[initeq] STM32 ARM STM32F103C8T6 Blue Pill Minimum System Development Board with ST-Link V2 USB Programmer (2-Pack + ST-Link V2)

A capable part for a reasonable price with Arduino support. Unlike blue pill this comes with but does not require a converter. You can connect with Arduino through USB-C without too much hassle. You do have to play a trick with the buttons to put into programming mode if you program by the USB-C. As an Arduino person USB is my "one stop shop" for power, serial data up/down, and programming. It's a nice setup. ESP32 is also quite capable as an alternative but the analog to digital conversion on that part is pretty awful.

I'm starting up a custom PCB project, and I was looking for a board that would yields as vanilla an MCU experience as possible so I would know how to program my board when I assembled it. This is that. I used ST's CubeMX software to generate a sample project, opened it up in CubeIDE, and connected to this MCU via SWD and programmed it. The "hardest" thing was figuring out how to connect the headers (SWDIO == DIO, SWCLK == CLK, these are the pins on the bottom row, the row away from the gap).I did update the firmware for the ST-LINK though, as pointed out in another review of the ST-LINK dongle. Searched for STSW-LINK007 on Google, found the software package download on ST's website, ran it, and it updated the dongle firmware no problem.This thing is cheap, it works, and it's great exposure to the ST ecosystem. It's everything I wanted. 5/5

This is a great way to start STM32, the adapter and cable are included and all the drivers are verified. I didn't have to do anything to get the ST-Link going on my PC. ST is a big company, they manage the drivers well. The Arduino IDE can be used to program it if you are not comfortable with the free STM32CubeMX IDE. I have to say though, the CubeMX IDE will let you reach the full potential of this board, it gives you access to everything on the F103. Each board in the kit ran my o-scope adaptation without issue. I'm happy with this purchase

The STM32 board is missing resistor R10 and therefore the USB does NOT WORK at all. Apparently this is a common problem with these blue pill boards: A 1.5K pull-up for D+ is required but often missing. Very difficult to repair; it’s a 0402 surface mount. Otherwise, build quality seems good and ST-LINK works fine.

Mine came with an ST-Link with old firmware. Clicking any option in the official STM32 ST-LINK Utility software made it freeze up and show various errors. To fix this, click "ST-LINK" in the menu bar and then "Firmware update". Now all hardware *appears* to be working fine, and I just need to learn more about writing programs for it.PREVIOUS TITLE: Garbage ST-Link devicePREVIOUS REVIEW: Came with a garbage ST-Link. The software detects it, but whenever I click any option at all, it flakes out and stops responding a while and then throws errors. I looked inside the ST-Link device and it does in fact contain what appears to be a genuine STM32 chip, it just doesn't work though.

Not only did this include the 2 boards, headers and the ST-Link USB. It also included female header for making connections to a board. I am very happy with the product. I have soldered up one and tested it out with FreeJoy. The board looks clean and well put together. I would recommend.

Tried using this with STM32CubeIDE. No luck. It seems to think it is not a valid chip. Visually it looks genuine. I'm new to STM32, but did try the same stuff on a STM32F407G-DISC1 board ordered separately from an approved vendor and was successful there. Maybe STM has started to crack down on chips used to populate BluePill boards? Or maybe there is some other error that caused it to not recognize. I gave up after a couple days - so maybe it's just me? It probably works fine with other environments...

I'd planned to use the Arduino IDE, so I had to flash the bootloader (which is why I goe my first package with the ST-LINK). Once I found the directions, I had them set up in less than 10 minutes.Mine were 128K variants, but there are 64K as well. But if Flash is that tight, consider a larger model.