In the previous post, we’ve established how we can tell the GD32VF103 apart from the CH32V103. In this post we’ll take a look on how are are going to initialise them. We want different initialisation because these chips require different interrupt handlers. Primary because the interrupt numbering does not match. First, let’s look at interrupts…
The prices of 32F103
While I have previously discussed 32F103 microcontrollers from different manufacturers, I’ve not discussed pricing before. The world has changed, with all this silicon shortage madness. A STMicroelectronics MCU is made of unobtainium. RS and Farnell don’t have them in stock. It seems, LCSC can deliver them, but the prices are insane. US$ 19.56 for a…
RISC-V ‘clones’ of the STM32F103 (part 2)
This is part 2 of the look at the GD32VF103 and the CH32V103. Microcontrollers with a RISC-V RV32IMAC core and STM32F103 compatible peripherals. As stated in the pervious article, their main difference is how the interrupts are handled. Of course, both can do interrupts as per RISC-V standard, the main issue is the fact the…
Some notes about RISC-V compilers
As I’ve written in my previous post, I’ve been playing around with RISC-V recently. As part of building for RISC-V a compiler is required. As I am an ArchLinux user, I query pacman for the compiler. In the community repository I’ve found riscv64-elf-gcc. Additionaly, I need a C library, which is in the riscv32-elf-newlib package….
RISC-V ‘clones’ of the STM32F103 (part 1)
RISC-V is the new hot thing. And so, there are some Chinese MCU manufacturers making RISC-V versions of their 32F103 clones. GigaDevice has their GD32VF103 around since 2019, and WinChipHead introduced their CH32V103 last year. Now, let’s have a look at these chips. These chips are basically, a RISC-V core attached to the 32F103 peripherals….
GNSS Modules (part 1)
A look at some GPS modules from eBay/AliExpress, or perhaps I should call then GNSS modules these days, as GPS, stands for Global Positioning System, is the navigation system made by the United States. As nowadays, there are multiple systems out there, run by different countries. The European Union has crated Galileo, Russia made GLONASS,…
KSGER Soldering stations (part 2)
Intermezzo, when I was about to make some photos for the menu, I switched on this new soldering controller and it released the magic smoke. It worked fine earlier today. I wasn’t planning to do a repair, but well, it seems it turned out we need one. The part that has burned out is designated…
KSGER Soldering stations (part 1)
Back in 2019 I bought my KGSER Soldering station. I have been happy with this soldering station. Recently I’ve decided to buy two more of them? Why? I wish to test an open source replacement firmware, while keeping the original. Then, why two of them? From what I read on there, it appears to be…
PMod Base Boards, Sub-Ghz Radios, and stuff
I’ve been working on some base board that can hold a Blue Pill, Black Pill and a Longan Nano. These boards have similar pinouts, like just one pin off. This base board will lead to Pmod connectors. The plan is to create some adapter baords for various modules that go on eBay/AliExpress, for ease of…
A new kid on the block?
Browsing AliExpress, I notice a new offer. A microcontroller board with a price tag that reminds of pre-silicon-crisis prices. This board has a WinnerMicro W806 microcontroller. I am not familiar with this brand, and curious what this is. It ain’t no ARM Cortex-M microcontroller. It’s neither a RISC-V microcontroller. This is an architecture I’ve not…