Chip shortage and prices of STM32 development boards

[AndrewBCN]

Has anybody noticed whether the price of STM32 development boards has increased in recent months due to the ongoing chip shortage?

About 9 months ago I managed to buy some WeAct STM32F411CEU6 development boards for around $3.50~$4 per piece, plus shipping. They are now hovering around $5.50~$6 per piece, plus shipping, but somehow I doubt that increase in price reflects increases in ST Microelectronics prices, my guess this is just retailers doing some price gouging.

Anybody else noticed this?

[ag123]

it isn't the chips that cost more, it is the container shipping rates that cost more
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/shipping ... 36589.html

[AndrewBCN]

it isn't the chips that cost more, it is the container shipping rates that cost more
...

I guess rising container shipping rates may be contributing a little to rising chip costs, but the main cause is supposedly the coronavirus pandemic which in turn caused a global chip shortage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%8 ... p_shortage

In any case I get my STM32 development boards shipped by air from China (like I suppose almost everybody else in this forum), so container shipping costs are not relevant.

[ag123]

i think airfreight increased as well as there would be spillover from lighter and higher valued items.
for chip prices the easiest is to check list price on ST's web, i think that has gone up as well.
But i'm not too sure if it could be due to bulk buying contracts etc that perhaps distributors like Lcsc seem to get lower per item prices.
but those prices aren't those say like a year or 2 back, they are certainly higher.
I'd guess that in part has pushed the 'fake' blue pills and that some of them apparently either raised prices or simply substituted 'clone' chips.

i think that 'shortage' by now should have partially alleviated, i ordered some Rpi pico rp2040 from element14 (farnell), that's a pre-order and it gets delayed once (the original stated delivery is given as may (this month), it is now pushed back to end july. but this time farnell gives a firm date for it.
so it'd likely be delivered by then. Based on these guesses, i'd think the current inflation is very much related to the logistics such as container shortage and such (accordingly freight charges has also gone up like 300% since like a year back.

but if it is indeed usd 10,000 per feu (i read it is higher than that now) from china to eu, that will add a lot to prices and i think there is going to be sticker shock for many consumer electronics shipped from china

if you are in eu, you may like to check olimex as i think they are based in bulgaria, just in case they have boards, it could be faster with ready stocks.
but if demand is high enough, i'd guess even olimex may sell out of their boards.

[dannyf]

the chip shortage (and the resulting inflation broadly speaking) is both supply driven (covid shutdowns) and demand driven (stimulus programs).

[AndrewBCN]

On AliExpress, the price increases vary according to the STM32 development board:

CH32F103C8T6 (note these use Chinese clone chips) "Blue Pill" boards cost around 3.30€ per piece. They used to cost around 2.00€ in early 2020.
STM32F103C8T6 (supposedly with real STM chips) "Blue Pill" boards cost around 6.00€ per piece (they used to cost around 2.50€ in early 2020).
STM32F401CCU6 "Black Pill" boards cost only around 3.00€ per piece. That makes them the best value in terms of STM32 development boards.
STM32F411CEU6 "Black Pill" boards cost around 6.00€ per piece. They used to cost around 3.50€~4.00€ in early 2020.

So right now the best value STM32 development boards for any new projects are the STM32F401CCU6 "Black Pill" boards, at least on AliExpress.

BTW they are fully supported by Arduino + STM32 Core 2.0.

[ag123]

if these prices persist, it would be more 'worth it' to just go for stm32f4 assuming that price differential between stm32 f4 and f1 isn't too great. that could be for instance the stm32f401ccu which has 'art' accelerator and fpu. stm32f401 has a single adc though, i'm not too sure if it'd affect any use cases.

a thing though is the lower end would see lots of trouble
stm8s 8k flash 1k sram is coming close to usd $3 for unit few pieces
https://lcsc.com/product-detail/ST-Micr ... 18615.html

and stm32f030f4p6 16k flash 4k sram is coming close to usd $6 for unit few pieces and literally lcsc has no stock !
https://lcsc.com/product-detail/ST-Micr ... 32908.html

it would seem some motor control and various control applications could see significant increase in prices
and may be various 'cheap' instruments (e.g. multimeters) and sensors could see price hike as well

comparatively stm32f401ccu6 256k flash 64k sram cost 'merely' usd $6.3 for unit few pieces for now
https://lcsc.com/product-detail/ST-Micr ... 79861.html
but i'd guess most people would consider it a 'waste of sand' (overkill) to use a stm32f401 to control a low cost arbitrary motor
(is there any use for floating point motor control? bldc maybe),
and for stepper motors u'd probably be able to pwm them with pure *continuous* sine waves (stm32f4 can calc all that sine & cosine no tables needed)

[AndrewBCN]

I forgot to mention:
The original STM32F401/F411 Black Pill development boards were designed and are manufactured by WeAct, but they have been copied.

On AliExpress, the real STM32F401/F411 Black Pill development boards can be bought either from:

• WeAct Studio WeiXing Store

• Sincere Company Store

See here for more information: https://github.com/WeActTC/MiniSTM32F4x ... ated-links

[ag123]

it would be better if those 'pirating' the boards, literally the clones name it their own boards and publish their own designs at least the board pinouts / features and schematics. after all, 'anyone' can design and make a stm32 board and maybe offer them for sale. it doesn't not make sense to 'pirate' weact boards as a brand. i think it is similar to those 'blue pills' etc

there is this particular stm32f401 board costing in the price range of the 'weact' boards (some cheaper)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001701355958.html
i've a couple of them, one thing is the mounting holes, i think they may be useful where it is relevant. they use a micro usb instead of usb c which weact do.
slightly broader than the weact boards. i think they added a 'user key' as well in addition to just boot0 and reset.
i think the actual manufacturers are rather few, a lot of them on aliexpress are re-sellers or shops that stock them