Setup Guide

This page gets your machine ready for every lab: install STM32CubeIDE, create a project the same way each week, and learn the build / flash / debug loop you will use in all nine experiments. Do this before your first lab session — the download is around 2 GB.

Why this page exists

Every experiment starts with "create a new STM32 project and configure the clock". That is written out once here instead of nine times. Each experiment page links back to the relevant section.

What you need

	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	4 GB	8 GB or more
Free disk	6 GB	10 GB
OS	Windows 10/11 64-bit, macOS, or a 64-bit Linux distribution
Board	STM32F407VG Discovery or STM32F411RE Nucleo-64
USB cable	Mini-USB (Discovery) / Micro-USB (Nucleo) — a data cable, not charge-only

You do not need to install a toolchain or a JDK separately. STM32CubeIDE ships with the Arm GCC compiler, the ST-LINK drivers and its own Java runtime.

1. Install STM32CubeIDE

1. Go to st.com/stm32cubeide and download the installer for your OS. You have to create a free myST account, or use the "Download as a guest" link.
2. Install it:
   • Windows: run the .exe. Accept the ST-LINK, SEGGER J-Link and ST-LINK server driver prompts that appear during the install — without them the board will not be detected.
   • macOS: open the .dmg and run the installer package.
   • Linux: unzip the archive and run the .sh installer. On Debian/Ubuntu install the udev rules it offers; on other distributions copy them from /opt/st/stm32cubeide_*/drivers/rules/ into /etc/udev/rules.d/ and run sudo udevadm control --reload-rules.
3. Launch it. Choose a workspace folder — a path with no spaces and no non-English characters, e.g. C:\STM32\workspace.
4. The first time you create a project, CubeIDE downloads the STM32Cube MCU package for your family (F4). This is a few hundred megabytes. Let it finish.

Keep paths short and ASCII-only

The Arm toolchain invokes long command lines. On Windows, workspaces under C:\Users\<name with spaces>\OneDrive\… cause builds to fail with confusing "file not found" errors. Use C:\STM32\workspace.

2. Know your board

The two boards used in the lab differ in which pins are free and how they are clocked.

	STM32F407VG Discovery	STM32F411RE Nucleo-64
MCU to select in the wizard	STM32F407VGTx	STM32F411RETx
Max HCLK	168 MHz	100 MHz
On-board crystal	8 MHz HSE	8 MHz MCO from ST-LINK
Built-in LEDs	PD12–PD15	PA5 (LD2)
Built-in button	PA0 (blue, active high)	PC13 (active low)
Pins to avoid	PA13, PA14 (SWD)	PA2, PA3 (ST-LINK VCP), PA13, PA14 (SWD), PC14, PC15 (LSE)

Never use PA13 / PA14

These are the SWDIO and SWCLK debug pins. If you assign them to something else and flash the board, the debugger can no longer connect. Recovering needs a "connect under reset" flash.

3. Create a lab project

Every experiment starts with a new project created exactly this way. Each experiment page tells you which name to use.

1. File → New → STM32 Project. The target selector opens (first run is slow — it fetches the MCU database).

2. In the Part Number Search box, type your MCU (STM32F407VGTx or STM32F411RETx), select it in the list on the right, and click Next.

   Or pick the board

   The Board Selector tab lets you choose STM32F407G-DISC1 or NUCLEO-F411RE instead. If you do, answer Yes to "Initialize all peripherals with their default mode" only when you want the on-board LEDs and button pre-configured. The experiments here assume a plain MCU-based project, so No is the safer answer.

3. Fill in the form:

   Field	Value
   Project Name	The name on the experiment page, e.g. Exp1_Counter
   Location	Your workspace, no spaces
   Targeted Language	C
   Targeted Binary Type	Executable
   Targeted Project Type	STM32Cube

   Targeted Project Type must be STM32Cube

   Empty gives you a bare project with no HAL and no .ioc configuration file. Every experiment except Experiment 9 needs STM32Cube.

4. Click Finish. Answer Yes to "Open Associated Perspective?". The .ioc Device Configuration Tool opens — this is where all pin and peripheral configuration happens.

Configure the clock

Do this in every project, before anything else.

1. Open the RCC entry under System Core in the left-hand list.
2. Set High Speed Clock (HSE) to:
   • Crystal/Ceramic Resonator on the F407 Discovery.
   • BYPASS Clock Source on the F411 Nucleo (the 8 MHz comes from the ST-LINK, not a crystal).
3. Switch to the Clock Configuration tab.
4. Type the target frequency into the HCLK (MHz) box — 168 for the F407, 100 for the F411 — and press Enter. Answer Yes when CubeMX offers to solve the PLL settings for you. It fills in every prescaler automatically.

Why bother, if the internal oscillator works?

The internal HSI is a factory-trimmed RC oscillator: it runs at 16 MHz ±1 % and drifts with temperature. That is fine for blinking an LED and not fine for UART baud rates (Experiment 8) or timer-derived frequencies (Experiment 4). The HSE crystal is accurate to a few tens of ppm.

Generate the code

After any change in the .ioc file: Project → Generate Code (or just save the .ioc with Ctrl+S and accept the prompt).

CubeMX writes main.c, stm32f4xx_hal_msp.c, stm32f4xx_it.c and the HAL drivers under Drivers/.

Only write between the USER CODE markers

Generated files are full of comment pairs like this:

/* USER CODE BEGIN 2 */

/* USER CODE END 2 */

Code inside a pair survives regeneration. Code outside one is deleted the next time you generate. Every snippet on the experiment pages tells you which marker pair it belongs in.

4. Build, flash and debug

Action	Button / shortcut	What it does
Build	hammer icon, Ctrl+B	Compiles to Debug/<project>.elf
Run	green ▶	Flashes the board and runs it free
Debug	green 🐞	Flashes, halts at main(), opens the Debug perspective

The first Run or Debug opens a launch-configuration dialog. The defaults (ST-LINK, SWD, "Software system reset") are correct — click OK.

The debug views you will actually use

The experiments ask you to inspect registers and variables live. All four are under Window → Show View while a debug session is running:

• Live Expressions — watch a variable change while the target runs, no breakpoints needed. This is the one you want for buttonPressCount in Experiment 1. Add an expression with the green +.
• SFRs — the peripheral registers by name. Expanding GPIOD → ODR shows the output data register bit by bit.
• Breakpoints — double-click in the left margin of the editor to set one.
• Expressions / Variables — values at the current halt point only.

Live Expressions needs optimisation off

Lab projects default to -Og, which is fine. If a variable shows <optimized out>, check Project → Properties → C/C++ Build → Settings → Optimization and set it to -O0 or -Og, and make sure the variable is volatile if an ISR writes it.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
No ST-LINK detected / Target is not responding	Try another USB cable — many are charge-only. On the F407 Discovery use the mini-USB port marked ST-LINK, not the micro-USB OTG port.
Board worked, now the debugger cannot connect	You probably reassigned PA13/PA14, or your code reconfigures them. In the launch config, set Reset behaviour → Connect under reset, flash a clean project, then fix the .ioc.
ST-LINK firmware is too old	Help → ST-LINK Upgrade, then Open in update mode → Upgrade.
Build fails with undefined reference to HAL_...	The peripheral is not enabled in the .ioc, so its HAL module was never compiled in. Enable it and regenerate.
My code disappeared after generating	It was outside a USER CODE BEGIN/END pair. Recover it from local history: right-click the file → Compare With → Local History.
Linux: board shows up only with sudo	The udev rules are missing. See step 1.
arm-none-eabi-gcc: not found after a CubeIDE update	Help → Check for Updates, then rebuild the index with Project → Clean.
Changes in the .ioc have no effect	You edited the .ioc but did not regenerate. Project → Generate Code.