ST STM32F401 Discovery User manual

October 2013 DocID025194 Rev 1 1/19
UM1671
User manual
Getting started with STM32F401 Discovery
software development tools
Introduction
This document describes the software environment required to build an application around
the STM32F401 Discovery board (32F401CDISCOVERY), and provides some development
recommendations.
It provides guidelines to novice users on how to build and run a sample application, and
allows them to create and build their own application.
This document:
presents the toolchains supporting the STM32 families:
– IAR Embedded Workbench®for ARM (EWARM) by IAR Systems,
– Microcontroller Development Kit for ARM (MDK-ARM) by Keil™,
– TrueSTUDIO®by Atollic;
describes where to find the ST-LINK/V2 driver to be installed before starting coding on
any Integrated Development Environment;
describes step by step how to execute and debug an existing project with one of the
previously presented toolchains;
describes step by step how to create a new project with one of the toolchains from a
dummy project included in the firmware package;
provides helpful information on the advanced debugging capabilities of the Serial Wire
Viewer (SWV) asynchronous trace supported by ST-LINK. This feature is especially
useful when debugging certain tricky problems you may find during application
development.
This user manual cannot cover all the topics relevant to software development
environments, but it demonstrates the first basic steps necessary to get started with the
compilers/debuggers and provides links to the required documents to fully understand every
step.
www.st.com

Contents UM1671
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Contents
1 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1 System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 IDEs supporting STM32 families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 ST-LINK/V2 installation and development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Firmware package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Executing and debugging firmware using a software toolchain . . . . . 9
2.1 EWARM toolchain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 MDK-ARM toolchain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
2.3 TrueSTUDIO toolchain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 STM32F401 advanced debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4 Software toolchains helpful references and links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5 Revision history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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List of tables
Table 1. Toolchains supporting STM32F401 Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Table 2. Links to software toolchains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Table 3. Document revision history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

List of figures UM1671
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List of figures
Figure 1. Hardware environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Figure 2. STM32F401 Discovery package content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Figure 3. IAR Embedded Workbench IDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Figure 4. EWARM project successfully compiled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Figure 5. IAR Download and Debug button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Figure 6. IAR Embedded Workbench debugger screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Figure 7. IAR Go button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Figure 8. uVision4 IDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Figure 9. MDK-ARM project successfully compiled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Figure 10. MDK-ARM Start/Stop Debug Session button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Figure 11. MDK-ARM debugger screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Figure 12. MDK-ARM Run button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Figure 13. TrueSTUDIO workspace launcher dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Figure 14. TrueSTUDIO import source select dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Figure 15. TrueSTUDIO import projects dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Figure 16. TrueSTUDIO project successfully compiled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Figure 17. TrueSTUDIO debug window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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1 Getting started
1.1 System requirements
Before running your application, you should:
1. install your preferred Integrated Development Environment (IDE),
2. install the ST-LINK V2 driver from the ST Website,
3. download the STM32F401 Discovery firmware from the ST Website,
4. establish the connection with the STM32F401 Discovery board as follows.
Figure 1. Hardware environment
The above steps will be detailed in the following sections.
To run and develop any firmware application on your STM32F401 Discovery board, the
minimum requirements are as follows:
Windows PC (2000, 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

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1.2 IDEs supporting STM32 families
STMicroelectronics' STM32 families of 32-bit ARM Cortex-M core-based microcontrollers
are supported by a complete range of software tools. It encompasses traditional integrated
development environments IDEs with C/C++ compilers and debuggers from major 3rd-
parties (free versions up to 64 KB of code, depending on the partner), completed with
innovative tools from STMicroelectronics.
The following table provides some general information about the most popular integrated
development environments, as well as the version supporting officially the STM32F401
product.
Table 1. Toolchains supporting STM32F401 Discovery
Toolchain Company Compiler Version Download link(1)
1. Registration before download is required.
EWARM IAR Systems® IAR C/C++ 6.60.2
and later
www.iar.com/en/Products/IAR-Embedded-
Workbench/ARM/
– 30-day evaluation edition
– KickStart edition (32 Kb limitation for
Cortex M3/M4)
– KickStart edition (16 Kb limitation for
Cortex M0)
MDK-ARM Keil™ ARMCC 4.73
and later
www.keil.com/demo/eval/arm.htm
MDK-Lite (32 Kb code size limitation)
TrueSTUDIO ©Atollic GNUC 4.2
and later
www.atollic.com/index.php/request-eval-
license
– 32 Kb limitation (8 Kb on Cortex-M0 and
Cortex-M1)
– 30 day Professional version (trial)

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1.3 ST-LINK/V2 installation and development
The STM32F401 Discovery board includes an embedded ST-LINK/V2 debug tool interface.
The interface needs an ST-Link/V2-dedicated USB driver to be installed. This driver is
available from the ST Website www.st.com ST-LINK V2 and is supported by the software
toolchains:
IAR™ Embedded Workbench for ARM (EWARM)
The toolchain is installed by default in the C:\Program Files\IAR Systems\Embedded
Workbench x.x directory on the PC’s local hard disk.
After installing EWARM, install the ST-LINK/V2 driver by running ST-Link_V2_USB.exe
from [IAR_INSTALL_DIRECTORY]\Embedded Workbench x.x\arm\drivers\ST-Link
\ST-Link_V2_USBdriver.exe
RealView Microcontroller Development Kit (MDK-ARM)
The toolchain is installed by default in the C:\Keil directory on the PC’s local hard disk;
the installer creates a µVision4 shortcut in the Start menu.
When connecting the ST-LINK/V2 tool, the PC detects new hardware and prompts the
user to install the ST-LINK_V2_USB driver. The “Found New Hardware” Wizard
displays and guides you through the steps required to install the driver from the
recommended location.
Atollic TrueSTUDIO® STM32
The toolchain is installed by default in the C:\Program Files\Atollic directory on the PC’s
local hard disk.
The ST-Link_V2_USB.exe is installed automatically when installing the software
toolchain.
Complementary information on the firmware package content and the STM32F401
Discovery requirements is available in user manual UM1660 Getting started with the
STM32F401 Discovery kit.
Note: The embedded ST-LINK/V2 supports only the SWD interface for STM32 devices.
1.4 Firmware package
The STM32F401 Discovery firmware applications, demonstration and IP examples are
provided in one single package and supplied in one single zip file. The extraction of the zip
file generates a folder named “STM32F401-Discovery_FW_VX.Y.Z” which contains the
following subfolders:

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Figure 2. STM32F401 Discovery package content
Template project: pre-configured project with empty main function to be customized by the
user. This is helpful to start creating your own application based on the peripheral drivers.
Master workspace: collection of all projects available within this firmware package.
Peripheral examples: includes a set of ready-to-run examples for each peripheral.

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2 Executing and debugging firmware using a software
toolchain
This section describes how to compile/link and execute an existing project using the
toolchains.
The steps below can be applied to an already existing example, demonstration or template
project available at STM32F401-Discovery_FW_VX.Y.Z firmware available at
www.st.com/stm32f4-discovery.
First of all, you need to go through the firmware readme.txt file which contains a description
of the firmware and hardware/software requirements.
2.1 EWARM toolchain
1. Open the IAR Embedded Workbench® for ARM (EWARM).
Figure 3 shows the basic names of the windows referred to in this document.
Figure 3. IAR Embedded Workbench IDE
2. In the File menu, select Open and click Workspace to display the Open Workspace
dialog box. Browse to select either an example or demonstration or template
workspace file, and click Open to launch it in the Project window.
3. In the Project menu, select Rebuild All to compile your project.
4. If your project is successfully compiled, the window shown in Figure 4 is displayed.

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Figure 4. EWARM project successfully compiled
If you need to change your project settings (Include and preprocessor defines), simply go
through the project options:
For Include directories
Project>Options…>C/C++ compiler>
For pre-processor defines
Project>Options…C/C++ compiler>pre-processor>
5. In the IAR Embedded Workbench IDE, from the Project menu, select Download and
Debug or, alternatively, click the Download and Debug button in the toolbar, to program
the Flash memory and begin debugging.
Figure 5. IAR Download and Debug button
6. The debugger in the IAR Embedded Workbench can be used to debug source code at
the C and assembly levels, to set breakpoints, to monitor individual variables and to
watch events during the code execution.
Figure 6. IAR Embedded Workbench debugger screen
To run your application, from the Debug menu, select Go. Alternatively, click the Go button
in the toolbar to run your application.