STM simplifies IoT node development

  • July 15, 2020
  • Steve Rogerson

Swiss firm ST Microelectronics is simplifying the complex software challenges that face developers of IoT nodes by introducing a discovery kit and expansion software.
 
The B-L4S5I-IOT01A STM32 discovery kit comes with a qualified port of Free RTOS, fully integrated into the STM 32Cube ecosystem and ready to connect to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
 
The hardware comprises an STM32L4+ microcontroller board that contains a selection of MEMS sensors, an STSafe-A110 secure element, Bluetooth 4.2 and wifi modules, and an NFC tag with printed antenna for flexible, low-power communications with cloud servers.
 
Coming with the X-Cube-AWS v2.0 32Cube expansion pack, the kit can be used as a reference design to simplify and accelerate completion of the final product.
 
The X-Cube-AWS v2.0 pack ensures proper integration of the Free RTOS standard AWS connectivity framework within the 32Cube environment. This lets users take advantage of both Free RTOS and 32Cube without developing additional software.
 
It also supports AWS native services including standard firmware-over-the-air (FOTA) tasks and handles interactions with the on-board STSafe-A110 secure element, including taking care of AWS IoT Core multi-account registration and assigning security-critical operations during boot-up, device authentication and FOTA verification.
 
The STM 32L4+ board can meet the performance demands and energy constraints typically placed on IoT nodes. The 32L4S5VIT6 low-power Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller combines 2Mbyte flash, 640kbyte RAM, digital and analogue peripherals, and hardware encryption accelerator.
 
On-board sensors comprise the HTS221 capacitive digital relative-humidity and temperature sensor, LIS3MDL three-axis magnetometer, LSM6DSL 3D accelerometer and 3D gyroscope, LPS22HB absolute digital output barometer, VL53L0X time-of-flight and gesture-detection sensor, and two digital omnidirectional microphones.
 
The B-L4S5I-IOT01A discovery kit can be ordered directly from STM or distributors for $54. The X-Cube-AWS v2.0 STM 32Cube expansion pack is ready to download free of charge.