Who Should Attend

This course is designed for engineers working with embedded systems and microcontrollers, including:

• Embedded Software Engineers
• Firmware Developers
• Systems Engineers working with STM32 platforms
• Engineers developing real-time or connected devices
• Technical Leads and Senior Engineers

Prerequisites

Participants should have:

• experience with embedded C or C++ programming
• familiarity with microcontrollers and basic electronics concepts

Experience with RTOS or networking is beneficial but not required.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• understand the ARM Cortex-M architecture and STM32 system design
• configure and use interrupts, DMA, and power management features
• develop embedded applications using STM32Cube or Standard Peripheral Libraries
• design and implement real-time systems using FreeRTOS
• develop and debug multi-tasking applications
• implement networking using the LwIP TCP/IP stack (UDP/TCP)
• configure Ethernet communication on STM32 platforms
• optionally develop graphical user interfaces using EmWin or TouchGFX

Course Content

Day 1 – Cortex-M and STM32 Architecture

Participants begin by understanding the core architecture of STM32 microcontrollers.

Topics typically include:

• ARM Cortex-M architecture (v7-M, Harvard architecture, memory hierarchy)
• registers, privilege levels, and system control block
• SysTick timer and system timing
• exception and interrupt mechanisms
• NVIC configuration and priority handling
• fault handling and debugging interfaces
• CMSIS library usage

Practical exercises:

• debugging and exception handling
• MPU configuration

STM32F4 Architecture Overview

Topics typically include:

• system-on-chip architecture and memory organisation
• DMA controller and bus matrix
• flash interface and real-time accelerators
• boot configuration

Practical exercise:

• flash programming

Day 2 – Power, Clocking, and Peripheral Management

Participants explore how STM32 devices manage power and peripherals.

Reset, Power, and Clocking

Topics typically include:

• reset sources and bootloader behaviour
• clock sources and PLL configuration
• power modes and optimisation

Practical exercise:

• configuring low-power modes and measuring power consumption

DMA and Peripheral Programming

Topics typically include:

• DMA architecture, FIFO, and double buffer mode
• GPIO and ADC configuration
• external interrupts

Practical exercise:

• using DMA to transfer data between peripherals

Day 3 – FreeRTOS Foundations

Participants begin working with real-time operating system concepts.

FreeRTOS Overview

Topics typically include:

• FreeRTOS architecture and scheduling
• task creation and management
• preemption and task switching
• kernel structures and hooks
• tracing and debugging using tools such as Tracealyzer

Practical exercise:

• task creation and debugging context switches

Memory Management in FreeRTOS

Topics typically include:

• heap management strategies
• stack usage and monitoring
• memory allocation techniques

Practical exercises:

• stack overflow detection
• heap debugging

Day 4 – FreeRTOS Synchronisation and Interrupts

Participants develop advanced multi-tasking and synchronisation techniques.

Inter-Task Communication

Topics typically include:

• queues and message passing
• blocking and non-blocking communication

Practical exercise:

• synchronising tasks using message queues

Resource Management

Topics typically include:

• mutexes and priority inheritance
• deadlock detection and avoidance

Practical exercises:

• reader-writer problem
• producer-consumer implementation

Interrupt Management

Topics typically include:

• interrupt handling in RTOS environments
• ISR-safe communication mechanisms
• binary semaphores

Practical exercise:

• synchronising interrupts with tasks

Day 5 – Advanced FreeRTOS and Networking with LwIP

Participants integrate real-time systems with network communication.

FreeRTOS Advanced Features

Topics typically include:

• software timers and timer daemon tasks
• one-shot and auto-reload timers
• FreeRTOS MPU concepts

Practical exercise:

• timer-based event handling

STM32 Ethernet and LwIP TCP/IP Stack

Topics typically include:

• Ethernet MAC architecture and buffer descriptors
• LwIP architecture and memory management
• networking APIs (Netconn and BSD sockets)
• UDP and TCP communication

Practical exercises:

• running an HTTP server
• implementing a TCP echo client/server

Optional GUI Modules

Course customisation can include graphical interface development.

Topics include:

• EmWin GUI stack (widgets, event handling, UI design)
• TouchGFX framework for advanced UI development

Practical exercises:

• creating a touch-based interface
• deploying a UI application using CubeMX and FreeRTOS

Delivery Approach

This is a deep, hands-on embedded systems programme designed to build real engineering capability.

It includes:

• instructor-led technical sessions
• extensive practical exercises using STM32 hardware
• real-world embedded scenarios
• progressive system development across the course

Duration

5 Days

Delivery Options

This course can be delivered as:

• a public scheduled course
• a private team programme
• virtual delivery (hardware-dependent)
• on-site classroom training

Outcomes

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• design and develop real-time embedded systems on STM32
• implement multi-tasking applications using FreeRTOS
• configure and optimise peripherals, DMA, and interrupts
• build network-enabled embedded systems using LwIP
• debug and optimise embedded applications
• optionally develop graphical user interfaces for embedded devices

Additional Notes

This programme is particularly valuable for teams developing connected devices, industrial systems, and embedded platforms, where reliability, performance, and scalability are critical.

It also provides a strong foundation for progression into:

• advanced embedded systems and RTOS design
• IoT and edge device development
• high-performance firmware engineering

Participants will work directly with STM32-based hardware and real system components, ensuring the learning is immediately applicable in production environments.