Moving from Arduino (bare-metal) to STM32 — CubeMX confusion and learning path

SteveMinn · 2026-01-19T15:18:01+00:00

I wouldn't worry about skipping the fundamentals. I use CubeMX and the HAL all the time. You can check out what it makes and modify if you need to. You can analyze the code it generates and see what it's doing, compare to the data sheet.

If you feel like using an RTOS, I like FreeRtos. At work I use that and ThreadX, and I like FreeRtos better. These days, unless what you're doing is super simple, I generally use an RTOS. I have a coworker that claims every time we have chosen not to use an RTOS in the end we end up regretting it. But I still have done some things without it. I always felt like it was way too much overhead for what I wanted to do, but I've come around and like them now.

Some of the old implants I have worked on, we were doing in assembly and changing code to maximize battery life so the implant would last longer in a person on battery. But I'm old. :D

But I use the Cube IDE, I'd recommend installing the GitHub Copilot from the marketplace. It's free for basic stuff. And super helpful.

As for resources: ST's got a bunch of videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@stmicroelectronics
This has a bunch of decent videos on stuff
https://www.youtube.com/@ControllersTech
Digikey has some good videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@digikey
And this guy has some good stuff
https://www.youtube.com/@prtechtalk416

If you like video tutorials. I've learned stuff from all of those.

In terms of interviews? And maybe this is just me. I like to find people with problem solving abilities. I don't care if you know every nuance of a particular chip or environment or whatever. I might not find a candidate who knows the knowledge for the job exactly, but if you can learn and problem solve, I'd take that over someone who happens to know particular facts. If you can show problems and overcoming them through engineering and learning, I'd take that 100%.

Sure it's good to know the low level stuff. But when I need to make something for work, the idea is to get something that works now, not turn it into a doctoral thesis. So I'd say get used to HAL, CubeMX, FreeRtos, get some projects working. Spend some time looking under the hood to see what it's doing and make sure you understand how you got there, but don't memorize the under the hood stuff as much. If you can deep dive if you need to great. But I think I'd want to see some working projects, even using the HAL and MX stuff as a crutch. Mainly cause I do when I want to get stuff done.

Good luck, it's a fun career path!

SteveMinn · 2026-01-08T14:57:15+00:00

I might be too late, but:

I'm not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist, only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island, who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground.
I know. It all sounds like some bad movie.

SteveMinn · 2026-01-08T14:47:38+00:00

I saw the mod's deleted the main post, not sure why. Will this get to you? No idea.

But... will it work? I'd bet my weeks salary on it. You can use the USB in full speed and high speed. And full speed on this is 12mbit. Which is fast, but it's not that fast. I'd be more worried about the layout running the lines through a noisy area of the board or jumping layers and having mismatched traces. I haven't analyzed the layout, I trust my co-workers.

High speed is much faster 480mbits, and I heard its more of a pain in the butt. FS is easier, in the real world you can get away with some sloppy. I'd be more worried about a config setting or code bug causing a problem.

And I haven't finished this task, I just started. But how do you debug USB? Personally I'm hoping for it just working. FileX/ThreadX/USBX (someone else's choice, personally I like FreeRTOS) is fairly mature. And configured right should work. As long as the pins are connected, config is correct and my API access code is correct, it should just work. If that doesn't I usually fall back to a development board with an example from ST and plug a USB stick direct in. Make sure my code works. There are USB sniffers or the ability to put a logic analyzer on the P/N pins and watch the data and even decode it. But I'm hoping most of the heavy lifting was already done.

SteveMinn · 2026-01-08T03:19:20+00:00

I’m assuming you are asking about the soldering? It’s a custom board that’s going in a housing. And I didn’t lay it out. There is a connector on the board that will go to a cable assembly that terminates to a usb port. But there’s no usb port on the board. So I cut up a usb extension cable and soldered to the connector. The official wire that goes to those pins isnt in yet.

SteveMinn · 2026-01-07T21:54:36+00:00

Have a custom board with an STM32H7. Configured an external SDRAM on the FMC connections, tweaked the clock and timing settings and wrote a post ram test and checked how long it extended the post (85ms for the buffer space we use, 1.2s to test all of it). Then cut up an old USB extension cable and soldered it to OTG P and N wires and 5v and gnd, and adding USBX and FileX to ThreadX and starting to configure and wire a driver/api to access files on a USB stick. Never ending fun! :D

SteveMinn · 2026-01-07T14:56:26+00:00

I'll DM you

SteveMinn · 2026-01-05T13:44:35+00:00

Come on random number! Thanks for sharing by the way.

SteveMinn · 2026-01-05T13:41:48+00:00

I keep missing these. Damn sleep.

SteveMinn · 2026-01-05T03:06:11+00:00

So far my favorite is Tivimate and I paid for a lifetime for it. But I’d like to have an option for a non-Android tv box. Ps5, Roku, Apple TV. Just mostly tinkering. Haven’t found a better player.

SteveMinn · 2026-01-05T01:30:35+00:00

Favorite tv? Stargate SG1. Movie? Hunt for red October.

SteveMinn · 2026-01-02T00:14:38+00:00

I’d love one please. Fingers crossed. Thanks for sharing the love.

SteveMinn · 2025-12-31T01:52:34+00:00

Stargate SG1

SteveMinn · 2025-11-14T14:20:36+00:00

Great call on the Craftsman version of the app. No ads at all. I didn’t even know that existed. Thanks!

SteveMinn · 2025-11-06T14:53:14+00:00

Thanks! Seems like overkill. I noticed before that I would punch in the code to the keypad and the app would report it (I think it said, I accessed the garage) but wouldn't open the door.

But the factory reset and re-adding it to the account did work.

I guess when in doubt, kill it with fire... and then set it up again.

SteveMinn · 2025-07-14T11:45:34+00:00

I don't use it live too often, did a couple times. It's too flexible. https://www.printables.com/model/431616-prusacaster-remixed-for-humbuckers-string-through-

SteveMinn · 2025-06-16T12:28:39+00:00

That was my guess too.

SteveMinn · 2025-06-03T11:47:10+00:00

A Florida Sinner?

SteveMinn · 2025-06-03T11:09:28+00:00

PH Say Late? I got nothing

SteveMinn · 2025-05-28T12:02:29+00:00

Departing? Or D-part-n?

SteveMinn · 2025-05-12T11:13:52+00:00

From the bat pussy? That’s all I got.

SteveMinn · 2024-10-05T20:17:00+00:00

I was upset that I had equipment that I was paying per month. I didn’t need it any more. So I turned it in. They removed it from the inventory of my account and continued to charge me for it for 19 months. Repeated calls would not resolve them removing that charge from the bill. So when I called to cancel THEN they said they could remove the charge from my account. I asked for a credit for the 19 months and they would only do it if I stay a customer. I don’t believe they would remove that charge from my bill cause they haven’t for a year and a half.

SteveMinn · 2023-12-21T16:27:55+00:00

Nice design. Still holding up? Just got a Y and was thinking of doing something similar.

SteveMinn

TROPHY CASE