---

Arduino for Blue Pill

updated 19 Aug 2022

Background

Arduino originally employed microcontrollers lacking USB support.
Their workaround involved boards with USB-to-TTL converter chips,
usually configured as USB COM devices for serial IO,
which microcontrollers traditionally support.

While not an official Arduino platform,
WeMos D1 UNO R1 is a supported ESP8266 board,
communicating via CH340 USB-serial chip.

While many STM32 chips' ROM bootloaders support (DFU) USB directly,
Blue Pill's FC103C8 chip lacks USB bootloader support in ROM.
While STM32F103C officially has 64K flash, many have 128K.

There are at least 4 ways to flash STM32 chips:

1. SWD via ST-LINK
   This will be used to load an HID bootloader to Blue Pills
2. (Arduino) USB bootloader[s] <- there have been several:
   • STM32duino Bootloader AKA bootloader 2.0 AKA HID bootloader
     Arduino uses this to download Blue Pill sketches using ST Microelectronics-supported libraries
   • the rest are IMO obsolete:
     • Maple-derivative bootloaders
     • Maple boards had USB reset hardware to force re-enumeration
     • Roger Clark's 8k bootloader
       Be aware that some of Roger Clark core code is also called Stm32duino..
     • Not sure which core (libmaple or stm32duino) this bootloader supports, but is 4k
3. STM serial bootloader
   Blue Pill micro has only a serial bootloader
   Load firmware via USART1 by jumpering:
   Boot0 HIGH
Boot1 LOW
   ... then resetting MCU
4. DFU (device firmware update) using DfuSe utility, e.g. for Black Pills
   using the STM32 system memory bootloader in ROM,
   but USB is NOT supported by Blue Pill's ROM bootloader

STM32duino expects a USB HID bootloader,
which gets launched by Blue Pill's ROM bootloader,
then that USB HID bootloader installs sketches above it in flash.

A clone ST-LINK V2 costs no more than a USB COM dongle,
connects to dedicated Blue Pill pins and supports debug.
Clone USB COM dongles may not support 3.3V to Blue Pill serial boot pins..
Blue Pill boot jumpers are unchanged when flashing by ST-LINK or HID bootloader.

STM32duino

Many STM32 Arduino projects use Roger Clark's core and bootloader AKA Maple,
but Arduino now has an ST Microelectronics-supported core and board manager
for which there is an HID bootloader, as described on YouTube.
That video installs the Blue Pill HID bootloader via USB COM dongle,
but we will here use an ST-LINK V2 clone.
My clone ST-Link happens to have the correct pinout printed on its cover;
Verify ST-LINK clone pin artwork by sliding that cover partly open (along the USB plug):

Here is the Arduino for STM32 forum. It replaced an earlier one.
Here is the READ-ONLY version of that earlier Arduino for STM32 forum.
Here is the Arduino software page.

ST-LINK and Blue Pill

This video programs a Blue Pill using STM32 ST-LINK utility.
Wiring Blue Pill to ST-LINK V2 clone:

Connect 3.3V from ST-LINK to Blue Pill only when Blue Pill has no other connections
Put another way, when using ST-LINK to debug Blue Pill e.g. plugged to USB,
do NOT connect 3.3V to Blue Pill from ST-LINK.
Here is my ST-LINK connected to my harness tensioning Blue Pill:

Installing (by Windows ST-LINK) Blue Pill HID bootloader for STM core

• For Windows, stlink-org tools depend on STM's ST-LINK driver,
  bundled with STM32 ST-LINK utility,
  which utility was also wanted for updating clone ST-LINK firmware.
• Also use STM32 ST-LINK utility to install HID bootloader.
• These instructions apply specifically for 64-bit Windows, ST-LINK clone,
  HID-bootloader, Blue Pill and STM core.

1. Download and install STM32 ST-LINK utility
   in my case, to D:\packages\STM32\

2. Plug bare ST-LINK clone into USB.
   If it shows up in Device Manager under Other devices (with a yellow warning),
   then drivers were not installed; see 1)
   else it should appear under Universal Serial Bus Devices.

3. Launch STM32 ST-LINK Utility.exe
   in my case,
   D:\packages\STM32\ST-LINK Utility\STM32 ST-LINK Utility.exe

4. Select ST-LINK > Firmware update
   click Device Connect click Yes>>>>

5. Unplug ST-LINK clone from USB and wire it to Blue Pill as shown above.

6. Connect Blue Pill BOOT-0 and BOOT-1 pins (or on-board jumpers) to 0
   ** and leave them! **
   Disconnect everything except ST-LINK from Blue Pill, and plug ST-LINK to USB.

7. Download stm32_binaries.zip from the latest HID Bootloader release
   From it, extract: hid_generic_pc13.bin
   (Blue Pill on-board LED is connected to pin PC13)
   in my case, to D:\packages\STM32\

8. To flash HID Bootloader to a Blue Pill, in STM32 ST-LINK Utility:
   File > Open File... > hid_generic_pc13.bin
Target > Erase Chip
Target > Program... > Start address 0x8000000 File path D:\packages\STM32\hid_generic_pc13.bin
   
   click Start (that should complete quickly)
   (Blue Pill red LED on for power, green LED flickers quickly)
   Unplug ST-LINK, unwire ST_LINK from Blue Pill, and connect Blue Pill to USB.
   (Blue Pill red LED on for power, green LED flickers quickly)

   Note A bad Arduino sketch download can leave a Blue Pill unable to be recognized by Windows,
   and reflashing the HID Bootloader without wiping the bad sketch by erase chip may not recover it.

Troubleshooting

• Does a downloaded sketch otherwise appear to work (e.g. blinking LED),
  but not respond to Arduino?
  If so, then perhaps that sketch is not correctly opening a Serial connection.
  Otherwise, it may be trying to use inappropriate pins
  or a wrong board definition
• If ANY simple sketch downloads and still is recognized by Arduino,
  then you very likely use the correct board definition.
• Does the blink sketch actually blink the LED as expected?
  If not, something similar happened to me when compiling and loading a sketch
  with an incorrect board selected.
  To check whether the correct board is selected, build and load an example sketch
  specific to the selected board:
  File -> Examples -> (examples for selected board type):
  
• If ANY sketch works for you, then your other sketches may use pin[s]
  that Arduino expects to use for communication and control.
  It is important to locate, if possible, an diagram showing
  how pins on your module are assigned for Arduino.
• Another possiblity is that your sketch enables pins in some way
  that causes the STM32 processor to lock up or be too busy to respond to Arduino.
  Debugging that might require moving suspect pin initializations from setup() to some separate routine that gets called
  only after the sketch receives input from e.g. Serial Monitor.
• Another trick for Arduino to work with downloaded sketches:
  those sketches SHOULD correctly open communications as Arduino expects,
  even if sketch function does not otherwise need it.
  For Blue Pill, that amounts to having, in setup(), something like:

  // Initialize serial and wait for port to be opened:
  Serial.begin(115200);
  while (!Serial)
    delay(1);               // wait for native USB serial port to connect
  Serial.write("This sketch has connected. ");

• Genuine original Blue Pill modules are basically no longer available,
  and you probably have some similar but incompatible clone board.
  There may be a different board profile for your clone...

Installing STM32duino support

Since SimHub already includes an older version of Arduino,
install the portable (ZIP file) version for STM32;
no need to install Arduino-specific driver[s]...

1. Download, unzip, and run Arduino
   in my case, to E:\my\Arduino\
   much of the following is thanks to sgbotic

2. Go to File > Preferences, add to Additional Board Manager URLs text box: https://github.com/stm32duino/BoardManagerFiles/raw/master/package_stmicroelectronics_index.json

3. Go to Tools > Board > Boards Manager, enter search for STM32:
   
   18 Aug 2022: Latest version is 2.3.0; @bosirovec reported a missing 2.3.0 folder, now fixed.
   click STM32 Cores, then Install (takes quite awhile)

4. Quit and restart Arduino; then
   from Tools > Board: > STM32 Boards, select [Generic STM32F1 series].
   From Tools > Board Part Number:, select [BluePill F103C8].

   • see note above, in last bullet under Troubleshooting, about clone boards.

   From Tools > Upload method:, select [HID Bootloader 2.1] or newer.
   

   Be sure to check Tools settings before Sketch upload; Arduino seemingly likes to change them,
   then Blue Pill will not be a recognized device after uploads.
   Check in Windows' Device Manager under Ports (COM & LPT) for USB Serial Device (COM*n*),
   where in my case n = 3,5 or 10.
   Port: COM[5] is unavailable until a sketch is loaded, e.g. Blue_Servo:

Here is a Blue Pill pinout reference:

• 5V tolerant PWM pins are wanted for driving hobby servos, e.g. PA8-10 and PB6-9.
• 5V tolerant CAN BUS pins PB8,9 work for me.
• In addition to seven 5V tolerant PWM pins, up to 7 more can be available by level-shifting:
  

A simple next step adds servos to the blink loop sketch.
This servo cycling sketch is under GitHub revision control,
with a shortcut to that sketch folder in the Arduino "work" folder.
Both of these ploys work; the sketch runs..
This sketch can be used to verify servo wiring to a Blue Pill without serial control.

Serial servos e.g. for SimHub harness tensioning

Here is the Arduino reference for Serial communication
In STM32duino, Serial device is USB virtual COM port,
using PA11+12, and Serial1 is UART PA9+10,
but Serial may be UART in PlatformIO Arduino framework
unless configured as a USB Virtual COM port in Tools.

Put while (!Serial){;} in setup(){}
Toggling LED off before and on or blinking after provides connection feedback.
The first Arduino sketch I found that combined Serial and <Servo.h> is
Matt Williamson's serial_servo_rx.ino

Single-character control avoids serial string blocking and overflows.
Useful rotation range for my harness' servos is less than 127 degrees;
direct odd rotation values 3-127 to the right harness strap
and even rotation values 2-126 to the left,
reserving values 0-1 to set strap offsets based on immediately next values.

Green LED blink codes feedback when processing servo values,
with 50% duty cycle for idle operation.
Perhaps better to use that LED to signal when servo values are max..?
Blink timing by delay() impacts serial bandwidth, so use millis().

For serial servo control, with or even without SimHub Custom serial device,
this sketch accepts e.g. ASCII characters from Arduino Tools > Serial Monitor.
to move left or right servo based on least-significant bit.
See above for Blue Pill flash programming information.
Characters > 127 do not arrive intact from SimHub JavaScript,
but useful strap servo range is < 127, with offsets applied to received values.
Testing suggests that, running on STM32 Blue Pill,
this sketch handles 60Hz updates of 4 characters,
where 2 should suffice and servos respond less quickly.
By changing from Blue Pill-specific PWM pin and LED assignments,
this sketch should work for other Arduino-supported modules with PWM-capable pins.

Corresponding SimHub Custom serial hacking is described here.

Blue Pill servo firmware generations

As described above, first generation use the least signficant of 7 bits
to select servos for left or right harness tensioning..
A second generation allocates 3 msb for PWM pin selection,
with 0x70 reserved for special commands e.g. 0x7F for servo LUT loading,
leaving 4 lsb to index into a 16-entry LUT of PWM values.
A third generation pairs ASCII characters (14 bits),
of which the most significant bit in each character
identifies it as first (1) or second (0) of a pair.
The next bit in the first character is most significant of 7 data bits,
while the 5 lsb index a channel, which may e.g. be a PWM pin.
The largest channel value is reserved for special commands.
The 6 lsb of second characters is 6 lsb of channel data values.

PWM fan code is described here
PWM fan sketch is here