stm32pio 0.95

Small cross-platform Python app that can create and update PlatformIO projects from STM32CubeMX .ioc files. It uses STM32CubeMX to generate a HAL-framework based code and alongside creates PlatformIO project with the compatible framework specified

stm32pio

Small cross-platform Python app that can create and update PlatformIO projects from STM32CubeMX .ioc files.

It uses STM32CubeMX to generate a HAL-framework based code and alongside creates PlatformIO project with the compatible stm32cube framework specified.

Features

• Start the new project in a single directory using only an .ioc file
• Update existing project after changing hardware options from CubeMX
• Clean-up the project (WARNING: it deletes ALL content of project path except the .ioc file!)
• [optional] Automatically run your favorite editor in the end
• [optional] Automatically make an initial build of the project

Requirements:

• For this app:
  • Python 3.6 and above
• For usage:
  • macOS, Linux, Windows
  • STM32CubeMX (all recent versions) with desired downloaded frameworks (F0, F1, etc.)
  • Java CLI (JRE) (likely is already installed if the STM32CubeMX is working)
  • PlatformIO CLI (already presented if you have installed PlatformIO via some package manager or need to be installed as the command line extension from IDE)

A general recommendation there would be to try to generate and build a code manually (via the CubeMX GUI and PlatformIO CLI or IDE) at least once before using stm32pio to make sure that all tools are working properly without any "glue".

Installation

Starting from v0.8 it is possible to install the utility to be able to run stm32pio from anywhere. Use

stm32pio-repo/ $   pip3 install .

command to launch the setup process. To uninstall run

$ pip3 uninstall stm32pio

Usage

Basically, you need to follow such a pattern:

1. Create CubeMX project, set-up your hardware configuration
2. Run stm32pio that automatically invoke CubeMX to generate the code, create PlatformIO project, patch a 'platformio.ini' file and so on
3. Work on the project in your editor, compile/upload/debug etc.
4. Edit the configuration in CubeMX when necessary, then run stm32pio to regenerate the code.

Refer to Example section on more detailed steps.

On the first run stm32pio will create a config file stm32pio.ini, syntax of which is similar to the platformio.ini. You can also create this config without any following operations by initializing the project:

$ stm32pio init -d path/to/project

It may be useful to tweak some parameters before proceeding. The structure of the config is separated in two sections: app and project. Options of the first one is related to the global settings such as commands to invoke different instruments though they can be adjusted on the per-project base while the second section contains of project-related parameters. See the comments in the settings.py file for parameters description.

You can always run

$ python3 app.py --help

to see help on available commands.

You can also use stm32pio as a package and embed it in your own application. See app.py to see how to implement this. Basically you need to import stm32pio.lib module (where the main Stm32pio class resides), set up a logger and you are good to go. If you need higher-level API similar to the CLI version use main() function in app.py passing the same CLI arguments to it.

Example

1. Run CubeMX, choose MCU/board, do all necessary stuff
2. Select Project Manager -> Project tab, specify "Project Name", choose "Other Toolchains (GPDSC)". In Code Generator tab check "Copy only the necessary library files" and "Generate periphery initialization as a pair of '.c/.h' files per peripheral" options

3. Back in the first tab (Project) copy the "Toolchain Folder Location" string (you maybe not be able to copy it in modern CubeMX versions so use terminal or file manager to do this). Save the project, close CubeMX

4. Use a copied string as a -d argument for stm32pio. So it is assumed that the name of the project folder matches the name of .ioc file. (-d argument can be omitted if your current working directory is already a project directory)
5. Run platformio boards (pio boards) or go to boards to list all supported devices. Pick one and use its ID as a -b argument (for example, nucleo_f031k6)
6. All done! You can now run

   $ python3 app.py new -d path/to/cubemx/project/ -b nucleo_f031k6 --start-editor=code --with-build
   

   to complete generation, start the Visual Studio Code editor with opened folder and compile the project (as an example, not required). Make sure you have all tools in PATH (java (or set its path in stm32pio.ini), platformio, python, editor). You can use shorter form if you are already located in the project directory (also using shebang alias):

   path/to/cubemx/project/ $   stm32pio new -b nucleo_f031k6
   

7. If you will be in need to update hardware configuration in the future, make all necessary stuff in CubeMX and run generate command in a similar way:

   $ python3 app.py generate -d /path/to/cubemx/project
   

8. To clean-up the folder and keep only the .ioc file run clean command

Testing

Since ver. 0.45 there are some tests in file test.py (based on the unittest module). Run

stm32pio-repo/ $   python3 -m unittest -b -v

or

stm32pio-repo/ $   python3 -m stm32pio.tests.test -b -v

to test the app. It uses STM32F0 framework to generate and build a code from the test stm32pio-test-project.ioc project file. Please make sure that the test project folder is clean (i.e. contains only an .ioc file) before running the test.

For specific test suite or case you can use

stm32pio-repo/ $   python3 -m unittest stm32pio.tests.test.TestIntegration -b -v
stm32pio-repo/ $   python3 -m unittest stm32pio.tests.test.TestCLI.test_verbose -b -v

While testing was performed on different Python and OS versions, some older Windows versions had shown some 'glitches' and instability. [WinError 5] and others had appeared on such tests like test_run_edtor and on tempfile clean-up processes. So be ready to face off with them.

CI is hard to implement for all target OSes during the requirement to have all the tools (PlatformIO, Java, CubeMX, etc.) installed during the test. For example, ST doesn't even provide a direct link to the CubeMX for downloading.

Restrictions

• The tool doesn't check for different parameters compatibility, e.g. CPU frequency, memory sizes and so on. It simply eases your workflow with these 2 programs (PlatformIO and STM32CubeMX) a little bit.
• CubeMX middlewares are not supported yet because it's hard to be prepared for every possible configuration. You need to manually adjust them to build appropriately. For example, FreeRTOS can be added via PlatformIO' lib feature or be directly compiled in its own directory using lib_extra_dirs option:

  lib_extra_dirs = Middlewares/Third_Party/FreeRTOS
  

  You also need to move all .c/.h files to the src/include folders respectively. See PlatformIO documentation for more information.