Looking for perfect board

[macarion]

Hi everyone, I come from esp32 world and am a complete novice here.
I would like to do a project where esp32 can't even dream, low power consumption and fast start up and doing some research I think smt32 is my best Arduino compatible option, however, I've realised that there are 1000 trillion different stm models and I'm scared

I've found that the "blue pill" it's the most common board, but I only read negative comments as they are Chinese boards of very low quality in the rtc, problems of resistors and non-original stm so I would like to rule it out

I have discovered nucleo-32 that looks like an official product, however there is no information about the power consumption and the datasheet is quite strange, it talks a lot about the arduino nano and soldering bridges for I don't know what

My needs are very basic, <15mA while running, SPI and two GPIOs, and as I read on datasheets, startup in ~2ms
It would be helpful if you could advise me for a board that fits my needs and I can buy right now without the need to replace resistors or whatever
I would also appreciate it if someone has done a test measuring time from power off to setting a pin to HIGH

Regards

[ag123]

there is actually a big list on
https://github.com/stm32duino/Arduino_C ... ted-boards

for 'getting started' type of boards, my suggestion is get either a Nucleo F401, Nucleo F411
https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/ ... 401re.html
https://octopart.com/search?q=nucleo+f4 ... SD&specs=0
https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/ ... 411re.html
https://octopart.com/search?q=nucleo+f4 ... SD&specs=0

for 3rd party boards, there are the BlackPill F401 / F411
https://stm32-base.org/boards/STM32F401 ... -Pill-V3.0
https://github.com/WeActStudio/WeActStu ... iSTM32F4x1
and there is another whole list of 'amazon/ebay/aliexpress (mainly aliexpress)' type boards here:
https://stm32-base.org/boards/

then there are offerings from Adafruit - based on stm32f405
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4382

Micropython - stm32f405
https://store.micropython.org/product/PYBLITEv1.0

then there are offerings from Olimex
https://www.olimex.com/Products/ARM/ST/
https://www.olimex.com/Products/ARM/ST/STM32-H405/

stm32 f405 / f407 is a fast chip 168 Mhz has 'ART accelerator' (on chip cache), has FPU, 1 meg flash, 512k sram
everything on the thip
https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers- ... 405rg.html

hence it is one of the pricy chips, but that i'd guess you won't 'outgrow' it for a long time.

what about the 'old' popular 'blue pills' (stm32f103c8) that is still littered around the webs?
that one is 20k sram 64k flash.

for beginners even a stm32f401ccu which has like 256 k flash 64 k sram has 'ART accelerator', FPU, 84 Mhz
https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers- ... 401cc.html
runs much faster than a stm32f103 for the same Mhz
(my guess is it is credited to the ART accelerator, my guess is flash memory maybe has like 5-8 wait states for every instruction fetch.
but that if it is in the on-chip cache (ART accelerator), that becomes 0 wait, so you get full 84 Mhz 1 instruction per cycle.
try looking for whetstone benchmark here, the numbers look like old Intel P4 1ghz chips and stm32 clocks 100-200 Mflops (but single precision) running on a stm32f4xx chip,)
http://www.roylongbottom.org.uk/whetstone%20results.htm
if compare features for price stm32f4xx series wins out right even if the stm32f4xx series is somewhat more expensive.

[GonzoG]

If you want low power board you should look for STM32L chips.
Unfortunately I don't think that there are any good except Nucleo32/64 but with Nucleo32 there is one problem. Those boards have built-in ST-Link that uses STM32F103 chip and only way to not power ST-Link is to provide 3.3V or 5V to board. Using Vin(7-12V) or on board USB port will power ST-Link and it alone draws about 20-30mA.

F103C8/CB Blue pills are not bad but since they become popular there are more fakes than those with STM32 chips. But they do not meet your power requirements as F103C8 draws about 25mA in run mode with peripherals disabled and up to 35mA with enabled.
Black pills with F401CC/CE and F411CE draw about the same.
You would need to lower MCU frequency to about 1/3 to go below 15mA.

L432KC on Nucleo32 draws up to 10mA @80MHz (MCU alone) with all peripherals disabled. With enabled will probably go up to 15+mA.
L412KB datasheet show 8mA @80MHz with all peripherals disabled.

[dannyf]

there is no "perfect" board: there is a board that *imperfectly* meets your needs.

low power consumption is largely a programming thing, and then a hardware thing -> putting the chip into sleep as much and as often as you can.

another option often overlooked is to detune the chip as much as you can. if you can run it at 8Mhz, don't run it at 80Mhz.

if you want to have fast start-up, go with msp430.

[macarion]

thank you all very much for your answer, after buying and testing several modules by your advice, I have definitely opted for the msp430.

[chad121]

But when it comes down to overall effectiveness, there are some tried and true signs you can look for to better understand your board's overall functionality:
1.Your board's structure is clear and encourages efficiency.
2.Your board members are consistently prepared and productive.
3.Board members are emotionally engaged.FMWhatsapp

[hennysmath]

This is a compact board that features an STM32 microcontroller and comes with Arduino connectors for easy integration with Arduino shields. The Nucleo heardle 32 board has low power consumption and supports sleep modes for reduced power consumption. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any specific data on startup time for this board.

[arpruss]

I wouldn't give up on the blue pills. They're cheap and they work well. Yes, there are lots of clones, but I've generally found those to work well enough for most of my purposes, and it seems that now genuine chips are available. See my recent post where I link to a store where I got six apparently quite genuine ones.