Visual Studio Code Stm32

30-04-2021
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STM32 with Visual Studio Code Posted on August 13, 2017 by Jan Visual Studio Code is more an editor with debugger support than a full IDE, it takes a bit fiddling to set up and get right. Basically you don’t have any setup screens and have to edit your project in files with XML syntax. After using Eclipse for some time, I have come to a state where Visual Studio Code is more appealing. Because Eclipse messed up my repo once again. And I want to try something out with Visual Studio Code. I like the interface and also its speed. The extensions are getting more available and even when you want to code with ARM/GNU. STM32 commercial IDEs Provider Product and labels Cores Framework Compiler Debugger in x OS X Safety edition Free edition or Proprietary Eclipse use, limitation IAR Systems EWARM All IAR IAR Code limit: 32KB Arm KEIL MDK5-Cortex-M All llvm / ARM uVision Code limit: 32KB Emprog ThunderBench All gcc OpenOCD Time limit: 30-day iSystem iSYS-WinIDEA All gcc, others gdb WinIDEAOpen.

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Note that this tutorial is written by and maintained by the PlatformIO team.

This guide will help you take the first steps with programming STM32 microcontrollers using the PlatformIO ecosystem. The goal of this guide is to show you how simple it is to set up PlatformIO with Visual Studio Code and use it to compile, upload, and debug STM32Cube-based application on the STM32 Nucleo-F401RE board.

What is PlatformIO?

PlatformIO is a professional collaborative platform for embedded development that includes lots of instruments for the most common development tasks. It has out-of-the-box support for STM32 microcontrollers and allows working with low-level libraries like CMSIS, STM32Cube, and LibOpenCM3 as well as with popular high-level frameworks like Arduino, Mbed, or Zephyr without changing your development environment.

A detailed overview of the PlatformIO ecosystem and its philosophy can be found in the official documentation.

Installation

Some software needs to be installed before diving into the development process. In this guide Visual Studio Code is used as the editor. The most up-to-date and detailed installation instructions can be found in the official PlatformIO IDE for VSCode documentation.

Once the PlatformIO IDE is ready, the ST STM32 development platform can be installed. This way PlatformIO will do all the heavy lifting by installing everything that is needed (toolchain, framework, etc) automatically. The easiest way to install any development platform is the PlatformIO Home App:

When all installation steps are completed, a dialog window will pop up to tell you that the ststm32 platform has been installed.

Creating a project

The same PlatformIO Home App is used to create a new project:

In the next step, ST Nucleo-F401RE should be selected as the development board, STM32Cube as the framework, and a path to the project location (or use the default one):

Please note:

Processing the selected project may take a considerable amount of time as PlatformIO will download and install all required packages. After these steps a fully configured project is ready for developing code with the STM32Cube framework.

Now some actual code can be added to the project. Firstly, a new file main.c should be created in the src folder. Right click on the src in the project window:

with the following contents:

After this step the project is ready for compiling and uploading.

Compiling and Uploading the Firmware

Studio

Stm32 Programming Visual Studio Code

Now the project can be built. The following options are available to compile the final firmware:

  • Build option on the Project Tasks menu
  • Build button on PlatformIO Toolbar
  • Command Palette View: Command Palette > PlatformIO: Build
  • Task Menu Tasks: Run Task... > PlatformIO: Build
  • cmd-alt-b / ctrl-alt-b hotkeys

If everything went well, the successful result should be printed in the terminal window:

If you see errors, please check your typing carefully and try again.

The following options can be used to upload the firmware to the board:

  • Upload option on the Project Tasks menu
  • Upload button on PlatformIO Toolbar
  • Command Palette View: Command Palette > PlatformIO: Upload
  • Task Menu Tasks: Run Task... > PlatformIO: Upload
  • cmd-alt-u / ctrl-alt-u hotkeys

After successful uploading, the green LED2 should start blinking.

Visual Studio Code Stm32 Cmake

Debugging the Firmware

Stm32 Vscode Windows

PlatformIO offers the easiest way to debug your applications. To start a debugging session you can use the Start Debugging option in the PlatformIO Quick Access menu, Debug: Start debugging from the top menu, or the hotkey button F5:

Visual Studio Code Stm32cube

The initialization of a debug session will take some time and when the first line after the main function is highlighted the project is ready for debugging:

During a debug session it’s possible to step through the code using control buttons, set breakpoints, see peripheral registers, and add variables to the Watch window:

Conclusion

This guide showed how to start developing for STM32 microcontrollers from within Visual Studio Code and the PlatformIO ecosystem. The project created throughout this guide can be used as a boilerplate for the next projects based on the STM32 Nucleo-F401RE board.

Next steps

Vscode Stm32 Gcc

Here are some useful links for exploring the PlatformIO ecosystem:

Visual Studio Code Openocd Stm32

  • Try other frameworks that can be used with the STM32 microcontrollers
  • Learn more about integrations with other IDEs/Text Editors
  • Check out additional tutorials and examples
  • Get help from the PlatformIO community