Astrobe is supported on a range of development boards using Raspberry Pi, STMicroelectronics and Xilinx devices. If you have not already chosen or designed your hardware we recommend starting with one of these boards for the quickest way to get up and running. The supported boards can be programmed from a Windows PC without any additional hardware.
The possible ways to program a particular development board depend on its capabilities:
- Pi Pico and Pi Pico 2 boards:
Use a UART to USB adapter board or cable to connect the Pi Pico to a USB port on your PC. Connect or Reset the Pi Pico while pressing the BOOTSEL button and it will appear as a removable drive on the PC. Select the Upload USB Drive command from the Astrobe Run menu. - Mbed-enabled boards:
Use a USB cable to connect your Mbed-enabled board to your PC. Connect or Reset the board and it will appear as a removable drive on your PC. Select the Upload USB Drive command from the Astrobe Run menu. - RISC5 FPGA boards :
Connect the board to your PC via an RS232 or USB serial port. Select the Upload UART command from the Astrobe Run menu.
The Run command on the Astrobe Project menu opens a terminal window on your PC. You can use this window to send and receive text to / from your program on the microcontroller using functions from the Astrobe library modules In and Out. Diagnostic runtime error messages are also displayed in this window. The messages identify the line number and name name of the source code file where the error occurred enabling you to quickly pinpoint the source of the problem.
Raspberry Pi Microcontrollers
Astrobe for RP2040 and Astrobe for RP2350 can be used to develop software for the Raspberry Pi Pico and Raspberry Pi Pico 2 development boards.
RP2040
- Pi Pico
RP2350
- Pi Pico 2
STM32 Microcontrollers
Astrobe for Cortex-M can be used to develop software for the STM32 Nucleo development boards. Both general and hardware-specific library and example modules are supplied with Astrobe for the following STM32 Cortex-M0/M0+, M3, M4 and M7 microcontrollers. They can be used as a starting point to target other STM32-compatible microcontrollers.
Cortex-M0/M0+
- STM32F070
- STM32F091
Cortex-M3
- STM32L152
- STM32F207
Cortex-M4
- STM32F303
- STM32F334
- STM32F429
- STM32L432
Cortex-M7
- STM32F746
- STM32F767
Refer to the relevant Microcontroller User Manuals for full operational details
Xilinx FPGA
Astrobe for RISC5 can be used to develop software for Xilinx FPGA devices.
RISC5 FPGA
- Artix-7
- Spartan-7
Development Boards
Astrobe has been tested on all of the following development boards. The prices are approximate.
RP2040/2350 Price Raspberry Pi Pico $US 4 Raspberry Pi Pico 2 $US 5
Cortex-M0/M0+ Price STM32 Nucleo-F070RB $US 12 STM32 Nucleo-F091RC $US 12
Cortex-M3 Price STM32 Nucleo-L152RE $US 15 STM32 Nucleo-F207ZG $US 26
Cortex-M4 Price STM32 Nucleo-F303RE $US 12 STM32 Nucleo-F303ZE $US 21 STM32 Nucleo-F334R8 $US 12 STM32 Nucleo-F429ZI $US 26 STM32 Nucleo-L432KC $US 12
Cortex-M7 Price STM32 Nucleo-F746ZG $US 26 STM32 Nucleo-F767ZI $US 26
Digilent FPGA RISC5 Price Academic Price Cmod A7-35T $US 99 Basys 3 $US 165 $US 124 Arty A7-100T $US 299 Nexys A7-100T $US 349 $US 262 Cmod S7-25 $US 99 Arty S7-25 $US 119 Arty S7-50 $US 199