stm32f4 discovery stm32f429 tft lcd made in china

Ahh yeah look at that! If you look closely, top right of the LCD, that’s obviously a flex connector for a resistive touch overlay (4 contacts running to the 4 sides of the LCD overlay).

Agreed! I will be picking one up. I’ve been happy developing for the stm32f4discovery (and other stm32 chips) with gcc, openocd and gdb. It is all free.

The STM32F4 cores are pretty well supported by libopencm3 and Code Sourcery and summon-arm-toolchain both build working toolchains and openOCD supports the stlink natively now.

A fair number of inexpensive baseboards/motherboards/accessories have also appeared for earlier versions. I hope Olimex puts out a couple nice STM32F429/427 boards.

I can see there is only a STLINK usb connector on board, so there is even no FS to expect. beside HS, I suppose does mean High Speed (480mbps). but HS anyway needs a separate physical layer USB chip for addition to STM32F4 chip and most likely this is chip is not present on this board anyway, because this is STM32F4+LCD+SDRAM demoboard and there is no need for USB at all.

The data brief bullet-points “USB OTG with micro-AB connector”. Looks like the micro-usb is on the underside, sticking out at the bottom of the photo. With matching T/H mounting tabs on the topside, labelled USB USER. But like you said, the STM32F4 requires an external PHY for HS, and it seems unlikely they’d include one on this board.

I think Farnell’s 21€ will be accurate, as ST’s suggested USD price is $24. The placeholders for the STM32F429I-DISCO on element14 (a division of Farnell) and mouser show $42, which I think predates the later ST announcement. I think the ST announced $24 will hold, and the distributor prices will match that, as they have in the past.

I wouldn’t expect TI to hack profits from their calculator range, and HP have always been expensive, but ST could easily change their format to calculator-friendly. Clamshell design, LCD & battery in top half, CPU & keypad in bottom half, expansion pins to left / right of keypad makes a self contained unit.

HP Palm – Love the idea, hate the baguette (french bread loaf) layout. If I could get custom key covers, and surface-mount key switches, I’d be designing my own low-profile keypad to go with an LCD module. Top side keypad, bottom side CPU / RAM / USB / LCD driver / power regulation / expansion port.

Great find, thanks! Man, could they have buried the details on that guy any farther down into the document? I can’t help but feel like a quick pointer in the LCD section to “oh by the way there’s a touch screen, here’s how to talk to it” would have been a good idea.

It’s certainly useable in any other project where you have an onboard LCD controller. Especially any other project that happens to use a STM32F4. What difference would it have made if it had an external controller? Surely it’d have been on the same PCB. Were you hoping for a removeable SPI-interfaced module?

Look in the UM1670 user manual, paragraph 4.8: the tft includes an ILI9341 controller. The ILI9341 has it’s own graphics ram inside, it is not mapped into the STM32 address space. It is connected to the STM32 via a parallel bus. The ILI9341 and similar controllers are common on cheap chinese tfts. So it is no problem to source similar tfts for your final product after developing on the discovery board.

UM1670 in paragraph 4.8 also says that “The TFT LCD is a 2.41″ display of 262 K colors. Its definition is QVGA (240 x 320 dots) and is directly driven by the STM32F429ZIT6 using the RGB protocol”. ILI9341 has multiple modes of operation including direct RGB/HSYNC/VSYNC mode which bypasses internal GRAM. I don’t have the board yet but I assume display buffer is located in external SDRAM which is also on the board. The whole point of this kit is to show TFT and SDRAM interface in new STM32F4x9.

I’ve checked this discovery board firmware available from ST’s site (“STM32F429 discovery firmware package UM1662” number: STSW-STM32138, btw. finding it is a bit difficult – ST’s site is terrible):

They are using FreeRTOS, FatFs, STemWinLibrary which is ST’s version of Segger’s emWin graphic library and STM32F4xx_StdPeriph_Driver v1.2.1 which includes F429/439 support (FMC, LTDC and DMA2D added).

Check again martin. Those lines have pullups to vdd and are connected to cpu pins. I have this board for some time and I can confirm that lcd is driven by lcd controller from cpu and frame buffer is in external dram which is also on the board.

STM32F429 has also LTDC driver for LCD like that, but this driver we will use later. For now we will use SPI for driving in serial mode and some other pins for controlling.

Remember: This library can also be used, if you are not using STM32F429 Discovery. It can be used in previous STM32F4 Discovery board. All pins can be changed in defines.h file which is included in project.

IntroductionThis document describes the software, firmware and hardware environments and development recommendations required to build an application around the STM32F429 Discovery kit (32F429IDISCOVERY) with demonstration firmware (STSW-STM32138). The STM32F429 Discovery kit is a low-cost and easy-to-use development kit to quickly evaluate and start applications with an STM32F4 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 CPU with FPU high-performance microcontroller. Before installing and using the product, please accept the Evaluation Product License Agreement from www.st.com/stm32f4-discovery. For more information on the STM32F429 Discovery kit visit www.st.com/stm32f4-discovery. To order the STM32F429 Discovery kit, use the STM32F429I-DISCO order code. Figure 1. STM32F429 Discovery board: STM32F429I-DISCO

References STM32F429xx Datasheet STM32F40xxx, STM32F41xxx, STM32F42xxx, STM32F43xxx advanced ARM-based 32-bit MCUs reference manual (RM0090) Discovery kit for STM32F429/439 lines (UM1670) Getting started with STM32F429 Discovery software development tools Forum user question/ discussion.

List of figuresFigure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Figure 5. STM32F429 Discovery board: STM32F429I-DISCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 STM32F429I-DISCO power sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Hardware block diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Package contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Hardware environnement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Hardware configuration and layoutFeaturesThe STM32F429 Discovery offers the following features: STM32F429ZIT6 microcontroller featuring 2 MB of Flash memory, 256 KB of RAM in an LQFP144 package On-board ST-LINK/V2 with selection mode switch to use the kit as a standalone STLINK/V2 (with SWD connector for programming and debugging) Board power supply: through the USB bus or from an external 3 V or 5 V supply voltage L3GD20, ST MEMS motion sensor, 3-axis digital output gyroscope TFT LCD (Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display) 2.4", 262K colors RGB, 240 x 320 dots SDRAM 64 Mbits (1 Mbit x 16-bit x 4-bank) including an AUTO REFRESH MODE, and a power-saving Six LEDs: LD1 (red/green) for USB communication LD2 (red) for 3.3 V power-on Two user LEDs: LD3 (green), LD4 (red) Two USB OTG LEDs: LD5 (green) VBUS and LD6 (red) OC (over-current)

MicrocontrollerThe STM32F429ZIT6U device is based on the high-performance ARM Cortex-M4 32-bit RISC core operating at a frequency of up to 180 MHz The Cortex-M4 core features a Floating point unit (FPU) single precision which supports all ARM single-precision data-processing instructions and data types. It also implements a full set of DSP instructions and a memory protection unit (MPU) which enhances application security. The STM32F429ZIT6U device incorporates high-speed embedded memories (2 Mbytes of Flash memory, 256 Kbytes of SRAM), up to 4 Kbytes of backup SRAM, and an extensive range of enhanced I/Os and peripherals connected to two APB buses, two AHB buses and a 32-bit multi-AHB bus matrix.

Required information to download and install desired IDE and ST-LINK/V2 are detailed in Getting started with STM32F429 Discovery software development tools document.

Powering up the boardThe STM32F429I-DISCO board can be powered up from three sources. USB ST-LINK: To power the board from the USB connector CN1, use the "USB type A to Mini-B" cable and connect it between the host and the board USB connector CN1. External sources: DC power supply can be inserted in the GND and 3 V (or 5 V) pin. Figure 2. STM32F429I-DISCO power sourcesUSB ST-LINK (CN1)

Reset the boardThere are three ways to reset the board: Push the reset button mounted on the STM32F429I-DISCO. Remove and reinsert the USB cable. The MCU can also be reset by debuggers.

Hardware block diagramThe STM32F429I-DISCO is designed around the STM32F429ZIT6U microcontroller in a 144-pin LQFP package. Figure 3 illustrates the connections between the STM32F429ZIT6U and its peripherals (STLINK/V2, pushbutton, LED, USB and connectors). Please refer to schematic under www.st.com/stm32f4-discovery for more details. Figure 3. Hardware block diagram

Firmware packageTo get started with the STM32F429 Discovery kit, a firmware package that contains a set of IP examples and demonstrations of some features exists under www.st.com/stm32f4-discovery.

Package descriptionThe STM32F429 Discovery firmware applications, demonstration and IPs examples are provided in one single package and supplied in one single zip file. The extraction of the zip file generates one folder, STM32F429I-Discovery_FW_VX.Y.Z, which contains the following subfolders: Figure 4. Package contents

Programming applicationTo program application (demonstration or example), follow the sequence below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Go under application folder Chose the desired IDE project Double click on the project file (ex. STM32F429I-Discovery_Demo.eww for EWARM) Rebuild all files: Project->Rebuild all Load project image: Project->Debug Run program: Debug->Go

Run pre-loaded demoTo run and develop any firmware applications on your STM32F429 Discovery board, the minimum requirements are as follows: Windows PC (XP, Vista, 7) USB type A to Mini-B" cable, used to power the board (through USB connector CN1) from host PC and connect to the embedded ST-LINK/V2 for debugging and Programming.

The demonstration software, based on the STemWin GUI library, is already preloaded in the board"s Flash memory. It uses the LCD TFT mounted on the board to show the Menu based-on-icon view widget (Image Browser, Game, Performance, Clock/Calendar, Video and System Info module). The status bar indicate the CPU Usage, date, USB disk flash connection state, alarm and time. Follow the sequence below to configure the STM32F429 Discovery board and launch the DISCOVER application: 1. 2. Ensure that the jumpers JP3 and CN4 are set to "on" (Discovery mode). Connect the STM32F429 Discovery board to a PC using a USB cable type A/mini-B through the USB ST-LINK connector CN1, to power the board. The LEDs LD2 (PWR) and LD1 (COM). The following applications are available on the screen: 4. 5. Clock/Calendar and Game Video Player and Image Browser (play videos and view images from the USB mass storage connected to CN6) Performance monitor (watch the CPU load and run a graphical benchmark) System Info

The demo software, as well as other software examples that allow you to discover the STM32 F4 series features, are available on www.st.com/stm32f4-discovery. Develop your own applications starting from the examples.

The STM32F429 Discovery kit (STM32F429I-DISC1) allows users to easily develop applications with the STM32F429 high-performance MCUs with ARM®Cortex®-M4 core.

The discovery board referenced STM32F429I-DISCO does not support the drag&drop and Virtual Comm Port features. If you are using this board version, you will have to use an external tool (for example the STM32 STLink utility) to program your code .bin file. There is no possibility to use either the printf in your code.

This discovery board offers everything required for users to get started quickly and develop applications easily. The full range of hardware features on the board helps to evaluate almost all peripherals and develop your own applications.

The STM32F429I-DISC1 board includes an ST-LINK/V2-B embedded debug tool, a 2.4" QVGA TFT LCD, an external 64-Mbit SDRAM, an ST MEMS gyroscope, a USB OTG micro-AB connector, LEDs and push-buttons.