ST & Arduino expand maker-community access to STM32

The first product of the STAR (ST and ARduino) programme, the STM32F469-based STAR Otto baseboard, will be demonstrated at the Bay Area Maker Faire, 20th to 22nd May 2016. Now, IoT developers and other makers can build high-performance graphics into their smart devices using accessible hardware and software to improve their applications with easy-to-use touch displays and audio for command and control as well as for media-streaming use cases.

STAR Otto presents to the Arduino environment exceptional performance from the 32-bit STM32F469 MCU, which includes ST’s Chrom-ART graphics accelerator and MIPI DSI display interface along with an open-source software graphics library. Moreover, STAR Otto uniquely provides a pre-integrated wireless link and audio capabilities, enabled by an ST MEMS microphone together with the necessary open-source drivers. This efficient and optimised approach lets makers focus on their value-add and makes integration a breeze while enabling a broad range of smart home and smart industry applications.

In addition to the STAR Otto MCU baseboard, the cooperation aims to deliver a range of Arduino shields that expand the functional possibilities. DSI-display and NFC-reader shields are planned for Q2 2016 and a sensor shield is scheduled to be available in H2 2016. Several STM32 Nucleo expansion boards and software libraries, including those for environmental sensors and proximity detection, have already been ported to the Arduino IDE and can seamlessly be used with the new STAR Otto baseboard.

Daniel Colonna, Marketing Director, Microcontroller Division, STMicroelectronics, commented: “By adding ST’s broad family of industry-leading STM32 ARM Cortex-M-based MCUs to the Arduino universe along with a broad array of ST sensors and other components, makers will have at their fingertips the ability to design, build and manufacture just about anything. Because of the tremendous enthusiasm within the maker community for smart home and smart industry applications, we’re supporting those development efforts with our audio- and graphics-friendly STM32F469 MCU and other exciting products from ST broad portfolio.”

“Arduino has grown by encouraging kids - from 10 to 100 years old - to learn electronics and programming to make projects by building on the learnings of others and now we’re excited to add the STM32 family into the Maker community, to broaden learning with new features such as audio input/output and touchscreen display control. We fully expect commercial IoT companies to also use these new features to easily design new smart home devices and applications, or improve products that drive industrial automation and control," added Federico Musto, CEO & President, Arduino S.r.L.