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I recently bought an stm32 board to start learning and found the datasheet to be complete gobble-de-gook. I have a feeling there is a lot fundamentals I need to

by weavie 8y ago

I recently bought an stm32 board to start learning and found the datasheet to be complete gobble-de-gook. I have a feeling there is a lot fundamentals I need to learn before the sheet starts to make sense.

samtho 8y ago
There is a lot of "noise" in the datasheet that you wont have to pay much mind to. There are usually examples of circuits buried in there along with pinouts. You can ignore a lot of it if you are doing hobby-level work.
analogwzrd 8y ago
True. There are several companies that are infamous for how terrible their datasheets are. Especially as a hobbyist it can be important to pick companies that provide good documentation because you don't have the leverage of saying you work for a large company that's going to buy 1000s of their parts. Asking questions on the manufacturer's forum is useful to because you can typically get an application engineer to respond.
joshvm 8y ago
STM's documentation is a bit of a mess. I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner unless you're piggybacking off a development board that uses an STM32 core. This way you can learn snippets of ARM code, but leverage an easier to use framework. Have a look at Atmel/Microchip's AVR documentation, it's worlds better. That plus avrlibc and a few tutorials and you're golden.
matt_the_bass 8y ago
I would recommend starting with some simple discrete logic devices such a 555 timer chip. Learn how to read its spec sheet. Connect it to an LED. Then move on to something more complicated like using the 555 to drive a counter which in turn counts on multiple leds, etc. These circuits are simple and probably nothing you have a practical need for. But they will get you familier with reading data sheets and basic components. Later jump in to microcrontrollers. I used to teach a class called Electronics for Artists at a local maker space. This process worked well for that.

by weavie 8y ago

samtho 8y ago

There is a lot of "noise" in the datasheet that you wont have to pay much mind to. There are usually examples of circuits buried in there along with pinouts. You can ignore a lot of it if you are doing hobby-level work.

analogwzrd 8y ago

True. There are several companies that are infamous for how terrible their datasheets are. Especially as a hobbyist it can be important to pick companies that provide good documentation because you don't have the leverage of saying you work for a large company that's going to buy 1000s of their parts. Asking questions on the manufacturer's forum is useful to because you can typically get an application engineer to respond.

joshvm 8y ago

STM's documentation is a bit of a mess. I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner unless you're piggybacking off a development board that uses an STM32 core. This way you can learn snippets of ARM code, but leverage an easier to use framework. Have a look at Atmel/Microchip's AVR documentation, it's worlds better. That plus avrlibc and a few tutorials and you're golden.

matt_the_bass 8y ago

I would recommend starting with some simple discrete logic devices such a 555 timer chip. Learn how to read its spec sheet. Connect it to an LED. Then move on to something more complicated like using the 555 to drive a counter which in turn counts on multiple leds, etc. These circuits are simple and probably nothing you have a practical need for. But they will get you familier with reading data sheets and basic components. Later jump in to microcrontrollers. I used to teach a class called Electronics for Artists at a local maker space. This process worked well for that.