Micropython development on MacOS for STM Controllers

[WolleKette]

So far I have developed software for ESP32 controllers under MacOS. Now I need a controller with 12-bit ADC and 12-bit DAC for a project and came across the controllers from STM (e. g. STM32L452xx). I read that these are supported by Micropython and was excited.
But I find confusing information about the toolchain on macOS.

There I find instructions how to install a STM32CubeIDE under MacOS and somewhere else it says that MacOS is not supported by STM32CubeIDE. Then there is STLINK, supposedly the predecessor of STM32CubeIDE, at Homebrew available for the Mac.

Does anyone have experience with using MacOS (Intel) to develop micropython software for STM controllers?

[dlech]

MicroPython includes it's own copy of the STM32 Cube libraries in a git submodule, so there is nothing special about macOS in this regard. You do not need any special software other than the Arm GCC toolchain.

[dlech]

I think I usually use the /dev/tty* device rather than the /dev/cu* device. There are also tools like mpremote that simplify things.

[WolleKette]

I've now ordered a NUCLEO-L476RG board.
With mpremote, I get a repl from my mac. And nicely, the board is even supported a bit by PyCharm. There I also get a REPL connection. But I'm unable to connect via VS-Code or Thonny.

In my other projects with ESP32 boards, I have always written the programs in PyCharm (comfortable editor) and transferred and debugged them via Thonny. I have also experimented with VS code. But with the STM boards I have no idea how to work with it.

[WolleKette]

I would like to add something after playing around with it a bit. The whole thing is quite unstable.
There are statements that verifiably lead to a crash. dir(pyb.Pin) for example.

>>> dir(pyb.Pin)
['__class__', '__name__', 'dict', 'value', '__bases__', '__dict__', 'AF12_SDMMC1', 'AF14_TIM15', 'AF14_TIM16', 'AF14_TIM17', 'AF14_TIM2', 'AF1_TIM1', 'AF1_TIM2', 'AF2_TIM2', 'AF2_TIM3', 'AF2_TIM4', 'AF2_TIM5', 'AF3_TIM8', 'AF4_I2C1', 'AF4_I2C2', 'AF4_I2C3', 'AF5_SPI1', 'AF5_SPI2', 'AF7_USART1', 'AF7_USART2', 'AF7_USART3', 'AF8_LPUART1', 'AF8_UART4', 'AF8_UART5', 'AF9_CAN1', 'AF_OD', 'AF_PP', 'ALT', 'ALT_OPEN_DRAIN', 'ANALOG', 'IN', 'IRQ_FALLING', 'IRQ_RISING', 'OPEN_DRAIN', 'OUT', 'OUT_OD', 'OUT_PP', 'PULL_DOWN', 'PULL_NONE', 'PULL_UP', 'af', 'af_list', 'board', 'cpu', 'debug', 'gpio', 'high', 'init', 'irq', 'low', 'mapper', 'mode', 'name', 'names', 'off', 'on', 'pin', 'port', 'pull']

PROBLEM IN THONNY'S BACK-END: Exception while handling 'execute_source' (thonny.plugins.micropython.mp_back.ProtocolError: Could not read command confirmation).
See Thonny's backend.log for more info.
You may need to press "Stop/Restart" or hard-reset your MicroPython device and try again.


Process ended with exit code 1.

I can't find anything special in the mentioned log files

[robert-hh]

Try that without Thonny, e.g
using mpremote for REPL.

[WolleKette]

Oh sorry, the post accidentally ended up in the wrong forum. I had also reported the problem in the Thonny Support Forum and got a hint there. But that doesn't matter. Maybe it also interests someone here.

Before I could connect with Thonny and consequently before my attempts with the dir() function (my post above), I had to make one more change in the Thonny configuration file. So if someone has the same problem, here is the link to the thread:
Thonny - Backend problem with Nucleo L476RG