Black Pill from Scratch

Copyright 2022 Jannik Kreucher

Table Of Contents

• Project
• Setting Up the Development Environment

Project

The goal of this project is to write all hardware drivers for the Blackpill from scratch without using HAL or even CMSIS libraries. I started this project to get to know the STM32F411. I uploaded my project files for everyone to use. Maybe this helps you in any shape or form. I am by no means a professional programmer so take any code in this project with a grain of salt.

Setting Up the Development Environment

Install ST-Link tools

sudo apt install stlink-tools

Download arm-gcc from their website. Then extract the archieve

sudo tar xjf gcc-arm-none-eabi-<version>-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2 -C /usr/share/

Link the executables

sudo ln -s /usr/share/gcc-arm-none-eabi-<version>-x86_64-linux/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc /usr/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc
sudo ln -s /usr/share/gcc-arm-none-eabi-<version>-x86_64-linux/bin/arm-none-eabi-g++ /usr/bin/arm-none-eabi-g++
sudo ln -s /usr/share/gcc-arm-none-eabi-<version>-x86_64-linux/bin/arm-none-eabi-gdb /usr/bin/arm-none-eabi-gdb
sudo ln -s /usr/share/gcc-arm-none-eabi-<version>-x86_64-linux/bin/arm-none-eabi-size /usr/bin/arm-none-eabi-size
sudo ln -s /usr/share/gcc-arm-none-eabi-<version>-x86_64-linux/bin/arm-none-eabi-objcopy /usr/bin/arm-none-eabi-objcopy

When running arm-none-eabi-gdb you might encounter problems with missing libraries. This can be fixed by linking to a newer version

sudo apt install libncurses-dev
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncurses.so.6 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncurses.so.5
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.6 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5

Install OpenOCD

git clone https://github.com/openocd-org/openocd.git
./bootstrap
./configure
make
sudo make install

Erase Flash Memory

Now try to erase the flash memory of your Black Pill. The board might boot into the protected bootloader.

st-flash erase

When you encounter an error hold down both the NRST and the BOOT0 button. Then release the NRST button while the other one is still pressed. Finally release the BOOT0 button as well and try to erase the flash memory again.

Setting Up VS Code

Install the plugin Cortex-Debug by marus25. Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter.

ext install marus25.cortex-debug

Now open a project folder with VS Code and try debugging on your Blackpill.

cd 0-led/
code .