SparkFun Forums

[Laurence_b]

Hi, I have experience with PIC, AVR, and embedded linux systems, but I want to get started learning ARM. Preferably from linux, but I'd be happy with win xp tools if thats what it takes - but I'm a student with 0 budget to spend on any software. After looking around I'm quite dissapointed by the apparent lack of information on arm development. Open source tools seem to be there but where are the forums ect to dicuss? Sparkfun forum seems to be one of the few active arm forums I can find :-/ I've heard a lot of good things about cortex M3, and this board is very cheap
http://futurlec.com/ET-STM32_Stamp.shtml
However, there seems to be more information on the LPC series on this forum at least. Should I go for an LPC based board? The futurlec board I linked has bootloader already flashed. Is it worth getting a JTAG cable so I dont have to rely on a bootloader?
I was hoping to get myself setup for <$100, and I'm in the UK.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

[leon_heller]

One reason for using the LPC chips is support from the excellent Yahoo LPC2000 group which I formed when the chips first came out. I'd advise getting or building a JTAG interface as it makes things much easier. A design of mine including a PCB layout is in the group's files section.

Leon

[motopic]

Hi,

I recommend either starting with either Futurlec 2103 or 2348 dev boards. I have both and they work fine. However, Futurlec uses different crystal freqs so be prepared to change the boot files. Be prepared to wait 4 weeks for delivery, Futurlec can take a while.
Download WinARM for these.

I also highly recommend the Coridium boards. Coridium provides a toolkit for basic, and also has a C toolkit as a download. Coridium us US based.

I haven't tried these, but they may be closer to you, Embeddded Artitsts.
http://www.embeddedartists.com/products ... u_2103.php

Also Olimex may be easy to obtain as well.

Above all patience, there is a LOT to learn here, even with the small 2103 devices.

Good luck,
Joe

[stevech]

Futurlec ETT LPC2103 or 2106 plus the baseboard is a good low cost start.
C compiler free: IAR excellent, free for small code, like 32KB or so as I recall. GCC via Yagarto is free but a PITA to get running.

Bootloader for serial port is in these LPC chips.
JTAG not needed, or can come later.

I don't recall if Sparkfun carries this "Stamp ARM" and motherboard for it.

Coridium's boards a good, but the C and BASIC are quirky. Depends on what you want to do. I've used Coridium's boards with IAR's C.

And Olimex via Sparkfun (or others such as MCPros) has a great selection of ARM7 boards. ARM9 is not what you want to begin with, due to complexity, unless you want to start with a $300 suite of stuff to run Linux. To do that, may as well get a mini-ITX board for $69 like Intel's dual-core Atom board.

[pieterc]

Here is one of the pages that you can read:

http://piconomic.berlios.de/arm_at91_qu ... guide.html

Best regards,
Pieter

[The_Todd]

A few months ago I was in a very similar situation, PIC's were having issues satisfying my stability needs for running an RTOS.

I did however have the luxury of taking a university embedded systems course where I became familiar with the ARM architecture and RTOS's.

Wanting to avoid spending lots of money, and all my time tinkering with GCC setup, I found http://www.raisonance.com/ which offers a very nice IDE (RIDE7) flawlessly integrated with GCC for free. Their RLINK JTAG tool is also very good, and inexpensive and can be had for $60 on mouser

Their software and debugger supports LPC and STM32 variants. I have been using it flawlessly with STM32 for the last couple months.

As far as LPC21xx vs. STM32 they are generally quite similiar (No flamewars plz). LPC is ARM7TDMI (THUMB) architecture while STM32 is CORTEX-M3 (THUMB-2, which has smaller footprint, division). They both run up to 72Mhz, and both have similar peripherals. Essentially the decision may be your personal preference unless you plan on maximizing performance, then a deeper analysis should be done.

-Todd