10 years, 4 months ago.

Where can I find the mbed STM32F103RB compatible bootloader .bin file?

I have a LeafLabs Maple R5, which will run bin files generated using the online compiler. Right now, I am using STM's flash loader demo to get the bin files on the maple, but that requires getting the STM32 target on the Maple into bootloader mode using the BOOT pin. Luckily, on the Maple, they broke this out to a button, but it's still pretty obnoxious.

Where can I find the actual drag and drop bootloader for the STM32F103RB target? I don't have an STLink, so using the tool provided on the wiki is not an option. The only way I have to get code on the device is the flash loader demo tool.

2 Answers

10 years, 4 months ago.

The mbed bootloader runs on a seperate chip. For the Nucleo boards the source code hasn't been released by STM yet (for the freescale and NXP chips it is open source), however in all cases, you need the hardware on which the programmer runs, and I don't know if your board has that hardware.

Accepted Answer

Ahh ok, that explains it. Thanks you. I had assumed that the bootloader was actually running on the STM32 target. For some reason I never thought to think that the STLink was doing all the work. Thanks! I hijacked an STLink from a Discovery board and am using that, with the SW connection jumpers to the target MCU removed. It works well, though has no support for the drag and drop. I have to use the STLink utility.

posted by Chris Seto 27 Jun 2014
10 years, 4 months ago.

The internal rom is using the DFU protocol via USB. So you need the STM flash loader. To have a drag and drop solution, the controller has to emulate a disk. This is possible, but it will use your flash memory. Why don`t you get one of the Nucleo boards ? The cheapest way to get a STLink. You can connect the SWD interface to your Maple board and have a second board.

I ordered a Nucleo board, and I would like to allow the chip to emulate a disk. The Nucleo board isn't here yet, however, and I'd like to get some development done. Surely I can build the bootloader from source or just get a precompiled binary? Is the mbed bootloader closed source?

I can of course just continue using the STM loader, but it's kind of a pain to deploy code that way.

posted by Chris Seto 25 Jun 2014