This guide explains how to set up VSCode and Cortex-Debug to debug an STM32 MCU using ESP32JTAG, a wireless JTAG interface based on ESP32 + FPGA.

For more info on ESP32JTAG, please visit: 👉 https://www.crowdsupply.com/ez32/esp32jtag

Download and install VSCode from: 👉 https://code.visualstudio.com/

In VSCode, open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X), search for “Cortex-Debug”, and install it.

• Extension ID: marus25.cortex-debug

You need the GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain to build and debug firmware.

Download and install: 👉 Arm Developer - GNU Arm Toolchain

Make sure arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe is in your system PATH.

sudo apt install gcc-arm-none-eabi gdb-multiarch

Verify:

arm-none-eabi-gcc --version
arm-none-eabi-gdb --version

It should be any GNU Makefile–based project for your target board.

Here we prepared a project for STM32F103C8T6 (BluePill). You can download and try it — it also includes the required configuration files to use with ESP32JTAG + VSCode + Cortex-Debug.

👉 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/EZ32Inc/start-stm32

Code copy:

git clone https://github.com/EZ32Inc/start-stm32.git
cd start-stm32/blinky-hal
make clean
make

This program is based on the article "Bare Metal STM32 Programming – LED Blink" without using any external libraries (except stdint.h which is only used to define uint32_t).

In order to compile and link this program we need the main program source file main.c, the linker script file linker.ld, and the C run-time assembly file crt.s.

#include <stdint.h>

// register address
#define RCC_BASE      0x40021000
#define GPIOC_BASE    0x40011000

#define RCC_APB2ENR   *(volatile uint32_t *)(RCC_BASE   + 0x18)
#define GPIOC_CRH     *(volatile uint32_t *)(GPIOC_BASE + 0x04)
#define GPIOC_ODR     *(volatile uint32_t *)(GPIOC_BASE + 0x0C)

// bit fields
#define RCC_IOPCEN   (1<<4)
#define GPIOC13      (1UL<<13)

void main(void)
{
    RCC_APB2ENR |= RCC_IOPCEN;
    GPIOC_CRH   &= 0xFF0FFFFF;
    GPIOC_CRH   |= 0x00200000;

    while(1)
    {
        GPIOC_ODR |=  GPIOC13;
        for (int i = 0; i < 500000; i++); // arbitrary delay
        GPIOC_ODR &= ~GPIOC13;
        for (int i = 0; i < 500000; i++); // arbitrary delay
    }
}

This program is based on the article "STM32 LED Blink" which uses STM32 HAL to configure the microcontroller and blink the LED.

The project initialization is done by STM32CubeMX.

  /* Infinite loop */
  /* USER CODE BEGIN WHILE */
  while (1)
  {

	// Toggle the LED
	HAL_GPIO_TogglePin(GPIOC, GPIO_PIN_13);

	// Wait for 500 ms
	HAL_Delay(500);

	// Rinse and repeat :)

    /* USER CODE END WHILE */

    /* USER CODE BEGIN 3 */
  }
  /* USER CODE END 3 */

A couple of special MCU pins has to be set-up to proper logical values to enter the bootloader. The pins are named BOOT0 and BOOT1 on the STM32 microcontroller. Boot pins can select several modes of bootloader operation:

• https://www.crowdsupply.com/ez32/esp32jtag
• https://code.visualstudio.com/
• https://github.com/m3y54m/start-stm32
• Setting-up cross compiler and build tools for STM32
• Bare Metal STM32 Programming – LED Blink
• Bare Metal - From zero to blink
• STM32 toolchain for Windows
• STM32 toolchain for Windows - Part 1 (CubeMX, GCC, Make and OpenOCD)
• Visual Studio Code for STM32 development and debugging - Part 2
• STM32 Startup code, Bare metal - Part 3
• stm32-for-vscode
• Program STM32F4 with UART
• STM32 LED Blink
• Blinking LED with STM32CubeMX and HAL
• UART and new board introduction
• Using the STM32 UART interface with HAL
• st-flash tool

https://github.com/m3y54m/start-stm32

Thank you!