Content Provider lucky1 Posted July 26, 2020 Content Provider Share Posted July 26, 2020 Hi, three years after introducing the completely new Nucleo STM32F429zi / STM32F439zi V4 Shield design which allowed us to build 128x32, 128x16 and 192x64 displays with the same hardware and lead to the EVO design, it is time for us to say goodbye to the old V3 shield hardware design. As a consequence we will stop giving out new activation keys for Discovery based PIN2DMD devices by the end of this year 31.12.2020. Firmware support will of course be continued as long as possible. Replacement keys with proof of destruction of the defective STM32F407 discovery board (picture of board physically destroyed) excepted. Too many support issues, like cheap chinese discovery clones or wrong enhancer configuration, which could have been avoided with the V4 design made this decision necessary to save my valuable time. We will keep the V3 shield design on github for all those who want to upgrade their hardware by replacing their old V1 or V2 shield. If you start a new pin2dmd DIY build here is a very good 4 based writeup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceGambler Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 More work and more expensive, hmmmm All for a few games, most of which are poor players Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dom69 Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 2 hours ago, SpaceGambler said: More work and more expensive, hmmmm All for a few games, most of which are poor players Pour moi ça ne me dérange pas au contraire mais Oui beaucoup plus cher et difficilement faisable pour le pauvre utilisateur et surtout en rupture de stock assez souvent. for me it does not bother me on the contrary but yes much more expensive and difficult to do for the poor user and especially out of stock quite often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted July 26, 2020 Author Content Provider Share Posted July 26, 2020 5 hours ago, SpaceGambler said: More work and more expensive, hmmmm All for a few games, most of which are poor players PCB and parts cost the same. Only Nucleo is 3$ more and you end up with a better more future proof hardware. 80% of all activations are already Nucleo or EVO based. I think it is time to move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzStick Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 I make PIN2DMDs for customers based on a highly modded "bare bones" shield board that is loosely based on the V3 board and I stick with older firmware because I come from the school of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". This configuration has served me and my customers extremely well, with nobody reporting any compatability or performance issues to me for quite some time. Unless I'm completely missing something by not updating to the Nucleo then I'd really much prefer sticking with the Discovery board! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted July 27, 2020 Author Content Provider Share Posted July 27, 2020 2 hours ago, OzStick said: I make PIN2DMDs for customers based on a highly modded "bare bones" shield board that is loosely based on the V3 board and I stick with older firmware because I come from the school of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". This configuration has served me and my customers extremely well, with nobody reporting any compatability or performance issues to me for quite some time. Unless I'm completely missing something by not updating to the Nucleo then I'd really much prefer sticking with the Discovery board! Although maybe none of your customers contacted me with an issue, but 80% of the issues I got involved in were with discovery based hardware. I don´t want to waste my time anymore supporting the same issues over and over again while it can be easily avoided by using the new design which is there for several years now. Please accept my decision and update your design accordingly. P.S. It just came to my mind that I got contacted by your customers, asking how to get into the onscreen menu and I finally found out that it was because you did not solder the buttons to your highly modded "bare bones" shield to save some bucks. That is a good example of how my time gets wasted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samlii Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 lucky1, I know its your project and you have every right to shut down what you don't want to support. However I feel you are still going to get those questions regardless. A possibility would be to see if someone else would be willing to take over the support and activation of the Discovery versions. That way you could either set up a page where a user could select which version they needed help with or possibly have inbox rules to route the messaging. I don't really have skin in the game as I only just now even thought about starting this project. I was going to go the discovery route mainly because I already had an unused board lying around. So feel free to ignore this peanut gallery. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider Rene368 Posted October 18, 2020 Content Provider Share Posted October 18, 2020 On 7/26/2020 at 10:48 AM, lucky1 said: Hi, three years after introducing the completely new Nucleo STM32F429zi / STM32F439zi V4 Shield design which allowed us to build 128x32, 128x16 and 192x64 displays with the same hardware and lead to the EVO design, it is time for us to say goodbye to the old V3 shield hardware design. As a consequence we will stop giving out new activation keys for Discovery based PIN2DMD devices by the end of this year 31.12.2020. Firmware support will of course be continued as long as possible. Replacement keys with proof of destruction of the defective STM32F407 discovery board (picture of board physically destroyed) excepted. Too many support issues, like cheap chinese discovery clones or wrong enhancer configuration, which could have been avoided with the V4 design made this decision necessary to save my valuable time. We will keep the V3 shield design on github for all those who want to upgrade their hardware by replacing their old V1 or V2 shield. I still have 4 discovery boards I want to activate. Can I get 4 codes in 1 time by donating the correct amount of money? I already have the discovery boards laying around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted October 18, 2020 Author Content Provider Share Posted October 18, 2020 36 minutes ago, Rene368 said: I still have 4 discovery boards I want to activate. Can I get 4 codes in 1 time by donating the correct amount of money? I already have the discovery boards laying around. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josmagerotte Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 stupid me, I broke the USB connector of my STM32F407 on my Pin2DMD device that worked great. And ordered another one that I received today. Just to notice that activation was closed form 1st january. Is there still a way to activate it ? I tryed to solder back th usb connector but was not able to repair it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dom69 Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 hi, if you give lucky destruction proof you will. « Firmware support will of course be continued as long as possible. Replacement keys with proof of destruction of the defective STM32F407 discovery board (picture of board physically destroyed) excepted» Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josmagerotte Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 ah elle va aller beaucoup moins bien maintenant, forcément (en français dans le texte). OK, or do you need more destruction on the device ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted January 7, 2021 Author Content Provider Share Posted January 7, 2021 The board needs to be physically destroyed like cut in half or a hole drilled into the cpu as a proof of full destruction Just send me a picture oft that together with the new number for the key Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josmagerotte Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 like this ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaferbeetle Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Hi everyone, I have A STM32 discovery which is working great but firmware is 2.55... Is it possible to update it with the 4.10 firmware ? Thanks for your help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted April 20, 2021 Author Content Provider Share Posted April 20, 2021 11 hours ago, kaferbeetle said: Hi everyone, I have A STM32 discovery which is working great but firmware is 2.55... Is it possible to update it with the 4.10 firmware ? Thanks for your help Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaferbeetle Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 7 hours ago, lucky1 said: Yes thanks you ! i'll do it end of the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantomas Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 Hi... Arriving a little late to the party 😕 I have an STM32F discovery bought some year ago to build this project but with that pandemic scenario I could not (even lost my dad 😞 ) There is any way to get activation code for that? I will not bofer anyone with support questions if is that the case, just trying not buy a new board just cause that. tks. PHT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted February 14, 2022 Author Content Provider Share Posted February 14, 2022 9 hours ago, Phantomas said: Hi... Arriving a little late to the party 😕 I have an STM32F discovery bought some year ago to build this project but with that pandemic scenario I could not (even lost my dad 😞 ) There is any way to get activation code for that? I will not bofer anyone with support questions if is that the case, just trying not buy a new board just cause that. tks. PHT More than 1,5 years is not a little late . I´m sorry to say that I can´t make any exceptions here, but I´m sure you currently will get a good price for a STM32F407 discovery board if you sell it on ebay. Take that money and buy a Nucleo ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smellar Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 Hi all, I have an STM32 Discovery-based PIN2DMD which is working fine but was on an old firmware (3.12). I've flashed it successfully with the latest firmware (4.35) using ST-Link, and as always it now displays as "not activated". Switching the USB cables back around again I can see the PIN2DMD listed as connected in Windows' Device Manager under the "libusb-win32 devices" heading, so I think Windows is detecting it correctly after the firmware update. Usually I just run the PIN2DMD.EXE file with the keyfile in the same folder and it activates. This time though I receive an error "Firmware version not supported! Please upgrade!" when running PIN2DMD.EXE. I'm using the PIN2DMD.EXE file that came in the ZIP file in the "tools" folder from the current PIN2DMD-MASTER.ZIP. Both the x86 and x64 versions of PIN2DMD identify themselves as "PIN2DMD V4.02 ColorPRISM" in the title bar when they're run, so I'm not sure whether this 4.02/4.35 version mismatch is the problem? If anyone has any suggestions please on how to get activation working I'd appreciate it, thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outhere Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 I updated mine to version 435 tonight I got that same message "Firmware version not supported! Please upgrade!" Because when I ran the EXE to reinitialize my key I forgot to have the USB cable plugged in It worked fine but it has to be plugged in the same side that you do for the firmware update Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smellar Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 Cheers for the reply outhere. As coincidence would have it, I actually just succeeded in getting it working! And I didn't have to have the other USB cable connected that's used for the firmware upgrade, just the regular USB that stays connected to use the display. I basically tried to reset everything in Windows to do with the PIN2DMD back to square one ... uninstalled the device and driver from device manager, uninstalled ST-Link, deleted the Zadig driver files from the Windows folder, and so on. Restarted Windows and the PIN2DMD was redetected but had no working drivers so I reinstalled just the Zadig drivers and restarted Windows one last time. Now PIN2DMD.EXE runs happily with no errors and the display is no longer showing the activation message, so we both got there in the end but via different routes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benoit33 Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 Hello Joerg do you think it is possible to reactivate F407 support for pin2DMD the shortage and the price of the nucleo F429 card pose a real problem. thanks to this card it will be possible to have the pin2DMD compatible with SD card in a very simple way almost plug'nplay. https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003445828203.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.2e9f6a45rzPzoD&algo_pvid=944fe2f2-e443-4595-b17b-724d1128d1f6&algo_exp_id=944fe2f2-e443-4595-b17b-724d1128d1f6-10&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000025822484493"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!EUR!!20.15!20.15!!3.38!!%402100bde316560640537423563e22c1!12000025822484493!sea Best regards Benoit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rappelbox Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 4 hours ago, Benoit33 said: Hello Joerg do you think it is possible to reactivate F407 support for pin2DMD the shortage and the price of the nucleo F429 card pose a real problem. thanks to this card it will be possible to have the pin2DMD compatible with SD card in a very simple way almost plug'nplay. https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003445828203.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.2e9f6a45rzPzoD&algo_pvid=944fe2f2-e443-4595-b17b-724d1128d1f6&algo_exp_id=944fe2f2-e443-4595-b17b-724d1128d1f6-10&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000025822484493"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!EUR!!20.15!20.15!!3.38!!%402100bde316560640537423563e22c1!12000025822484493!sea Best regards Benoit i cant open your link but i think you are reffering to those small black f407 development boards. Those will not work as they only have a f407vet with 512kb RAM which is too small from my understanding the hunt for cheaper and cheaper parts doesn't even makes sense in my opinion. people want working solution and get confused with v3/v4/evoution already... if you need f407 processors with 1mb Flash i can help you with them. i have plenty in stock from start of july. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider lucky1 Posted June 25, 2022 Author Content Provider Share Posted June 25, 2022 On 6/24/2022 at 11:54 AM, Benoit33 said: Hello Joerg do you think it is possible to reactivate F407 support for pin2DMD the shortage and the price of the nucleo F429 card pose a real problem. thanks to this card it will be possible to have the pin2DMD compatible with SD card in a very simple way almost plug'nplay. https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003445828203.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.2e9f6a45rzPzoD&algo_pvid=944fe2f2-e443-4595-b17b-724d1128d1f6&algo_exp_id=944fe2f2-e443-4595-b17b-724d1128d1f6-10&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000025822484493"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!EUR!!20.15!20.15!!3.38!!%402100bde316560640537423563e22c1!12000025822484493!sea Best regards Benoit It is not the CPU which is EOS it the the pin usage of the V3 design which is EOS. The STM32F407VGT6 is supported with the Nucleo Firmware. Have a look at this thread to find out which CPUs work and which don´t. The VET6 is not supported because of 512k flash like Rappelbox said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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