Why should I move to Stellaris?

[NeilZ 0]

Hi Guys,

I'm new here and just learnt about this site through HaD. I have the STM32 discovery kits and they seem to be pretty good. Is there any reason that I should move to Stellaris. It is another ARM chip..should I change? What real advantage does it have?.. apart from the price.

 

Thanks.. please be frank.

[wrecker 0]

Lets see.. StellarisWare, boosterPack ecosystem(there are over 30 boosterpacks for the MSP430 which can be ported over). Rich peripheral interface.. more than any out there. Floating point in hardware.

[txf 0]

Lets see.. StellarisWare, boosterPack ecosystem(there are over 30 boosterpacks for the MSP430 which can be ported over). Rich peripheral interface.. more than any out there. Floating point in hardware.

 

The first two are valid. I don't know StellarisWare but I do trust TI to produce better documentation and examples than ST. I really don't like the way the ST libs are set up, and getting an stm32 kit running is not that straightforward. TI does have more boosterpacks, but 30 isn't particularly impressive.

 

The rest of the points are contestable. The more recent (F4 series) stm32 chips are generally faster and have more features (like i2s, ethernet mac, dac, more ram, more flash). The F4 discovery is more expensive 12$ but has more pins and more features on the board (like an audio codec, accelerometer, microphone). The F4 stm32 also uses the cortex-m4f so it does floating point as well.

 

Personally, whilst I still might use stm32 chips, I tend to favour ease of use and set-up time ahead of features (until I need them).

[MattTheGeek 99]

The brand.

 

ST doesn't exactly care about hobbyists, makers, or [insert_title_here]. Generally TI has better IDEs, Better documentation, and excellent support even if you are a [insert_title_here]. Plus the Stellaris LaunchPad should be able to fit in a breadboard (hopefully)

 

A powerful hardware platform is useless if you don't know how to use it.

[txf 0]

Plus the Stellaris LaunchPad should be able to fit in a breadboard (hopefully)

 

How? There are two rows of pins side by side...

[starhawk1426459861 0]

The pin spacing is what tells you. If they are spaced in increments of 0.1" on the board (the pin-to-pin distance is that, IIRC, but I don't know about header-to-header distance) then they will work in a breadboard just fine.

 

OT: _txf_ I love your avatar. Where did you find that picture?

[abecedarian 330]

I think what _txf_ was implying was that having two side-by-side headers would mean that if it were inserted in a breadboard, the pins of the headers would be connected together.

[starhawk1426459861 0]

Hadn't thought of that.

 

What work I do usually gets planned on perfboard (i.e. I draw it out by hand on a picture of the perf, then solder it together). I'm not much of one for breadboards.

 

Guess it shows

[MattTheGeek 99]

It would seem like the headers are stacking... I would hope they would only have one set of the stacking headers so it could fit into a breadboard. but that isn't the case. However an adapter isn't hard to make ether, might just design one.

[SugarAddict 227]

Interlaced and Outside Top Inside Bottom.