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Start a CubeMX Project

STM32CubeMX is a graphical software which generates code to configure an STM32 Microcontroller.

The project must be configured correctly to fit our build system.

Tip

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Create a new project

Open CubeMX and start a new project.

new project

In the "MCU/MPU Selector" tab, search for the microcontroller. Most of MAC FSAE boards are STM32F767ZIT6. Select the board and click "Start Project."

Info

If you are using a "discovery board" like a Nucleo or the dashboard's STM32F469-DISCO, search for the board under "Board Selector" as this will configure many of the IO for the board's hardware.

select mcu

When prompted about Memory Protection, select "Yes." If asked, initialize all peripherals in their default mode.

memory protection

Do not save!

CubeMX will now create your new project but do not save it yet! Some settings cannot be changed after the first save.

Configure project settings

Go to the "Project Manager → Project" tab and configure the "Project Settings":

  • Project Name = board_config

  • Project Location = Browse and select racecar/firmware/projects/<PROJECT>/platforms/stm32f767

    Replace <PROJECT> with your project folder created in this tutorial.

    stm32f767 can be changed as appropriate.

  • Application Structure = Basic

  • Check Do not generate main()
  • Toolchain Folder Location = leave as is.
  • Toolchain / IDE = CMake

project-config

You can ignore the Linker, Thread-safe, and Package settings sections.

Configure "Project Manager → Code Generator → Generated files"

  • Check Generate peripheral initialization as a pair of '.c/.h' files
  • Uncheck Backup previously generate files
  • Uncheck Keep User Code

  • Check Delete previously generated files

    Info

    CubeMX generates C files which you can add code to, but our Architecture works at a higher level. Therefore, we do not support adding code to the generated files. Unchecking these settings enforces this rule since user code will be removed.

project-config

Save Now

You can now save the project. Click "File → Save Project" or Ctrl+S.

Build system integration

Close CubeMX and open the Project Location we set earlier. You should see platforms/stm32f767/board_config/board_config.ioc. Rename the board_config/ folder to cubemx/ but do not rename the board_config.ioc file.

Why do we do this?

We shouldn't need to. The CMake build system is hardcoded to look for a board_config.ioc file in a cubemx/ folder.

If you want to write a better CMake function which takes the folder/filename as parameters, please be my guest. (Don't forget to update these docs afterwards!)

Create a .gitignore file to ignore all generated files in the cubemx/ folder. We only track the .ioc configuration file and let CubeMX regenerate the code files locally.

platforms/stm32f767/cubemx/.gitignore
# Do not track any files generated by STM32CubeMX.
*
!.gitignore
!.board_config.ioc

Create an mcal_conf.cmake file for the platform to inform the build system of how to generate the CubeMX code at build time.

platforms/stm32f767/mcal_conf.cmake
set(MCAL stm32f767)
include(${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/build_cubemx.cmake)

The set(MCAL ...) command is required in any platform's mcal_conf.

The second line is unique to stm32 platforms, providing CubeMX generation and the arm-none-eabi toolchain.

Finally, create a CMakeLists with commands to link the CubeMX code to our main executable.

platforms/stm32f767/CMakeLists.txt
target_sources(main PRIVATE bindings.cc)
target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE mcal-stm32f767)

add_subdirectory(cubemx/cmake/stm32cubemx)
target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE stm32cubemx)

Note

bindings.cc doesn't exist yet, see the next tutorial.

Your CubeMX project is now ready to be compiled within racecar/! But the microcontroller hasn't been configured to do anything yet. Let's change that in the next tutorial.