STM32 kit from STMicroelectronics adds features for IoT deployment
The STM32L4 IoT Discovery kit (B-L475E-IOT01A) from STMicroelectronics gives developers several options for building IoT (Internet of Things) nodes. It supports multiple low-power wireless standards and Wi-Fi, while integrating a collection of motion, gesture, and environmental sensors, that are unavailable on other kits in the market, says STMicroelectronics.
Designed to help promptly connect IoT devices to Cloud services power-efficiently and cost-effectively, STMicroelectronics’ STM32L4 IoT Discovery development kit adds modules for Bluetooth low energy (BLE), sub-GHz RF, and Wi-Fi, with a dynamic NFC-tag IC with printed antenna to a high-performance, ultra-low power STM32L4 microcontroller, all on the same board.
The selection of sensors, leveraging STMicroelectronics’ portfolio of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) and laser-ranging devices, support both user interaction and environmental awareness. A MEMS accelerometer and gyroscope IC and MEMS magnetometer for nine-axis motion sensing, a barometric pressure sensor, temperature/humidity sensor, two omnidirectional digital microphones, as well as a FlightSense proximity and gesture sensor, are ready to use with no extra integration effort needed.
The STM32L4 IoT Discovery kit lets users take advantage of ST’Microelectronics’ X-CUBE-AWS expansion software to quickly connect to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT platform, and access tools and services in the Cloud, such as device monitoring and control, data analysis, and machine learning. Support for other Cloud providers will be added in future, says STMicroelectronics, as well as software function packs that provide all the components needed to prototype end-to-end IoT solutions, including pre-integrated full application examples.
The STM32L4 IoT Discovery kit is based on an 80MHz STM32L475 32-bit microcontroller that combines the ARM Cortex-M4 core featuring DSP extensions, 1Mbyte on-chip flash, and low-power technologies to help build smart IoT devices on a tight power budget. The combination of MCU performance with sensor and wireless integration on the board, coupled with custom functionality which may be added using the industry-standard Arduino and Pmod expansion connectors, means the possibilities are as unbounded as the developer’s imagination. These two established ecosystems give access to a large selection of expansion boards, which can be quickly connected and easily integrated, say STMicroelectronics.
Equipped with the ST-Link debugger/programmer on-board, the STM32L4 Discovery kit IoT node does not need any external probe, and can be used with ARM Keil MDK-ARM, IAR EWARM, or GCC/LLVM-based integrated development environments (IDEs) including free AC6 SW4STM32, or with mbed online tools.
