New Industry Products

One-Board Discovery Kit with Three, 8-Pin Microcontrollers

February 09, 2019 by Scott McMahan

For under $10, the STM8-SO8-DISCO 8-bit microcontroller (MCU) Discovery Kit from STMicroelectronics lets users evaluate all three STM8 variants currently available in the popular 8-pin SO8 package.

As well as an outstanding three-in-one value, the kit offers no-frills simplicity and features to jump-start the next stage of development. A single button and indicator LED are incorporated for interacting with the board, and the embedded STLINK/V2 and USB port simplify in-circuit debugging and programming from a connected PC. Debugging of an external target is also possible with a SWIM connector.

The MCUs are soldered onto individual break-offs that can be separated from the compact main board as pluggable DIL-8 modules ready to start prototyping. The supported MCUs are the STM8S001J3M3, STM8L001J3M3, and STM8L050J3M3.

The STM8S001J3M3 delivers affordable performance with features such as advanced 16-bit timers with three comparator outputs, three capture-compare channels, a 10-bit ADC, and an 8-bit timer. The ultra-low-power STM8L001J3M3 consumes just 0.3µA in halt mode and integrates 8- and 16-bit timers and two comparators. Also employing ultra-low-power technology, the STM8L050J3M3 adds a 12-bit ADC and 4-channel DMA controller.

The MCUs all have the company's STM8 core running at 16MHz, and 8Kbyte on-chip Flash. System-control features include watchdog and clock control, and popular communication interfaces such as UART, SPI, and Fast I2C. With up to six user I/Os, they are perfect for use in industrial sensors, home-automation, smart lighting, access cards, battery chargers, or smart printer cartridges.

Key Features

  • STM8S001J3M3 microcontroller featuring 8 Kbytes of Flash memory, 1
  • Kbyte of RAM and 128 bytes of Data EEPROM in an SO8 package
  • STM8L001J3M3 microcontroller featuring 8 Kbytes of Flash memory including up to 2 Kbytes of Data EEPROM and 1.5 Kbytes of RAM in an SO8 package
  • STM8L050J3M3 microcontroller featuring 8 Kbytes of Flash memory, 1 Kbyte of RAM and 256 bytes of Data EEPROM in an SO8 package
  • 1 user LED
  • 1 user push-button
  • Individual and breakable STM8 SO8 to DIL8 module
  • DIL8 socket to ease programming of the STM8 MCU
  • On-board ST-LINK/V2 debugger/programmer
  • Comprehensive free software libraries and examples
  • Support of a wide choice of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) including Cosmic, IAR™, Raisonance, iSYSTEM,  and STMicroelectronics

Competitively priced at just $8.50, the STM8-SO8-DISCO Discovery Kit is now available ST's website or the company's distributors.