This application provides an example of Azure RTOS USBX stack usage on NUCLEO-H7S3L8 board, it shows how to develop USB Device communication class "CDC_ACM" based application. The application is designed to emulate an USB-to-UART bridge following the Virtual COM Port (VCP) implementation, the code provides all required device descriptors framework and associated class descriptor report to build a compliant USB CDC_ACM device. At the beginning ThreadX calls the entry function tx_application_define(), at this stage, all USBx resources are initialized, the CDC_ACM class driver is registered and the application creates 3 threads with the same priorities :
- app_ux_device_thread_entry (Prio : 10; PreemptionPrio : 10) used to initialize USB_OTG HAL PCD driver and start the device.
- usbx_cdc_acm_read_thread_entry (Prio : 20; PreemptionPrio : 20) used to Read the received data from Virtual COM Port.
- usbx_cdc_acm_write_thread_entry (Prio : 20; PreemptionPrio : 20) used to send the received data over UART.
During enumeration phase, three communication pipes "endpoints" are declared in the CDC class implementation :
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1 x Bulk IN endpoint for receiving data from STM32 device to PC host: When data are received over UART they are saved in the buffer "UserTxBufferFS". Periodically, in a usbx_cdc_acm_write_thread_entry the state of the buffer "UserTxBufferFS" is checked. If there are available data, they are transmitted in response to IN token otherwise it is NAKed.
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1 x Bulk OUT endpoint for transmitting data from PC host to STM32 device: When data are received through this endpoint they are saved in the buffer "UserRxBufferFS" then they are transmitted over UART using DMA mode and in meanwhile the OUT endpoint is NAKed. Once the transmission is over, the OUT endpoint is prepared to receive next packet in HAL_UART_RxCpltCallback().
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1 x Interrupt IN endpoint for setting and getting serial-port parameters: When control setup is received, the corresponding request is executed in USBD_CDC_ACM_ParameterChange.
In this application, two requests are implemented:
- Set line: Set the bit rate, number of stop bits, parity, and number of data bits
- Get line: Get the bit rate, number of stop bits, parity, and number of data bits
The other requests (send break, control line state) are not implemented.
Notes
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Receiving data over UART is handled by interrupt while transmitting is handled by DMA allowing hence the application to receive data at the same time it is transmitting another data (full- duplex feature).
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The user has to check the list of the COM ports in Device Manager to find out the COM port number that have been assigned (by OS) to the VCP interface.
When plugged to PC host, the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 must be properly enumerated as a USB Serial device and an STlink Com port. During the enumeration phase, the device must provide host with the requested descriptors (device descriptor, configuration descriptor, string descriptors). Those descriptors are used by host driver to identify the device capabilities. Once NUCLEO-H7S3L8 USB device successfully completed the enumeration phase, open two hyperterminals (USB com port and UART com port(USB STLink VCP)) to send/receive data to/from host from/to device.
Host PC shows that USB device does not operate as designed (CDC Device enumeration failed, PC and Device can not communicate over VCP ports).
User is familiar with USB 2.0 "Universal Serial BUS" specification and CDC_ACM class specification.
None
This application runs from the external flash memory. It is launched from a first boot stage and inherits from this boot project configuration (caches, MPU regions [region 0 and 1], system clock at 600 MHz and external memory interface at the highest speed). Note that the boot part is automatically downloaded from the IDE environment via the board boot binary under Binary/Boot_XIP.hex file.
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ThreadX uses the Systick as time base, thus it is mandatory that the HAL uses a separate time base through the TIM IPs.
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ThreadX is configured with 100 ticks/sec by default, this should be taken into account when using delays or timeouts at application. It is always possible to reconfigure it in the "tx_user.h", the "TX_TIMER_TICKS_PER_SECOND" define,but this should be reflected in "tx_initialize_low_level.S" file too.
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ThreadX is disabling all interrupts during kernel start-up to avoid any unexpected behavior, therefore all system related calls (HAL, BSP) should be done either at the beginning of the application or inside the thread entry functions.
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ThreadX offers the "tx_application_define()" function, that is automatically called by the tx_kernel_enter() API. It is highly recommended to use it to create all applications ThreadX related resources (threads, semaphores, memory pools...) but it should not in any way contain a system API call (HAL or BSP).
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Using dynamic memory allocation requires to apply some changes to the linker file. ThreadX needs to pass a pointer to the first free memory location in RAM to the tx_application_define() function, using the "first_unused_memory" argument. This requires changes in the linker files to expose this memory location.
- For EWARM add the following section into the .icf file:
place in RAM_region { last section FREE_MEM };
- For MDK-ARM:
either define the RW_IRAM1 region in the ".sct" file or modify the line below in "tx_initialize_low_level.S to match the memory region being used LDR r1, =|Image$$RW_IRAM1$$ZI$$Limit|
- For STM32CubeIDE add the following section into the .ld file:
._threadx_heap : { . = ALIGN(8); __RAM_segment_used_end__ = .; . = . + 64K; . = ALIGN(8); } >RAM_D1 AT> RAM_D1
The simplest way to provide memory for ThreadX is to define a new section, see ._threadx_heap above. In the example above the ThreadX heap size is set to 64KBytes. The ._threadx_heap must be located between the .bss and the ._user_heap_stack sections in the linker script. Caution: Make sure that ThreadX does not need more than the provided heap memory (64KBytes in this example). Read more in STM32CubeIDE User Guide, chapter: "Linker script".
- The "tx_initialize_low_level.S" should be also modified to enable the "USE_DYNAMIC_MEMORY_ALLOCATION" flag.
- The DTCM (0x20000000) memory region should not be used by application in case USB DMA is enabled
- Should make sure to configure the USB pool memory region with attribute "Non-Cacheable" to ensure coherency between CPU and USB DMA.
RTOS, ThreadX, USBXDevice, USBPD, USB_OTG, Full Speed, CDC, VCP, USART, DMA.
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This example runs on STM32H7S3L8xx devices
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This example has been tested with STMicroelectronics NUCLEO-H7S3L8 boards Revision MB1737-H7S3L8-B01 and can be easily tailored to any other supported device and development board.
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NUCLEO-H7S3L8 Set-up
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Connect the NUCLEO-H7S3L8 board CN2 to the PC through "TYPE-C" to "Standard A" cable.
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For VCP the configuration is dynamic for example it can be :
- BaudRate = 115200 baud
- Word Length = 8 Bits
- Stop Bit = 1
- Parity = None
- Flow control = None
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The USART3 interface available on PD8 and PD9 of the microcontroller are connected to ST-LINK MCU. By default the USART3 communication between the target MCU and ST-LINK MCU is enabled. It's configuration is as following:
- BaudRate = 115200 baud
- Word Length = 8 Bits
- Stop Bit = 1
- Parity = None
- Flow control = None
Note
- In case User configures USB VCP baudrate under 9600 the USART3 baudrate shall be set to 9600.
To configure STM32CubeIDE Debug Configuration, you must do the following :
1. Add the adequate external loader (MX25UW25645G_STM32H7R38-NUCLEO.stldr file) in Project->Debugger Configuration
2. Add in the startup the Boot_XIP.elf file in Project->Debugger Configuration
3. Move up the application in the startup
In order to make the program work, you must do the following:
- Open your preferred toolchain
- Rebuild all files and load your image into target memory
- Run the application