Flashing ARM Micro using ST Discovery board as a programmer

This guide shows how to program an ARM micro controller using a ST Discovery board as the programmer. The best thing is that this even works in Linux with a graphical user interface. Therefore this is currently my preferred way to flash my Keil board.

There are off course dedicated USB – JTAG programmers available. Keil sells one which works well with their (commercial) Windows only development environment. If you write your code in Linux there is the ARM-USB-OCD from Olimex. I believe this can be set up to work in Eclipse but otherwise I think there is only a command line interface which is pretty painful.

A really cheap and hassle free way to program a board is to just use a ST discovery board as the programmer.

1. Install qstlink2 from here. It is licensed under GNU GPL v3.
2. Remove the two jumpers from the discovery board to disable programming of the processor on the discovery board (ST-Link setting). Instead the signals are available on the SWD header.
1. SWD pin 1 not connected
2. SWD pin 2 (SWCLK) to JTAG pin 9 (TCLK)
3. SWD pin 3 (GND) to any JTAG GND pin
4. SWD pin 4 (SWDIO) to JTAG pin 7 (TMS)
5. SWD pin 5 (NRST) to JTAG pin 15 (RESET)
6. SWD pin 6 (SWO) to JTAG pin 13 (TDO)
3. Connect the signals on the SWD header to the following JTAG signals:
4. Plug the discovery board programming interface into your host machine’s USB port.
5. Power up your development board and the discovery board.
6. Open the qstlink2 program, click connect and upload and download your software as required.

That’s it. Cost effective micro controller programming in Linux with graphical user interface. Dreams come true!