Published August 1, 2024 © GPL3+

CH32V103R RISC-V Uno Board Form Factor Embeetle IDE

This development board has the same pin headers as the Arduino Uno. Let's program it with the Embeetle IDE blink demo.

BeginnerProtip2 hours207

Things used in this project

Hardware components

CH32V103 Development Board Integrated Link Debug Downloader

dupont connector jumper wires

Software apps and online services

Embeetle IDE Windows Linux

WCH-LinkUtility dot zip

Story

CH32V103R-R1-1v1 DevBoard

We say that this board has an Arduino form factor because it has the same pin headers as the Arduino Uno board and we can use shields for the Arduino.

Other boards may need an external USB flash programming device and dupont wire connections. This board already contains its own on-board flash programmer. See end of project for Windows driver advice.

IO Pin Headers

Yes, the Arduino Header does match the Arduino Uno board form factor. Morpho headers are a similar pinout format for STM-32 boards. You may use Arduino shields with this board carefully. Check code and wiring: I2C, SPI, UART pins may be different.

Follow the labels to see the match up in pinouts. The inner row of Morpho pins are the same as the Arduino pins and connect to the same IO on the processor chip. In another project we will program this board with the Arduino IDE program. These IO pins will become PA_0, PA_1, etc. in our sketches.

Connect LED1 and LED2

The board has two built-in LED lamps. We need to manually connect these lamps to our IO pins with dupont connector wires.

Connect LED1 to PA0 pin of the Arduino header. Connect LED2 to PA0 pin of the Morpho header. Make sure you connect to the outside row of the Morpho header.

Open Embeetle

Download and unzip Embeetle IDE studio for Windows or Linux. It is a program that we can run from the folder by clicking on the icon.

Embeetle Home

Click CREATE Generate project. Embeetle will refresh the list of available projects.

Filter Project List

You can select from a database of sample software. WCH products are at the end. The default location for this code download is your home folder.

We want to filter for the CH32V103 and there is a single demo program we can download. It will be the GPIO example to toggle PortApin 0.

Embeetle Editor

We will have to find and open our source code. Embeetle default opening page.

Filetree Panel

Use the Filetree panel to navigate through the source files. In Samples look for GPIO.

Open main.c

Inside GPIO_Toggle folder we see the input source files for our project. Double click on main.c to see our input program.

Force Include

There are a lot of source code files that are not included in our project. Green files are included, red are not. Right-click on the root folder and select Force include to start a scan.

A progress bar at the bottom will show file checking by the program. The other source folders can be run as demo programs.

GPIO_Toggle

Double click on main.c to see the program we will run. We've seen this same program configured for other processors. This time it toggles pin0 of GPIO PORTA. Change both the init function and main function to select another pin.

Build Project

Click the build icon in the menu bar. A new window opens scrolling output text messages. Check the messages to make sure you have a successful compilation of an elf file that has a meaningful size.

Build Folder

Embeetle has generated three output files that can be loaded into our processor to run. Embeetle uses a program called OpenOCD to upload our elf file. The default location is your home folder.

Upload Firmware

Click on the flash icon in the toolbar. The output panel scrolls the upload progress. Read through the messages. They should name a WCH-Link programming circuit. Linux may require you to install the openocd software package.

LED Blinks

Built-in LED1 and LED2 will blink at the rate selected in main.c.

Closer Look at the Code

If you want to change the GPIO pin that is toggled you have to modify both an INIT function and the main function. The delay value is in milliseconds.

This is a computer language called C. Arduino sketches are written in a language called C++ (see plus plus). They are both similar and different and we can move code from one to the other.

There are Errors!

Those are warnings. The compiler just has to use a variable in one data type as an equivalent value using casting. Don't worry about it, the code runs.

Windows Driver

Your Windows computer needs a driver to talk to the board through its LinkUtility flash programming circuit. If you are unable to upload your compiled program to your board then check the Device Manager to see if your PC knows what to do with the device.

Zadig is one way of installing a usable driver. Project Flash RISC-V Chips shows how to install a driver with the WCH-LinkUtility program.

We want to see it in the COM port list. The com port number will work for both flash programming and UART serial interface.

WCH-LinkUtility allows us to upload and download the flash program in the processor.

main.c

/********************************** (C) COPYRIGHT *******************************
 * File Name          : main.c
 * Author             : WCH
 * Version            : V1.0.0
 * Date               : 2020/04/30
 * Description        : Main program body.
 *********************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2021 Nanjing Qinheng Microelectronics Co., Ltd.
 * Attention: This software (modified or not) and binary are used for 
 * microcontroller manufactured by Nanjing Qinheng Microelectronics.
 *******************************************************************************/

/*
 *@Note
 *GPIO routine:
 *PA0 push-pull output.
 *
 */

#include "debug.h"

/* Global define */

/* Global Variable */

/*********************************************************************
 * @fn      GPIO_Toggle_INIT
 *
 * @brief   Initializes GPIOA.0
 *
 * @return  none
 */
void GPIO_Toggle_INIT(void)
{
    GPIO_InitTypeDef GPIO_InitStructure = {0};

    RCC_APB2PeriphClockCmd(RCC_APB2Periph_GPIOA, ENABLE);
    GPIO_InitStructure.GPIO_Pin = GPIO_Pin_0;
    GPIO_InitStructure.GPIO_Mode = GPIO_Mode_Out_PP;
    GPIO_InitStructure.GPIO_Speed = GPIO_Speed_50MHz;
    GPIO_Init(GPIOA, &GPIO_InitStructure);
}

/*********************************************************************
 * @fn      main
 *
 * @brief   Main program.
 *
 * @return  none
 */
int main(void)
{
    u8 i = 0;

    NVIC_PriorityGroupConfig(NVIC_PriorityGroup_2);
    SystemCoreClockUpdate();
    Delay_Init();
    USART_Printf_Init(115200);
    printf("SystemClk:%d\r\n", SystemCoreClock);
    printf( "ChipID:%08x\r\n", DBGMCU_GetCHIPID() );
    printf("GPIO Toggle TEST\r\n");
    GPIO_Toggle_INIT();

    while(1)
    {
        Delay_Ms(250);
        GPIO_WriteBit(GPIOA, GPIO_Pin_0, (i == 0) ? (i = Bit_SET) : (i = Bit_RESET));
    }
}

CH32V103R RISC-V Uno Board Form Factor Embeetle IDE

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

CH32V103R-R1-1v1 DevBoard

IO Pin Headers

Connect LED1 and LED2

Open Embeetle

Embeetle Home

Filter Project List

Embeetle Editor

Filetree Panel

Open main.c

Force Include

GPIO_Toggle

Build Project

Build Folder

Upload Firmware

LED Blinks

Closer Look at the Code

There are Errors!

Windows Driver

Code

main.c

Credits

Patrick Fitzgerald

Comments

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CH32V103R RISC-V Uno Board Form Factor Embeetle IDE

CH32V103R RISC-V Uno Board Form Factor Embeetle IDE

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

CH32V103R-R1-1v1 DevBoard

IO Pin Headers

Connect LED1 and LED2

Open Embeetle

Embeetle Home

Filter Project List

Embeetle Editor

Filetree Panel

Open main.c

Force Include

GPIO_Toggle

Build Project

Build Folder

Upload Firmware

LED Blinks

Closer Look at the Code

There are Errors!

Windows Driver

Code

main.c

Credits

Patrick Fitzgerald

Comments

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