Thank you for this ... first time I've seen this IDE. I ordered a bunch of CH32V003 and CH32V203 boards and chips quite a while ago. I also built some of my own boards, which I'm pretty happy with. Basically, mine have followed WCH's schematics fairly closely, with one significant improvement, notably I've added a straight debug link socket which plugs directly into the debugger. No wires ... much simpler. I could upload my KiCad files if anyone is interested. I didn't have much of an issue with the company's recommended (Eclipse based) 'Moun River Studio', since I've used Eclipse before. There's not much in the way of getting started documentation etc., but they have quite a few example projects, so it wasn't too hard to figure things out. People new to microcontrollers however, may find this a bit more challenging. This said, 'Embeetle' to a first approximation, looks very interesting. I'll definitely give it a much closer look.
You have a great voice. No need to bury it with music. This makes the v8deo very hard for people with poor hearing. Thanks for the great video. I'll try Embeetle tomorrow.
Nice IDE. I wanted to use it for a RiscV-board we plan using for education. Problem: the WCH chip on it - CH32X035 - is not supported (yet?). With this IDE being closed-source, and in the license the statement "No permission is granted to modify the Embeetle software in any way.", I can also not even try to add support for the platform myself (even if only a config file is missing).
The Embeetle team has said that they are willing to integrate one of the CH32X035 WCH boards, however, the CH32X035 does have a few different variants. Which variant would you like support for?
@@Electromakerio Good news! The board states CH32X035G8U6-R0-1v1. The bag it came in states CH32X035G8U6-EVT-R0-1v1.FP. The board has a USB-A and a USB-C receptacle, an on-off switch, and two headers: P1 is 10x2, P2 is 9x2. It came as a set with a WCH-LinkE-R0-1v3. Can they work with that info?
I've done a a fair bit of development with ARM M0 and they have a 16 bit instruction set that is supposed save space. I wrote most of my code on a device that had 32k of Flash and 16k of RAM so a lot more than this device so it cost $1. Here's the thing, on a 32bit processor you can't get a lot done in 32k so I really wonder what you can get from 16k. One of the problems is that the peripherals need a lot of configuration. I found to fully configure and add basic libraries I needed around 16k leaving only 16k for the actual apps. When I write code for an Atmel ATmega I end up getting most things done in 2k to 4k. I haven't sat down and written the same app for both, (maybe I should) but 32bit instructions cost money (space) and even using 16bit instructions comes at a (space) cost.
@@kayakMike1000 Perhaps but ARM has a compressed instruction set as well and over all has faster performance so I don't see RISC-V having some magic formula to initialise a peripheral without using instructions.
I have built plenty products in far less than 32k on an M0. What do you consider "basic libraries"? For example I did a board supervisor micro in less than 24k that uses a UART, USB, ADC, I2C, timers, and various other things. Works great.
@@cccmmm1234 Yeah that would be basic, but if you do the same thing on AVR you'll probably get by with 4-8k. I wrote a bootloader for an M0 and yeah sure it had CRC checking on the data but it was 12k and the bootloaders I did for MCHC11 was < 128 bytes and for AVR some 200 bytes even though it was over WiFi.
vscode + platformio and there, you have self contained portable project with IDE that doesn't look like it came from 1999 and still works with riscv mcus.
As far as I understand the WCHlink programmer is the only officially supported one, though CNLohr (RUclips and GitHub) has done extensive work with the chip and I think he built his own programmer as part of his library. He also worked out USB enumeration so it could be programmed directly via USB but I don't know if that works with regular devboards, or the IDE.
I have enjoyed playing with Embeetle and the ch32v003. Did I observe correctly in your demo that the blink program took up half of the mcu memory? Any tools to make tighter code? I saw a tool called chv32v003fun that creates more compact code by removing the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and other space wasting abstractions. Would love your take on this. Perhaps Embeetle and ch32v003fun can be used together?
For a more compact solution, then yeah CH32v003fun is currently the crowd favorite, but if you are looking to build for production, you can contact WCH and they should be able to help you out.
Thanx - You didn't mention a Linux version but i is there. Also has several themes which actually make it usable. Looks kinda hokey (a la Win3.1) BUT - it works, cleanly and simply. I was up and running in < 5 minutes. ?? No Espressif ??
Thanks for your comment! You're absolutely right-there is a Linux version, and the themes really do enhance the usability, making it a much smoother experience. I agree, the interface might seem a bit retro, but it's great to hear how quickly you were able to get it up and running.
Hi, excellent video and congratulations for the IDE, it looks very promising and interesting. I have a doubt, when I followed the steps in the video to create the project you got the following folder path: Config Source --- Core --- Debug --- Peripheral --- Startup --- user_code In my case, when I create a project, the “user_code folder” is no longer displayed and “Samples” is displayed instead: Config Source --- Core --- Debug --- Peripheral --- Samples --- Startup The samples folder has many examples based on the examples provided by the manufacturer, so my question is what would be the template or the main code to make my custom application? Do I select one of the provided examples and use it as the basis for my custom application or do I create a “user_code” folder and paste the necessary files? What do you recommend? Thank you very much :D
Hi @raulluyo7771. I tried to reply to your question yesterday, but my reply somehow got lost. Could you please post your question on our forum? I'll make sure you get a response asap 🙂
Hi @raulluyo7771, please post your question on the Embeetle Forum: forum.embeetle.com The Embeetle founders have been notified about your question, and will reply the same day on the Embeetle Forum. They tried to post a reply on RUclips, but it got removed by the RUclips algorithms.
A simple blink program, written in C, should only require a few bytes for the machine instructions and possibly some additional memory for runtime overhead if a standard library is used. It is highly unlikely to consume half of the microcontroller's memory unless the environment is adding significant overhead.
it's looks like a promising IDE. However, WCH32V chips are becoming supported by the Arduino IDE. I just did the Blinky program using the Arduino IDE and the code was not as complicated as what you had shown for Embeetle. What are the advantages of using this IDE over the Arduino?
While Arduino IDE is fantastic for getting projects off the ground quickly and easily, especially with its growing support for various chips including WCH32V, Embeetle IDE might be preferred for its enhanced features that cater to more complex development needs. Ultimately, the choice depends on your project requirements and personal preference for development tools.
Haven't seen a MikroPascal enjoyer in the wild in a long time, nice to see we're not a dying breed I would like to see Free Pascal get better RISC-V support (it was hard for me to install it on a Star64 SBC and probably harder to have it on a microcontroller)
Similar to the AT Mega 328? You must be joking; the AT Mega is an old 8-bit design. The CH32V series chips are more like the ST32 Arm microcontrollers. Even the on-chip peripherals are copied versions from the ST32 series. A quick solution to the breadboard problem is to solder the SMD chip to a readily available adapter board.
You're saying you can't get a RISC-V chip and stuff it into a breadboard - well - the ESP32-C series (and H series and the planned P series) are all RISC-V
and that just answered a question nof mine, was staring at Amazon trying to find this little microcontroller, and stumbled across one of those ESP32s (a C6), but thought those where ARM M0 chips.... appearently ESP32 isn't a singular chip, today I learned I guess.
Yet another closed source IDE. I hesitate to run such things outside of isolated container. Download link to an archive without any version specified in URL. Doesn't look like mature product.
Thank you for this ... first time I've seen this IDE.
I ordered a bunch of CH32V003 and CH32V203 boards and chips quite a while ago. I also built some of my own boards, which I'm pretty happy with. Basically, mine have followed WCH's schematics fairly closely, with one significant improvement, notably I've added a straight debug link socket which plugs directly into the debugger. No wires ... much simpler. I could upload my KiCad files if anyone is interested.
I didn't have much of an issue with the company's recommended (Eclipse based) 'Moun River Studio', since I've used Eclipse before. There's not much in the way of getting started documentation etc., but they have quite a few example projects, so it wasn't too hard to figure things out. People new to microcontrollers however, may find this a bit more challenging. This said, 'Embeetle' to a first approximation, looks very interesting. I'll definitely give it a much closer look.
You have a great voice. No need to bury it with music. This makes the v8deo very hard for people with poor hearing.
Thanks for the great video. I'll try Embeetle tomorrow.
Thanks for the feedback. We have stopped using music now!
Excellent RISC-V breakdown! Thanks for the Embeetle shoutout 👍
nice review and great video quality, thanks!
Thanks for the video. I'll check out the IDE. About 7z: In terms of the main feature (compression) - 7z is by far better than zip (207MB vs. 307MB !).
Did you try it out? Interested to know what you thought of it
Nice Move with the Board! And usefull Content as well!
Nice IDE. I wanted to use it for a RiscV-board we plan using for education.
Problem: the WCH chip on it - CH32X035 - is not supported (yet?).
With this IDE being closed-source, and in the license the statement
"No permission is granted to modify the Embeetle software in any way.",
I can also not even try to add support for the platform myself (even if only a config file is missing).
Hi @hagen-p, which CH32X035 specifically are you using please ?
Hi @@royconstantine9455, it's a CH32X035G8U6 (on a dev board with the name CH32X035G8U6-R0-1v1).
The Embeetle team has said that they are willing to integrate one of the CH32X035 WCH boards, however, the CH32X035 does have a few different variants. Which variant would you like support for?
@@Electromakerio Good news!
The board states CH32X035G8U6-R0-1v1. The bag it came in states CH32X035G8U6-EVT-R0-1v1.FP.
The board has a USB-A and a USB-C receptacle, an on-off switch, and two headers: P1 is 10x2, P2 is 9x2.
It came as a set with a WCH-LinkE-R0-1v3. Can they work with that info?
@@hagen-p I have fed this info back to the team, who will start working on this immediately. I will update you in due course.
I've done a a fair bit of development with ARM M0 and they have a 16 bit instruction set that is supposed save space. I wrote most of my code on a device that had 32k of Flash and 16k of RAM so a lot more than this device so it cost $1. Here's the thing, on a 32bit processor you can't get a lot done in 32k so I really wonder what you can get from 16k. One of the problems is that the peripherals need a lot of configuration. I found to fully configure and add basic libraries I needed around 16k leaving only 16k for the actual apps. When I write code for an Atmel ATmega I end up getting most things done in 2k to 4k. I haven't sat down and written the same app for both, (maybe I should) but 32bit instructions cost money (space) and even using 16bit instructions comes at a (space) cost.
Dude, 32k is quite a lot. Riscv has a compressed instruction format anyway.
@@kayakMike1000 Perhaps but ARM has a compressed instruction set as well and over all has faster performance so I don't see RISC-V having some magic formula to initialise a peripheral without using instructions.
I have built plenty products in far less than 32k on an M0. What do you consider "basic libraries"?
For example I did a board supervisor micro in less than 24k that uses a UART, USB, ADC, I2C, timers, and various other things. Works great.
@@cccmmm1234 Yeah that would be basic, but if you do the same thing on AVR you'll probably get by with 4-8k. I wrote a bootloader for an M0 and yeah sure it had CRC checking on the data but it was 12k and the bootloaders I did for MCHC11 was < 128 bytes and for AVR some 200 bytes even though it was over WiFi.
Great video. Very informative. I will try it out soon. Thank you!
Thank You! From Frisco, TX. Bought the boards from Amazon!
vscode + platformio and there, you have self contained portable project with IDE that doesn't look like it came from 1999 and still works with riscv mcus.
Great into, like you mentioned, the key issue is the lack of library support. I just noticed the ESP32-C3 is not supported, that's really a shame!
Thank you for your feedback; the Embeetle team is working on supporting ESP32. Please stay tune
Exactly which CH32V003 dev board did you use for this demo?
The CHV003F4P6-R0-1v1 board . More info here: embeetle.com/#supported-hardware/wch/boards/ch32v003f4p6-evt-r0-1v1
You've made my day when said that your favorite CPU is Z80. Mine too :)
Those crazy Belgiums again. 🙂
Do I really need to use a wchlink to program using this ide? Or there are other alternative programmer boards?
As far as I understand the WCHlink programmer is the only officially supported one, though CNLohr (RUclips and GitHub) has done extensive work with the chip and I think he built his own programmer as part of his library.
He also worked out USB enumeration so it could be programmed directly via USB but I don't know if that works with regular devboards, or the IDE.
I have enjoyed playing with Embeetle and the ch32v003. Did I observe correctly in your demo that the blink program took up half of the mcu memory? Any tools to make tighter code? I saw a tool called chv32v003fun that creates more compact code by removing the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and other space wasting abstractions. Would love your take on this. Perhaps Embeetle and ch32v003fun can be used together?
Seriously ?? the blink alone took half of the programmable memory ? 😬
For a more compact solution, then yeah CH32v003fun is currently the crowd favorite, but if you are looking to build for production, you can contact WCH and they should be able to help you out.
Thanx - You didn't mention a Linux version but i is there. Also has several themes which actually make it usable. Looks kinda hokey (a la Win3.1) BUT - it works, cleanly and simply. I was up and running in < 5 minutes. ?? No Espressif ??
Thanks for your comment! You're absolutely right-there is a Linux version, and the themes really do enhance the usability, making it a much smoother experience. I agree, the interface might seem a bit retro, but it's great to hear how quickly you were able to get it up and running.
Excellent video, thank you! :)
Hi, excellent video and congratulations for the IDE, it looks very promising and interesting. I have a doubt, when I followed the steps in the video to create the project you got the following folder path:
Config
Source
--- Core
--- Debug
--- Peripheral
--- Startup
--- user_code
In my case, when I create a project, the “user_code folder” is no longer displayed and “Samples” is displayed instead:
Config
Source
--- Core
--- Debug
--- Peripheral
--- Samples
--- Startup
The samples folder has many examples based on the examples provided by the manufacturer, so my question is what would be the template or the main code to make my custom application?
Do I select one of the provided examples and use it as the basis for my custom application or do I create a “user_code” folder and paste the necessary files? What do you recommend?
Thank you very much :D
Hi @raulluyo7771. I tried to reply to your question yesterday, but my reply somehow got lost. Could you please post your question on our forum? I'll make sure you get a response asap 🙂
Hi @raulluyo7771, please post your question on the Embeetle Forum: forum.embeetle.com The Embeetle founders have been notified about your question, and will reply the same day on the Embeetle Forum. They tried to post a reply on RUclips, but it got removed by the RUclips algorithms.
Found the issue with duplicate make.exe on the laptop. The wrong make.exe was being used.
Is it true that a simple blink.c code takes half of the memory on this mcu ??
A simple blink program, written in C, should only require a few bytes for the machine instructions and possibly some additional memory for runtime overhead if a standard library is used. It is highly unlikely to consume half of the microcontroller's memory unless the environment is adding significant overhead.
@@Electromakerio
Right.. but my question was that when you flashed the blink code to the ch32v003 mcu did it took half of the 16Kb program space ??
it's looks like a promising IDE. However, WCH32V chips are becoming supported by the Arduino IDE. I just did the Blinky program using the Arduino IDE and the code was not as complicated as what you had shown for Embeetle. What are the advantages of using this IDE over the Arduino?
While Arduino IDE is fantastic for getting projects off the ground quickly and easily, especially with its growing support for various chips including WCH32V, Embeetle IDE might be preferred for its enhanced features that cater to more complex development needs. Ultimately, the choice depends on your project requirements and personal preference for development tools.
I hate C with all their endless header files. Make it is Object Pascal and I will be sold! For now it is MikroE Pascal IDE and for ARM Delphi IDE!
Haven't seen a MikroPascal enjoyer in the wild in a long time, nice to see we're not a dying breed
I would like to see Free Pascal get better RISC-V support (it was hard for me to install it on a Star64 SBC and probably harder to have it on a microcontroller)
Would be great if it worked with the Padauk, PIC & ATTiny MCUs.
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Similar to the AT Mega 328? You must be joking; the AT Mega is an old 8-bit design. The CH32V series chips are more like the ST32 Arm microcontrollers. Even the on-chip peripherals are copied versions from the ST32 series. A quick solution to the breadboard problem is to solder the SMD chip to a readily available adapter board.
thank you
The CH32V003 specifically can run at 5V. That absolutely doesn't mean that all CH32V devices can!
Thank you!
Just had a look, it list of supported MCUs is TINY TINY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Beeeeeetleeeee USB!!!
Honestly, this would have been very good if it had a 32Kb of program space instead of the 16Kb.
You're saying you can't get a RISC-V chip and stuff it into a breadboard - well - the ESP32-C series (and H series and the planned P series) are all RISC-V
and that just answered a question nof mine, was staring at Amazon trying to find this little microcontroller, and stumbled across one of those ESP32s (a C6), but thought those where ARM M0 chips.... appearently ESP32 isn't a singular chip, today I learned I guess.
please just make an extension for VSCode...
Yet another closed source IDE. I hesitate to run such things outside of isolated container. Download link to an archive without any version specified in URL. Doesn't look like mature product.
Is this a hobby?? I don't know what's happening. I wish the Arduino IDE could be put onto a 1Tb microSD card. Things are getting weird.
Annoying background music 👎