Visual Studio Code is more an editor with debugger support than a full IDE, it takes a bit fiddling to set up and get right. Basically you don’t have any setup screens and have to edit your project in files with XML syntax. I am not sure if I will use this for everything, but VSCode has definitely come to stay – it simply is to handy to have around as code editor for various things alone.

VSCode itself is a framework that allow extensions to be added, and extensions exist for a lot of things. STM32 is currently supported through PlatformIO (www.platformio.org). Sadly the STM32 support is still a bit limited, so I have not been able to test to much and setting it up is a bit fiddly. PlatformIO IDE is not really free – they maintain a community version, but that seems to lack essential features to be of any real use.

One annoying issue with VSCode is that it’s folders are physical within a hierarchy – myself I arrange the project on top with a strict set of sub-folders. What IDE people use differs with developer so I like to hide this in sub-folders. That does however not prevent me from editing

All in All – Visual Code got my interest, but I am not sure about Platform IO yet – neither am I sure I actually could commit a full project to VSCode alone.

You will find breakout’s for VL53L0X in numbers on net shops, they are still a bit price around 10ich USD – but the chip cost 2.6 USD so I expect them to drop down fast – competition & popularity is to high for them not to as soon as the vendors sort their logistics out.

Having a breakout is however not the same as having a working solution. The breakout above is one of the better I have seen being close to an actual, working sensor.

If I ever want to know where my wife’s cat’s are hiding I only need to start this 12 servo monster – I instantly have a horde of cat audience…

I will mount the control system on the inside of the box, but I still have to sort out the battery & PSU. Knowing that my Lab PSU was failing I want to redo some of the power tests. What happened with the Arduino stack was that Arduino kept re-booting as the Servo’s started. I now believe this might be caused by the Lab PSU and that I can get away with less peaks than I calculated.

Another solution is to get a 7V (2 cell) battery and use that directly avoiding the need of a PSU handling 10A in peaks. The Servo PSU are separate from MCU PSU as well, so we can avoid that the Servo’s drag down the MCU anyway.

As mentioned earlier the legs here are actually 2.- USD pan&tilt camera holders misused for this purpose – I need to look for a different solution is these will break after some usage, but not before they have served their test purpose. For me this is about having a bit of fun while I am testing concepts related to Plain & distributed control systems :).

I initially planned on using Raspberry PI 3 or 2 here, but Zero W is perfect for this usage – a Minuture Linux computer with Wifi & Bluetooth all for 10.- USD.  I don’t need the bigger Linux computer for operating the robot – my STM32 does that much better, but RPI add’s the Wifi with security + it adds the AI capability – I can actually program the robot to remember map’s and how to get from A to B etc – meaning it becomes more than just a ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle).

My wife’s cat’s are trying to break into my lab…

I am constantly looking out for IDE’s to improve my productivity in Software, so I wanted to share with you my recent experiences in the area. This review focus on STM32 development.

1. Visual Studio.

Having used Visual Studio since it came around as Visual C++ 1.0 some 20+ years ago it has always been my first choice if available. I have tried to replace it on Windows development several times because it used to be Windows only, but always ended up returning. These days, with Visual Studio being free and moving into Linux, Android, STM32 and Arduino to mention a few it’s not any discussion. I use Visual Studio because it is the best IDE out there.

The source code editor for C and C++ is great with a good editor and navigation. But, I could write source code in Notepad or Vi (actually have done) if it came to that – I can adapt to any editor.

The one thing that may me stick to Visual Studio is that “things work” – no fuzz or jumping around. Their debugger have always been the best talking as a Windows developer, but I have missed Visual Studio on Linux (Raspberry PI) and STM32.

These days this is not an issue – Linux support you get for free and STM32 is supported through the VisualGDB extension. For me this means I can develop Windows, Android, Linux and STM32 from within the same IDE.

The debugger in Visual Studio is important. You press F5 and your app start and you can single step, look at variables and do all the things you expect from a debugger – no fuzz because it works.

2. Eclipse.

Eclipse have support for more or less every platform out there and is a good choice. I have recently started using Eclipse with “System Workbench for STM32”. This integrate with STM32CubeMX which makes it a good combination. CubeMX allows you to “wire” your chip and have driver code and setup generated. It is a bit fiddly to get started, but once you get it to work it really makes a difference.

As mentioned an Editor is an Editor. Eclipse is great for Java developers, but I write C/C++. So that is what you get – I have used Eclipse in many variations over the years and it’s great for what it is. I started to test this because friends who do not use Visual Studio talked about this for STM32 and it is decently good.

It can be a bit fiddly to get the ST-Link working at times + the debugger support seems to have room for improvement. I have not tested C++ on this yet, but so far I admit that this would be worth a try.

3. CooCox IDE

This is also based on Eclipse and have for some time been my choice for STM32 development. They have a better grasp of embedded development with a good repository where you can pick up modules and a working help system. What I liked with CoIDE was that it was easy to get started and that St-Link always worked.

The reason I move away from this is because development seems to have stalled after version 1.7.8 which don’t support the new drivers from ST. I have tested their new Beta, but can’t get it to work properly.

Others…

Other options do exist. The commercial options have never really been an option + they tend to focus more on enabling bare minimum than being great.

Conclusion

For me it’s not really a choise. I have used Visual Studio for so many years and with Windows, Raspberry PI and STM32 so tightly integrated into the same environment it becomes to attractive. VisualGDB cost ca 80.- USD so this is not completely free, but it is worth it IMO.

I have not tried STM32CubeMX together with Visual Studio, but it should be straight forward – that said I only use CubeMX for testing. In real projects I set up my own HAL and organize code properly not outside the controll of any IDE – in fact I often maintain several IDE’s because different developers have different preferences.