STM32 woes

[RetroZero]

I assume the boards you have in stock on your shop site are all populated? Looks like I need another Prius Adapter board if I want to run MG1 and Mg2...

[johu]

Yes I will continue to sell only fully populated boards (minus connectors)

[johu]

So I can get ahold of a few STM32s so I ordered 30 LDU boards without it and have it populated locally.

[rstevens81]

Anyone know a source of stm32's rs just canceled my order, not in a hurry thou as it's just for a development board (mini hubner), at worst I can try and de solder off of a borked Prius board

[johu]

You can get some off ebay, though I don't know if they're any good.

[Yahha777]

You can get some off ebay, though I don't know if they're any good.

Hello! I will share my experience of buying STM microcontrollers on eBay. I bought 6 stm32 microcontrollers and 3 atmegs from https://www.ebay.com/usr/longsheng-electronic. Upon opening the parcel, microcontrollers with markings from different factories CHN 3 pieces and MYS 3 pieces were found in the packaging tape STM. In theory, they should be packed at the same plant and have the same manufacturer's plant marking. I was the first to install 2 controllers marked CHN on the board. AND! Oh joy! When turned on, the green LED blinked happily at once! How convenient, microcontrollers now come with Johannes firmware! But seriously - a used microcontroller with a locked firmware option. This can complicate the process of flashing such a controller for a beginner. 2nd controller is the same from the former. I don't remember what happened to him specifically - but there I suffered for a long time with the bootloader firmware. According to the Russian tradition, I broke one, and the other three (according to the Chinese tradition) are not even identified through ST - Link. I tried both through the SWD interface and JTAG - the programmer does not detect them. And lastly - I have seen so far only the indication of the firmware, communication via Wi-Fi is working, the parameters are changed and stored in memory, the CAN bus is working. I have not launched the board in the complex yet, so there may still be surprises. Conclusions - if you have few problems, we buy in China. If you need 2 microcontrollers - buy 6! You may even have one left in stock!

[johu]

Wow, that's sketchy! Thanks for sharing. Hope I will receive mine soon, I ordered 10.

[LRBen]

PCBway have STM32F105RBT6 available at about $24 each with a 6-8 working day waiting time.

[RetroZero]

I have one still wrapped up from before Covid lockdown. Happy to post it if you are still interested Johu.
ps - will be picking up a second adapter board (minus molex) and brake booster board for the Golf project.
PM when you have a moment

[johu]

So thanks to many part donations I should be able to supply Tesla LDU boards towards the end of next week.

[RetroZero]

Still want an extra STM32?

[Jack Bauer]

Well, my turn for the woes. Don't suppose anyone has a tray of STM32F107VCT6 lying around?

[johu]

Is that helpful? https://www.heisener.com/ProductDetail/STM32F107VCT6 (probably not, another european-sounding Chinese broker)
Or any of the other suppliers listed on octopart: https://octopart.com/search?q=STM32F107 ... SD&specs=0

I don't recommend ebay, I ordered 10, tested 2, both broken. I suspect the other ones will also be.

[Jack Bauer]

Thanks Johannes. Will keep hunting. I'll skip ebay for sure:)

[Bigpie]

What was the problem with the ebay chips? Completely dead or strange behaviour?

[Yahha777]

What was the problem with the ebay chips? Completely dead or strange behaviour?

In my case, all the microcircuits were in use with firmware on board and from different factories. I was able to flash 2 microcontrollers via SWD. In two, the SWD ports were occupied by the application and had to be removed from the board, soldered to the OLIMEX Н -103 board where there are jumpers and a JTAG connector. Through JTAG at a low frequency, it turned out to erase the memory and flash 2 more controllers. But my ST - link died after that. I think maybe such a thing will somehow help in checking and flashing suspicious products for those who have it on stream:https://aliexpress.ru/item/32699770295. ... 1628925361 Of course - this is China, but if this saves you from unnecessary soldering of the chip to the board, then it might be worth buying.

[Jack Bauer]

Reckon I'll buy 10 of these and pull off the mcus :
https://www.olimex.com/Products/ARM/ST/STM32-H107/

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

I thought you guys were sorted :/

There was a guy on reddit a few weeks ago who got a few thousand STM32s a year or two ago by mistake, for free, and between that and a few hundred of some other variety was liquidating them for what are currently massive discounts if someone wanted the lots. Was all Greek to me.

I'll see if I can dig it up, but I imagine someone eventually took him up on the offer.

[EV_Builder]

If you buy from ebay only buy from sealed containers and original. I bought ST32's with the 100pins it's easier my mistake soldering then the ebay seller I guessed.

[johu]

So LDUs are up again. Picked them up today and tested the first one good.

[Jack Bauer]

Operation Harvest is a go:)

[johu]

That's how desperate the situation is

[rstevens81]

I have resorted to using these ...

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/microcon ... s/8029416/

Although I'm not as brave as you in desoldering them in my f103 zombie/stm32-car and created an adapter board for them.

[mackoffgrid]

Luckily, most of my electronics was sorted last year, just scraped through with my BMS. The last couple of boards are using old DUE and BLuepill I had lying around. I reckon I'll be going into CPU hibernation after this project.

[mpgMike]

My experience has been with the Microchip PIC processors. What I found is that parts more than about a decade old are slow, limited, and expensive. Newer offerings are faster, offer more peripherals, and are cheaper. I looked up the ST part number you're working with and it appears to be about 15 years old. Don't they offer something just as capable in a newer part number? At least with Microchip, they're suffering from the same shortage issues as everyone else, but are focusing more on stocking the newer parts than servicing legacy ones. Which means the family of ST processors you're using may not be available until 2023 (if ST works the same as Microchip).