westfw is there a way to do component level DRC like you can in PADS, Altium etc., do you know?

i put the GND/Power clearance back to 8mil

I meant to do that, but I got tied up when I forgot which one(s) had always been 10mil, and forgot to look it up.
I also didn't look at the DRC before changing things...
Hmm. Ok, thanks to the backup files.... ALL the signal clearances were at 8mil, and when we return to that the only DRC warnings are for the mounting holes (on both original and modified versions.)

the flood-fill changes if you alter the POW net class clearance!!!

You can change the clearance of the flood separately from the signal clearance using the "change isolate x" command on the polygons. I like the way it looks with a 14mil "isolation" parameter - that's nicely separate, but still floods between the connector pins.

is there a way to do component level DRC

not that I know of.

HA! found one. http://www.engtaobao.com/item/559452178207.html

STM32F070F6. i think this might have been the one you were referring to, westfw, and i got it confused with the 072. this guy on taobao, very sensible: each one is USD $0.16... he then charges USD $28 for shipping (flat-rate). so... buy 1,000 and you're good. buy 10,000 and you're laughing.

what that means is though that i'd stand a good chance of getting it reaaally cheap in the huaqiang road markets.

even the prices on ST's web site - $0.50 or so for 1k volumes - are good. crystal-less USB operation, UART, GPIO, SPI. i could put up with that. hell i'd be happy to try to run the SPI wires over to it and wire up SPI and a CS to that last remaining GPIO on the 471, try making it a slave SPI device to get better data-rates when communicating on its USB interface. up to 18 mbits/sec full duplex where the USB interface actually only goes up to 12.

the only thing: it's not OTG, it's plain USB. but still, plain USB is better than a kick in the teeth.

ha, connecting it to the SPI interface would allow direct boot-level reprogramming of the 471. HA!

still owe you a reply on your last message, westfw - haven't forgotten about it.

argh! did... did this just appear in the past couple of weeks? http://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers/stm32l496ve.html if not.. how the heck did we manage to miss it??

[edit] anyway... thought about it... it's too modern. pricing on taobao is higher than st's own distributors. plus, for an auto-reset/boot0 you still need an extra MCU/USB-UART IC to manage it, even though it has native OTG. arrangement would have to be similar to the due (dual OTG interfaces) and that's a big redesign (too big).

so... stick with this design for now. bit of a surprise on the STM32L471 datasheet: not only is it missing USB it's also missing an SPI-based bootloader. looks like there were a few screw-ups at ST during the fab / layout on this one. all the other ICs in this family/range have OTG and SPI-boot.. hmm....

westfw:
I meant to do that, but I got tied up when I forgot which one(s) had always been 10mil, and forgot to look it up.
I also didn't look at the DRC before changing things...

not a problem.

Hmm. Ok, thanks to the backup files.... ALL the signal clearances were at 8mil, and when we return to that the only DRC warnings are for the mounting holes (on both original and modified versions.)You can change the clearance of the flood separately from the signal clearance using the "change isolate x" command on the polygons. I like the way it looks with a 14mil "isolation" parameter - that's nicely separate, but still floods between the connector pins.

cool. well, i left it at 10mil and it seems to be ok. the 180 DRC errors seem to have gone walkies..

anyway i'm going over the board again and again (i tend to do that), dropped in that F070 and it looks really good. noticed that CANTX/RX are also ADCs but go up to the top of the MCU so tried to get a bit of GND around them...

man the pins disappeareed fast on the F070! there's 3 GPIOs left. i really should wire up the SWCLK/DIO to the F070, that would be neat: allow remote-debugging over the serial link, like with the NUCLEO boards. however doing so would disrupt the GND plane which is already quite dicey around C19.

just noticed another bit of parallel-tracks that need moving... does this ever end? :slight_smile:

STM32F070F6

I don't think that it allows crystal-less USB operation, though. :frowning: Sure fits nicely, though (SSOP20 vs SOL16, eh? Interesting the way that works out.)
flip/pinswap the reset switch so the reset signal doesn't have to snake around so much? Or is that intentional?
I'm a little worried about the uSD card having room to slide out...

Newer Arduinos have simplified the op-amp part to only use a single op-amp, which would theoretically permit use of a smaller package. (OTOH, they're using the send opamp as a buffer for the L led.)

westfw:
I don't think that it allows crystal-less USB operation, though. :frowning:

deep breath.... argh you're right. i remember looking at the 64-pin F070 and then selecting the 64-pin 072 instead ... then forgot that the 070s don't operate crystal-less argh.

Sure fits nicely, though (SSOP20 vs SOL16, eh? Interesting the way that works out.)

yeh it does... but ngggggh the extra cost of the crystal takes the BOM up to around $0.70... is it worth it? i'm tempted to say yes.

flip/pinswap the reset switch so the reset signal doesn't have to snake around so much?
Or is that intentional?

the 5th pin on the switch means i'd have to move the ... no it doesn't: managed to shoe-horn it in. will update.

I'm a little worried about the uSD card having room to slide out...

i think it'll be ok. those components aren't that high (R8), LED (marked PWR). if nothing else the uSD card will go over the top of them. if there was a 1206 capacitor or a pinheader i'd be concerned.

Newer Arduinos have simplified the op-amp part to only use a single op-amp, which would theoretically permit use of a smaller package. (OTOH, they're using the send opamp as a buffer for the L led.)

... because it's there, most likely. any schematics around that you know of that i can copy? is it worth shaving the cost by reducing down to a single op-amp? (answer's yes...) so have to find a single-channel op-amp... what's equivalent? LMV321? http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lmv358-n-q1.pdf says so...

although it doesn't look very much lower in cost!! LM321 data sheet, product information and support | TI.com $0.19 in 1k volumes...

UA741 UA741 data sheet, product information and support | TI.com is $0.12 that's better....

honestly the last time i used op-amps was at school, and that was... um... 1985? :slight_smile: help!

found one - https://www.arduino.cc/en/uploads/Main/Arduino_Uno_Rev3-schematic.pdf

uses a resistor divider, 2x 10k resistors, through the op-amp... onto the gate of aaa.... FDN340P which is a..... single P-channel MOSFET. hey it's the same one already being used.

err... errr.... that's what's in the PDF of the mega2560 schematic! damn it this sort of thing pisses me off: the reference design that arduino.cc released (the actual eagle files) are hopelessly out-of-date. yes you can just cut the 2nd gate completely out of the circuit. ngggggh.

ok so that's done... but i'm still really uncertain about what (low-er cost) single-channel op-amp to put in its place?

lkcl:
UA741 UA741 data sheet, product information and support | TI.com is $0.12 that's better....

honestly the last time i used op-amps was at school, and that was... um... 1985? :slight_smile: help!

uA741 is very old maybe in 1985 you used it !

that's what's in the PDF of the mega2560 schematic! damn it this sort of thing pisses me off: the reference design that arduino.cc released (the actual eagle files) are hopelessly out-of-date.

When and where did you get your copy? The versions I see now at https://store.arduino.cc/usa/arduino-mega-2560-rev3 look updated and current.

uncertain about what (low-er cost) single-channel op-amp to put in its place?

LMV321 ? Seems to be available from several vendors, and on ali-express for cheap. Beware the non-V version, which isn't a rail-to-rail-y.

westfw:
When and where did you get your copy? The versions I see now at https://store.arduino.cc/usa/arduino-mega-2560-rev3 look updated and current.

can't remember. off the arduino.cc web site, about... 7-8 days ago?

LMV321 ? Seems to be available from several vendors, and on ali-express for cheap. Beware the non-V version, which isn't a rail-to-rail-y.

ah good advice. yeah i just saw the LM321, was going to use that... will make sure it's the LMV321. eagle std libs has the LMV321M5 LMV321M5/NOPB Texas Instruments | Integrated Circuits (ICs) | DigiKey splutter $0.38 in 1k volumes? that's got to have been cloned to be at such low prices on taobao...

ok so added a 12mhz XTAL on the STM32F070 - still cut up about that... LMV321M5 replacing the LM358... nearly there.

zoomx:
uA741 is very old maybe in 1985 you used it !

yeah more than likely :slight_smile: it was lab equipment, bright orange metal case, 10in x 5in x 5in triangular, with the circuit diagram on the front, and this tiny DIL IC plugged into a socket and those huge jump-leads so we could do experiments in the lab plugging in wires instead of burning ourselves with soldering irons.

.... then in the corridor was VICTORIAN era equipment! stuff that went round in sunlight, a tube that lit up when you connected it to a van-der-graaf generator (yeah we had one of those - it was hilarious when it zapped our teacher in the head with a metre-long spark after he left it running for too long...), and a wheel made of two counter-rotating bits of plastic with metal strips on the outside that is only really now known by "conspiracy-level" theorists for generating electricity... but we actually had one in the lab. stonyhurst college is really... old. they also had (have?) one of the UK's longest-running active volunteer earth's magnetic field measurement sensors, providing information to the MET office on a weekly basis. amazing place. i was very lucky.

ok so what the heck, let's go for it: sent the board off to the factory, QTY 10 PCBs - i'll do the assembly myself. have heat-gun, have soldering iron, it's mostly 0805 components, i've done QFP-100s before. should hear back from the factory late next week.

ok! so the boards arrived at the factory, we're just waiting for the components: the vendors are a bit slow as there's not much profit in this for them, so my friend mike put it on the back of a larger order. should be here by the end of the week and i can start assembly. woo!

(inlining pitcure)

so i outlined the full news here:

http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2630&p=35904#p35904

basically... the STM32L471VCT6 isn't available through the Shenzhen eco-system. if anyone wants to try this out i have 10 PCBs available: all the parts are available on digikey.

ok update: by accident it looks like i've designed a board that could take an STM32F103VCT6 (with some minor power-modifications) or an F427 with no modifications at all. it's therefore "rescuable" so i'll try a range of different processors, see how it goes.

I'm late to this thread; but did you consider the ATSAM4S processor range? They are a fraction of the price of the ATSAM3X8E processor used on the Arduino Due, but faster and with more RAM and a Cortex M4 core. From a programming perspective, they are very similar to the ATSAM3X8E, so firmware for the Due would be easy to port.

dc42:
I'm late to this thread; but did you consider the ATSAM4S processor range? They are a fraction of the price of the ATSAM3X8E processor used on the Arduino Due, but faster and with more RAM and a Cortex M4 core. From a programming perspective, they are very similar to the ATSAM3X8E, so firmware for the Due would be easy to port.

hiya dc42, nice to hear from you on here. ATSAM4S8CA-AUR Microchip Technology | Integrated Circuits (ICs) | DigiKey so something like that one, which is a 100-pin LQFP, and $2.89 in reasonable volume.

checking on taobao... yyyehh they look like fakes which probably means the only way to get it would be to import it. atmel's presence here in shenzhen just... doesn't seem to be as good, except for the 8/16-bit stuff.

also: the due reference design is actually for a 144-pin ATSAM3, and the ATSAM4S series doesn't have a 144-pin variant. they really really struggled to get a good pin-compatibility on the Due, with the 144-pin ATSAM3.

the ST 32-bit processors on the other hand, some of them seem to be extremely common, and easily accessible. i've been able to get hold of the STM32F427VIT6 here for example, and will try th STM32F401VET6 next. or.. i would... if it had DAC :slight_smile: i will keep searching.

so you know i'm doing this primarily for a 3D-printing board, if i was doing an SBC then yes i would definitely look at the ATSAM4S. i'm... experimenting, here :slight_smile: as i do, i want to see what's possible.