"Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

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arpruss
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2019 10:06 pm

"Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

Post by arpruss »

Some AliExpress sellers are now advertising "original chip" blue pills. Has anyone tried them? Are they still just clones?
ag123
Posts: 1655
Joined: Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:30 am
Answers: 24

Re: "Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

Post by ag123 »

not too sure, i'd guess it'd depend on ones experience with the particular store.
for stm32g030f6
viewtopic.php?t=1848

for that 20 pin ones, i'm starting to buy bare chips and SSOP adapter boards rather than pre-made boards.
https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-stm32g030f6.html
hopefully, it'd more likely be 'original chip' that way.

i looked at pre-made boards, some of them literally cost more than a stm32f103 blue pills.
it won't make 'economic' sense to get a g030f6 with 8k sram and 32k flash no usb,
when 'blue pill' stm32f103c8 20k sram 64k flash and cortex-m3 + with usb cost less literally vs the g030f6

the other thing about 'pre-made' boards is with 20 pins, every pin counts, placing leds etc consume pins and it probably made less sense to use 'pre made' boards.

but that it seemed to be getting a fad with g030f6 as it has a rather fast adc 2.5msps (max) and various reworked stuff.
so between a f030p4 and g030f6, it makes sense to go g030f6 even though the pinouts are different
ag123
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Answers: 24

Re: "Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

Post by ag123 »

oh yes, then one need to watch if they swap another 'original chip' in place of stm32f103c8, accordingly, there has been some other stm32 chip e.g. c6 rather than c8 or worse stm32f0 ones as i once stumbled into some articles mentioning it.
arpruss
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2019 10:06 pm

Re: "Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

Post by arpruss »

I ordered half a dozen of the "original chip" blue pills from https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832533365278.html . I just unwrapped one. I was kind of expecting fakes, but I did some tests.

1. The STM demonstrator reports 64kb flash, but in fact there is 128kb, just as on a real chip. Some of the fakes report 128kb.
2. delayMicroseconds() in Roger's core works (some fakes have it take half as long as it should)
3. I ran the BluePill diagnostics 1.6 package. https://mecrisp-stellaris-folkdoc.sourc ... -v1.6.html . It passed with flying colors.
4. The LSE RTC starts up fine (I had trouble with the LSE starting up on some fakes).

So either it's a more elaborate fake, or we're back to having a supply of good stm32f103c8t6 blue pills. I'm hopeful. If anybody has further tests to run, please ask.
Last edited by arpruss on Thu Mar 16, 2023 3:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
arpruss
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2019 10:06 pm

Re: "Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

Post by arpruss »

I just ran the diagnostics on the other five units in the order. All passed.
dannyf
Posts: 447
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2020 7:46 pm

Re: "Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

Post by dannyf »

the easist would be to read the IDCODE. for MDK, it is available under the debug option tab.

Or you can read SCB->CPUID. The reference manual should have the reference manual. For g030, it reads 0x0bb11477, just as the datasheet says.
- [correction] that's actually for my f030, not my g030.

the original stm32f103 has a r0p0 core. the fakes have newer cores.
Last edited by dannyf on Fri Mar 17, 2023 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
arpruss
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2019 10:06 pm

Re: "Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

Post by arpruss »

Here's what the diagnostics I ran do:
A silicon bug in genuine STM32F1xx chips is exploited, namely the BGMCU_IDCODE cannot be read from within the MCU without a SWD or JTAG interface connected.
Verify the Flash Size Register = 64KB
Verify that the MCU has a hidden second 64KB flash block. Most STM32F103C8 chips have this.
Verify that the MCU Jdec manufacturer ID is STMicroelectronics.
ag123
Posts: 1655
Joined: Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:30 am
Answers: 24

Re: "Original chip" blue pills on AliExpress

Post by ag123 »

ok hopefully you've got the *special* stm32f103c8 where they give you 128k flash for 64k, that used to be *real*, but that literally even at 90nm, giving extra 64k flash as a 'gift' is quite modest probably an mm2 of sand :lol:
it seemed sram is the thing that consume more silicon foot print
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