WeAct STM32H743 is a small MCU development board powered by a 480 MHz STMicro STM32H743VIT6 Cortex-M7 microcontroller and equipped with a small LCD and a camera connector taking OV2640, OV5640-AF, OV7670, or OV7725 camera sensors.
The board comes with 2048KB flash and 1MB RAM built into the STM32H7 microcontroller, 8MB SPI flash, 8MB QSPI flash, a microSD for data storage, USB-C port for power and programming, a few buttons, and plenty of I/Os accessible through two 44-pin headers.
WeAct STM32H743 specifications:
- MCU – STMicro STM32H743VIT6 Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller at 480MHz with FPU, DSP, and MPU, 2048KB flash, 1MB RAM
- Storage – 8MB SPI Flash, 8MB QSPI Flash (bootable), microSD card socket
- Display – 0.96-inch TFT LCD based on ST7735 SPI display driver
- Camera
- 8-bit Digital Camera Interface (DCMI) with autofocus support
- OV2640 (1600×1200), OV5640-AF (2592×1944 with autofocus), OV7670 (640×480), or OV7725 (640×480) camera sensors are supported
- USB – 1x USB-C for power and programming
- Debugging – 4-pin SWD header
- Expansion – 2x 44-pin 2.54mm pitch headers
- Misc
- BOOT0 key, NRST key, user key (PC13)
- Blue power LED
- Power Supply
- 5V input via USB-C port
- 3.3V to 5.5V input via pin header
- SY8088AAC step down DC/DC regulator IC up to 1A
- Dimensions – 66.88 x 40.64 mm
While I found the WeAct STM32H743 in a new arrivals feed on Aliexpress, the relevant GitHub repository has commits from 3 to 4 years ago (one a few from last year)with PDF schematics, datasheets for components and camera modules, a C SDK with various samples, and support for the OpenMV 4.4.1 open-source machine vision project. WeAct Studio also says they haven’t released the factory test firmware, as some other companies do, to prevent duplicates with lower quality… As we noted in a recent article about the WeAct STM32G4 board, there’s no easy getting-started guide or pinout diagram, so it may require some efforts and/or knowledge to get the board working.
The WeAct STM32H743 board can be purchased on Aliexpress for $13.96 including shipping with GPIO and SWD headers, but without a camera. Bundles with cameras (OV7725, OV2640, or OV7725 M12 ) can be had for $16.26 to $20.48. I could not find any kits with the OV5640-AF and OV7670 camera sensors, but it’s quite possible the WeAct board is compatible with the OV5640-AF camera module that works with the official OpenMV camera boards.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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I bought one of these a bit over 3 years ago. Then I wanted more, and it had disappeared: WeAct said that they weren’t able to get the CPU at a reasonable cost (which makes sense, this was the bad old component shortage days). I’m glad it’s back, both because I want more of them, and also hopefully it’ll get better supported by various projects.
During the chip shortage they started doing a STM32H750 variant instead, it had lower internal flash but had 8 Mb of SPI flash instead.
Now they also do a STM32H723 variant with up to 550 MHz and another variant using the STM32H7B0 at 280 MHz.
The STM32G4 series is worth looking at too, it has a lot of analogue peripherals and is cheaper. It also supports USB PD on the MCU and the onboard regulators can handle it too.
Their dev boards are just generic dev boards, you just need to know how to use the MCU itself.
As you mention this board has existed for years but they seem to have recently changed a few things in the store but it is the same board. It stopped being available due to the chip shortage and they came out with a few more variants instead, like the STM32H750 and STM32H7B0.
A while ago they brought the STM32H743 version back and brought out a STM32H723 variant too.
From what I can tell all the variants use the same PCB just with a different MCU on them and sometimes the optional SPI flash pads are populated.