Meet STMicro STM8S Based One Dollar Development Board

ESP8266 modules are $3 Wi-Fi boards targeting IoT applications that can be used in standalone mode, or connected to another MCU based board. But what if you don’t actually need Wi-Fi, but instead require a tiny board to control a few GPIOs? Arduino Pro mini can be used for this, but it costs about $10 on Sparkfun, and it’s certainly cheap enough for most projects. Switching to Aliexpress, you can get Arduino Pro mini clones for about $2, and a bit less in 10 pieces quantities. But you can get even cheaper and add a micro USB port with STMicro STM8S based boards that can be found for 5.5 CNY (Less than $1) on Taobao.com, or – once oversea shipping is factored in – about $1.60 to $1.70 on BuyInCoins, or Aliexpress without headers, and the version with headers sells for about $2 or more.

One_dollar_development_boardLet’s check the board specifications:

  • MCU – STMicro STM8S103F3P6 8-bit MCU @ 16 MHz, with 1KB SRAM, 8KB flash, and 640 bytes EEPROM
  • USB – micro USB port for power and programming
  • Headers
    • 2x 10-pin (2.54 mm) with access to 3.3V (out), 5V (in), GND, GPIOs, I2C, UART, SPI, ADC, and PWM (TIM2).
    • 4-pin debug header (SWIM)
  • Misc – Reset button, Power and user (test) LED.
  • Power Supply – 5V via micro USB, or 4.4 – 15V input via -/+ through holes.
  • Dimensions – 3cm x 1.8cm

Sometimes boards sold on Chinese website have zero documentation and tools, but that one has some documents, tools, and source code. It’s

STM8S Board Schematics (Click to Enlarge)
STM8S Board Schematics (Click to Enlarge)

I could find three files:

  • STM8.zip – Datasheet, schematics, and code samples for STVP and IAR
  • STM8.zip – With ST Visual Programmer (STVP) and IAR development tool (Windows only), as well as ST-Link drivers.
  • STM8.zip – Some other documents including university papers, datasheets, and getting started guide (All in Chinese), as well as some other example projects.
STVP
STVP (Click to Enlarge)

So everything seems there, but it won’t be as easy to use as the Arduino boards. [Update: As mentioned in comments the MCU does not have a USB interface, so the micro USB is only for power, and you’ll need an extra ST-Link debug board to program the boards]

Thanks to Onebir for the tip.

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25 Comments
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deets
deets
9 years ago

“micro USB port for power and programming”

I think the USB port is for power only given that the MCU doesn’t support USB and the data lines are not connected on time schematic.

deets
deets
9 years ago


Thanks. When are you going to do a writeup on linkit connect?

zoobab
9 years ago

There is also SDCC support for this chip.

And you can also find it at Electrodragon.

No onchip usb in there, but i think i saw some vusb code somewhere on hackaday.

Nils
Nils
9 years ago

zoobab :
There is also SDCC support for this chip.
And you can also find it at Electrodragon.
No onchip usb in there, but i think i saw some vusb code somewhere on hackaday.

Yep, SDCC supports the STM8.

zoobab
9 years ago
Jason Lim
Jason Lim
9 years ago

Or you could get this stm8 discovery board, it have st link 2 inside.
http://my.element14.com/stmicroelectronics/stm8s-discovery/stm8s-w-st-link-discovery-kit/dp/1775251

Mike
Mike
9 years ago

What tools are needed? I don’t think Arduino tools build for STM8 target.
8KB of Flash may be too small. Arduino ATmega328P has 32kB

Johanus
Johanus
9 years ago

The STM8 links to the baidu site above don’t seem to work. Sent me to error page saying ‘downloads are cancelled’.

Are there are other links to development tools for these inexpensive STM boards?

Philipp
9 years ago

@Nils
I wrote some basic (led counter incrementing once per second, Whetstone and Dhrystone benchmarks) tutorials for stm8 development on Linux with the sdcc compiler:
http://colecovision.eu/stm8/
So far there are only versions for two boards, but when I find time, I’ll add more.

Philipp

Torsten C
9 years ago

Your STM8S Board Schematics is wrong: The Test LED is between Ports D3 und B5. You can see it on your own photos.

Rohit
Rohit
9 years ago

@Torsten C
True! I also had some headache with electrodragon supplied schematic! It doesn’t match with my board which has LED on PB5 whereas in the electrodragon’s and above schematic it is shown PD3

Teo
Teo
9 years ago

You can write asm code for any STM7-8 with windows ST Visual Develop and debug with an STLinkV2 which is a matter of 3-4$ (just use native ST assembly toolchain). To use C source with ST Visual Develop and take benefith of the debug process i don’t know any toolchain except Raisonance and Cosmic solutions which are paid ones (but highly professional). You can also compile C code using sdcc on any operating system that supports it. There are also many ide supporting it. To upload/burn software, there is a free ST Visual Programmer for Windows and on linux/osx you… Read more »

Teo
Teo
9 years ago

I just discovered that the Cosmic toolset is free up to 8Kb

jonathan scott james
9 years ago

i tried for a while to build a hex disassembler but i am so mad that st won’t tell me how to get the stvd disassemble window to disassemble hex. or anything!!! hive me inspiration or help or sometyhing. p.s. i have the stlink and can write hex to the mcu and retrieve writen hex from the mcu. i just want to disassemble it so i can debug it

Wass
9 years ago

Hello everyone,
This STM8 dev board is amazing. I selected it for my Internet Of Things Platform.
It’s an open Hardware + Open Software project on Github. You’ll find there samples for the free development environment (IAR) for RGB leds, temperature sensor, nRF24L01p radio module,…
http://www.homesmartmesh.com/mediawiki/index.php/IoT_Node

Philipp Klaus Krause
8 years ago

A comparison of 4 current (mid 2016) C compilers for the STM8 can be found at:
http://colecovision.eu/stm8/compilers.shtml

Philipp

theguyuk
theguyuk
7 years ago

How about £0.51 delivered !

You cannot buy a first class stamp for that amount in UK.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pcs-lot-STM8S103F3P6-system-board-STM8S-STM8-development-board-minimum-core-board/32643048916.html

Joseph Tannenbaum
Joseph Tannenbaum
4 years ago

All the links are chinese?

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