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Serial Communication
Between STM32F103C8 and
Arduino UNO using RS-485

Published April 22, 2019 1

Pramoth Thangavel
P
Author

Serial Communication between STM32F103C8 and

Arduino UNO using RS-485

The communication protocols are the integral

part of a digital electronics and embedded
system. Wherever there is interfacing of
multiple microcontroller and peripherals, the
communication protocol has to be used in order
to exchange bunch of data. There are many
types of serial communication protocol
available. The RS485 is one of the serial
communication protocol and is used in
industrial projects and heavy machineries.

We learned about RS485 Serial Communication

between Arduino Uno and Arduino Nano in the
previous tutorial.. This tutorial is about using a
RS-485 Serial communication in
STM32F103C8 Microcontroller
Microcontroller. If you are
new to STM32 Microcontroller then start with
Getting Started with STM32 using Arduino IDE:
Blinking LED and check all the STM32 projects
here.

In this tutorial Master STM32F103C8 has three

push buttons that are used to control the status
of three LEDs present at the Slave Arduino Uno
by using RS-485 Serial communication.

Let’s begin by understanding the working of RS-

485 Serial communication.

RS-485 Serial Communication

RS-485 is an asynchronous serial
communication protocol which doesn’t
require clock. It uses a technique called
differential signal to transfer binary data
from one device to another.

So what is this Differential Signal Transfer

Method??

Differential signal method works by creating a

differential voltage by using a positive and
negative 5V. It provides a Half-Duplex
communication when using two wires and
Full-Duplex communication when using four
wires
wires.

By using this method:

RS-485 supports higher data transfer rate of

30Mbps maximum.
It also provides maximum data transfer
distance compared to RS-232 protocol. It
transfers data up to 1200-meter maximum.
The main advantage of RS-485 over RS-232
is the multiple slave with single Master while
RS-232 supports only single slave.
Can have a maximum of 32 devices
connected to RS-485 protocol.
Another advantage of the RS-485 is
immune to the noise as they use
differential signal method to transfer.
RS-485 is faster compared to I2C protocol.

RS-485 Module can be connected to any

microcontroller having serial port
port. For
using RS-485 module with microcontrollers a
module called 5V MAX485 TTL to RS485
which is based on Maxim MAX485 IC is
needed as it allows serial communication over
long distance of 1200 meters and it is
R R R R4
2

bidirectional and half duplex has a data transfer

rate of 2.5 Mbps. This module requires a voltage
3

of 5V.
C

RS-485 Pin Description:

DIDETRERO

ONS

Pin Name Description

VCC 5V

Non-inverting Receiver
Input
A
Non-Inverting Driver
Output

Inverting Receiver Input

B
Inverting Driver Output

GND GND (0V)

R0 Receiver Out (RX pin)

Receiver Output (LOW-

RE
Enable)

Driver Output (HIGH-

DE
Enable)

DI Driver Input (TX pin)

RS485 module has following features:

Operating voltage: 5V
On-board MAX485 chip
A low power consumption for the RS485
communication
Slew-rate limited transceiver
5.08mm pitch 2P terminal
Convenient RS-485 communication wiring
All pins of chip have been lead to can be
controlled through the microcontroller
Board size: 44 x 14mm

Using this module with STM32F103C8 and

Arduino UNO is very easy. The hardware serial
ports of microcontrollers are used. The
hardware serial pins in STM32 and arduino
UNO is given below.

In STM32F103C8: Pins PA9 (TX) & PA10

(RX)
In Arduino Uno: Pin 0 (RX) & 1 (TX)

Programming is also simple just use the

Serial.print() to write to RS-485 and
Serial.Read() to read from RS-485 and the pins
DE & RE of RS-485 is made LOW to receive
data and made HIGH to write data to RS-485
bus.

Components Required
STM32F103C8
Arduino UNO
MAX485 TTL to RS485 Converter
Module - (2)
10K Potentiometer
Push Button - 3
LED - 3
Resistors
Breadboard
Connecting Wires

Circuit Diagram

In this tutorial STM32F103C8 is used as

Master with one RS-485 module and
Arduino UNO is used as Slave with
another RS-485 module
module.

Circuit Connection between the RS-485

and STM32F103C8 (Master):

RS-485 STM32F103C8

DI PA9 (TX1)

DE
PA3
RE

R0 PA10 (RX1)

VCC 5V

GND GND

A To A of Slave RS-485

B To B of Slave RS-485

STM32F103C8 with Three Push button:

Three Push buttons with three Pull Down

Resistor of 10k are connected to the pins PA0,
PA1, PA2 of STM32F103C8.

Circuit Connection between the RS-485

and Arduino UNO (Slave):

RS-485 Arduino UNO

DI 1 (TX)

DE
2
RE

R0 0 (RX)

VCC 5V

GND GND

A To A of Master RS-485

B To B of Master RS-485

Three LEDs are used where Anodes of LEDs

with resistor of 330 ohms are connected to pins
4, 7, 8 of Arduino UNO and Cathode of the
LEDs are connected to GND.

Programming STM32F103C8
& Arduino UNO for RS485
Serial Communication
Arduino IDE is used for development and
programming of both boards i.e. STM32 and
Arduino UNO. But make sure you have selected
the corresponding PORT from Tools->Port
and Board from Tools->Board
Tools->Board. If you find any
difficulties or doubt then just refer
Programming your STM32 in ARDUINO IDE.
The programming for this tutorial consists of
Two section one for STM32F103C8 (Master)
and other for Arduino UNO (Slave). Both the
codes will be explained one by one below.

STM32F103C8 as Master
In Master side, the status of the Push Button is
read and then serially written those values to
the RS-485 bus through the Hardware Serial
Ports 1 (PA9, PA10) of STM32F103C8. Also
there is no external library needed as of now.
The Arduino has all the necessary library for
serial communication.

Begin Serial Communication using Hardware

Serial Pins (PA9, PA10) at buadrate of 9600.

Serial1.begin(9600);

Read the status of the push button at the pins

PA0, PA1, PA2 of STM32F103C8 and store
them in a variable button1val, button2val,
button3val. The value is HIGH if button is
pressed and LOW when not pressed.

int button1val = digitalRead(button1);

int button2val = digitalRead(button2);
int button3val = digitalRead(button3);

Before sending the button values to the serial

port, the pins DE & RE of RS-485 should be
HIGH that is connected to the pin PA3 of
STM32F103C8 (To Make pin PA3 HIGH):

digitalWrite(enablePin, HIGH);

Next to put those values in the Serial Port and

send values depending upon which push button
is pressed use if else statement and send the
corresponding value when button is pressed.

If the first button is pressed then the condition

matches and the value ‘1’ is sent to the serial
port where Arduino UNO is connected.

if (button1val == HIGH)
{
int num1 = 1;
Serial1.println(num1);
}

Similarly, when button 2 is pressed the value 2

is sent over serial port and when button 3 is
pressed the value 3 is sent over the serial port.

else if (button2val == HIGH)

{
int num2 =2;
Serial1.println(num2);
}
else if (button3val == HIGH)
{
int num3 =3;
Serial1.println(num3);
}

And when no button is pressed the value 0 is

sent to Arduino Uno.

else
{
int num = 0;
Serial1.println(num);
}

This finishes programming to configure STM32

as Master.

Arduino UNO as Slave

In the Slave side the Arduino UNO receives
an integer value that is sent from the
Master STM32F103C8 which is available at
the Hardware Serial port of the Arduino UNO
(P0, 1) where the RS-485 module is connected.

Simply read value and store in a variable.

Depending upon the value received the
corresponding LED is turned ON or OFF
connected to Arduino GPIO.

To receive the values from the Master just make

the pins DE & RE of RS-485 module LOW
LOW. So
the pin-2 (enablePin) of Arduino UNO is made
LOW.

digitalWrite(enablePin, LOW);

Now just read the integer data available at

Serial Port and store them in a variable.

int receive = Serial.parseInt();

Depending upon the value i.e. (0, 1, 2, 3)

received, the correspondingly one of the three
LED is turned ON.

if (receive == 1) //Depending Upo

{
digitalWrite(ledpin1,HIGH);
}
else if (receive == 2)
{
digitalWrite(ledpin2,HIGH);
}
else if (receive == 3)
{
digitalWrite(ledpin3,HIGH);
}
else
{
digitalWrite(ledpin1,LOW);
digitalWrite(ledpin2,LOW);
digitalWrite(ledpin3,LOW);
}

This finishes programming and configuring

Arduino UNO as Slave. Also this finishes the
complete configurations for Arduino UNO and
STM32. The working video and all codes are
attached at the end of this tutorial.

Testing the RS485

communication between
STM32F103C8 and Arduino
UNO:
1. When Push button-1, which is connected to
the Master STM32, is pressed the LED 1 Turns
ON connected to the Slave Arduino.

2. When Push button-2, which connected to the

Master STM32, is pressed the LED 2 Turns ON
connected to the Slave Arduino.

3. Similarly when Push button-3 is pressed the

LED 3 Turns ON connected to the Slave
Arduino.

This finishes the RS485 serial

communication between STM32F103C8
and Arduino UNO
UNO. The Arduino UNO and
STM32 boards are widely used boards for rapid
prototyping and we have done many useful
projects on these boards. If you find any doubts
or have any suggestion for us then write and
comment below.

Code

Master Code:STM32F103C8

//RS-485 Serial Communication Between STM32F103C

#define button1 PA0

#define button2 PA1

#define button3 PA2

#define enablePin PA3

void setup()

Serial1.begin(9600); // Begins Seri

pinMode(enablePin, OUTPUT);

pinMode(button1,INPUT);

pinMode(button2,INPUT);

pinMode(button3,INPUT);

delay(10);

digitalWrite(enablePin, HIGH); // (always hi

void loop()

int button1val = digitalRead(button1);

int button2val = digitalRead(button2);

int button3val = digitalRead(button3);

if (button1val == HIGH)

int num1 = 1;

Video

Serial Communication bet…

Tags

STM32 STM32F103C8 Arduino Uno

RS485 Serial Communication

Comments
Submitted by Jay on Wed, 05/20/2020 - 14:21

Permalink

Good demo

Very simple project and well demonstrated

Pramoth. The part where you removed the
RS485 communication leads and showed no
signals getting trasmitted, and reconnected to
re-establish the same was nicely done.
Would be good to see if you can alter data
transmission speeds to test the (practical) upper
limit.