Nanoframework on STM32F429I-DISCO

[rrideAMT]

I have downloaded the package V1.12.4.160. Installed nanoBooter.hex and nanoCLR.hex onto the STM32F429I-DISCO board (MB1075 B-01). I have verified nanoBooter is successfully running, blinking LED on PG13. I have verified that when nanoCLR.hex is loaded the blinking LED stops and when I connect to my Windows 10 PC, the board is recognized as nanoframework device and shows up installed in Device Manager on COM4. It is using Windows usbser.sys for driver. I have used Putty and Realterm to verified that nanoCLR is running seeing the NFPKTV1 output on COM4 when connecting using either Putty or Realterm terminal programs.
I have followed all the troubleshooting steps on nanoframework website multiple times and I can not get this device to be recognized on the VS 2022 Device Manager window. I uninstalled and re-installed the nanoframework VS extension and VS 2022.
I stop and start the SerialPort watcher (turned on the error messages). Just never recoginizes the board when connected. Turned off Firewall and Anti-Virus software also.

Is another version of the package targeting the STM32F429I-DISCO maybe correct this?

Any other more troubleshooting ideas? It seems that just VS 2022 nanoframework Extension can't recognize the device.

I am going to trying a fresh install on another Windows PC to see if just something blocking this on this PC.
I have been maintaining a .NET Microframework V4.4 build for a STM32F429 hardware design for several years now. I would like to evaluate nanoframework as a possible solution for a future STM32 hardware design.

Thanks for the help with this.

[josesimoes]

The current build for STM32F429IDISCO is targeting an older version of the DISCO board. Not sure which one you have.
Still, if you're seeing the NFPKTV1 packet it should be detected.
If you enable the verbose output on the device manager, do you see the messages about COM4 being detected and probed?

If you can, better use Discord for a speedier communication.

[rrideAMT]

Sorry not on Discord.
My STM32F429I-DISCO is the older version MB1075 B-01.
When I enable the verbose output on device manager, there are no messages about being detected and probed. When I disable and enable the Device Watchers here is snip of verbose output:

---

** Device Watchers are DISABLED. You won't be able to connect to any nanoDevice. **

---

13:59:13.661 [PortSerial device watcher stopped @ Thread 20]
13:59:13.714 [PortTcpIp device watcher stopped @ Thread 28]
13:59:20.246 [Starting device watchers]
13:59:20.247 [PortSerial device watcher started @ Thread 80 [ProcessID: 15332]]
13:59:20.247 [PortTcpIp network watcher started @ Thread 161 [ProcessID: 15332]]

I have done this with board connected. Also did this with board unconnected and then connected the board to see if it triggered any response. The above messages are all I see.

What triggers the NFPKTV1 to be sent by the nanoCLR? It is not periodically sent. It is only sent once when I connect using Putty or Realterm.

Is the PortSerial device watcher enumerate the PC's COM ports and then just keep polling the COM port in a periodic fashion to detect a nanoframework device?

It seems that something about my PC is not allowing VS 2022 to either receive serial port events or have access to serial ports.

Thanks for your help.

[josesimoes]

If you don't see COM4 there when you unplug and plug again then it's something with your windows OS. That picks up system events.

[rrideAMT]

I wrote a console app on same PC in VS 2022 that opens COM4 and reads the data packet sent by the nanoframework CLR. 32 bytes are received each time with the NFPKTV1 preamble. The raw data packet in { }.

Ouput from console app:
COM4: (32) NFPKTV1 {[0x4E][0x46][0x50][0x4B][0x54][0x56][0x31][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x01][0x20][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00]}

This just confirms VS 2022 on this PC can open and recieve data on the COM4 serial port. The console app uses a polling method for detecting available data. I didn't try the DataReceived event method, yet.

Is the 32 byte packet captured correct?

[josesimoes]

That look like a valid packet.
I still don't know what happens if unplug and plug the USB cable.
VS has to be able to "see" the COM port arriving.

[rrideAMT]

Other PC installation worked and VS 2022 was able to detect the STM32F429I-DISCOVERY board. I had no luck figuring out what is wrong with the other PC that the nanoframework device watcher is unable to detect the nanoframework device.
However I am unable to deploy to the target board on this other PC. Device capabilities reports a Flash Memory Map with the deployment sector at 0x08040000. So every time I deploy to the target from VS 2022 or nanoff utility, the nanoframework device quits working. Problem is that Flash Memory Map for deployment memory maybe incorrect as nanoCLR.hex file resides at 0x08004000 in Flash memory but ends at 0x080417D8. I went back to V1.8.1.244 build on Cloudsmith site for the STM32F429I-DISCO board and so far many versions between this and latest all have nanoCLR.hex files that extend into the Deployment memory map area.
I tried nanoff utility and deployed to address 0x080A0000 (next Flash sector), but this doesn't run the Blinky application either. Probably cause nanoCLR is attempting to run application at 0x08040000. But didn't break the nanoCLR firmware either.
I am confused a little cause I have in-depth knowledge of building microFramework CLR, so I don't see how this ever worked for the STM32F429I-DISCO board but then there are so many build versions on Cloudsmith, how are these all wrong. So I believe I misunderstand something. Thanks for any help with getting this to work.