Introduction: STM32 Board With Arduino IDE STM32F103C8T6

Hi Guys since a lot of people use arduino boards but as we know they have some limitations so few other boards came into light as an arduino alternative which can deliver better performance and better features than an Arduino and one of them is STM32. STM32 board is even cheaper than Arduino uno and its capabilities are way better than An arduino uno but since they are not natively supported by Arduino IDE we need to add them manually to Arduino IDE. So in this instructables we will add STM32 boards to Arduino IDE & we will program this board using Arduino IDE.

Step 1: Things You Need

For this instructables we will need following things :

STM32 :


USB CABLE:



FTDI:"



Breadboard & Few Jumpers

Step 2: STM32 BOARD Specifications ( STM32F103C8T6 )

The specifications of STM32F103C8T6 are provided below & as well as in image. :


Manufacturer STMicroelectronics
Series STM32F1
Core Processor ARM® Cortex®-M3
Core Size 32-Bit
Speed 72MHz
Connectivity CANbus, I²C, IrDA, LINbus, SPI, UART/USART, USB
Peripherals DMA, Motor Control PWM, PDR, POR, PVD, PWM, Temp Sensor, WDT
Number of I/O 37
Program Memory Size 64KB (64K x 8)
Program Memory Type FLASH
EEPROM Size -
RAM Size 20K x 8
Voltage - Supply (Vcc/Vdd) 2V ~ 3.6V
Data Converters A/D 10x12b
Oscillator Type Internal
Operating Temperature -40°C ~ 85°C (TA)

Step 3: Install STM32 Boards in Arduino IDE

Please follow the below instructions and provided images to install stm32 boards in arduino ide :

1- Launch Arduino.cc IDE. Click on "File" menu and then "Preferences".

The "Preferences" dialog will open, then add the following link to the "Additional Boards Managers URLs" field:

"http://dan.drown.org/stm32duino/package_STM32duino_index.json"

Click "Ok"

2- Click on "Tools" menu and then "Boards > Boards Manager"

The board manager will open and you will see a list of installed and available boards.

Select the "STM32 F103Cxxx" and click on install.

After installation is complete an "INSTALLED" tag appears next to the core name.

You can close the Board Manager.

Now you can find the STM32 boards package in the "Board" menu.

Select the desired boards series : STM32F103Cxxx

Select the board

Step 4: Connections for Programming the Board

To program the stm32 you need to follow these given circuit .To program it you need to get Stm32 obviously and other one is usb to ttl converter, so get a USB to TTL converter and follow the shown schmatics.

Step 5: Programming the Board

Now open the blink sketch in your arduino IDE and change the pin no to "PC13" because the onboard led of stm32 is on PC13 pin then select the settings in tools section ( like : boards,com port, upload method etc. According to shown image) & Upload the code to your stm32 and the onboard pc13 led will start blinking as mine in images ( sorry about the image quality ) and even to see it blinking propely you can add a external LED to PC13 as well. So have fun making projects with STM32 BOARD.