So why hasn't anyone ported an arduino core for these? One reason I don't like Due is that it difficult to use Due other than the way the Arduino company setup the hardware and software.
ST NUCLEO BOARDS. CODE
I then start with this code as a prototype and rewrite or replace the parts of ST firmware I don't like. This is nice since Cortex M4 chips have so many options. It allows you to quickly configure all the pin and controller options and generates initialization code. There are frequent, about weekly, updates to add new boards, shields, and fix bugs. ST is really working to support this product with the STM32CubeMX configuration and code generation package. ST uses it in examples so there is already STM32 code. I like the Adafruit 1.8" TFT with MicroSD and joystick Adafruit 1.8 Color TFT Shield w/microSD and Joystick : ID 802 : $34.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits. Signals are 5 V tolerant so many shields work. You can put one under the Nucleo and an Arduino shield on top or another 7x9 board on top.
The pins just match the low cost proto 7x9 cm boards on ebay. The double rows of male pins bring out all chip signals and voltages, and are on both sides of the board. See the attached photo of my test setup with an Adafruit Data Logging shield. I would pay more for Nucleo since I like the form factor and STM32 chips. It seems to me to put 10.000 chips into a nucleo board "at cost" may not ruin their business case. So they break even when they sell 200k chips. They sell it to distributors and large volume clients for $3 a piece in an average (10k quantities). PS2: my rough estimate: the development costs of a stm32F401 mcu could be $300k, fab preparation $200k, and the production costs of a single smd packaged chip about 50cents (rather conservative estimate, it could be less). Moreover, for such demo boards they may use chips coming from batches which are a little bit off certain parameters. PS1: the chip vendors follow a "what the market will bear" strategy when pricing the chips. PS: there was a discussion whether the Discovery boards are subsidized, an insider indicated they are not. With 50k-100k boards from each variant they may do a profit, indeed.
The price of the 2 chips used is "not known" as it comes from STM (that could be called "subsidizing"). So they produce 9 variants of nucleo boards on the same pcb. All the boards are the same, as the chips have the same pinout. The nucleo boards must not be "subsidized". With these subsidized Evaluation Boards from Chip vendors, it's a lot harder to get that 'feel' for end product cost
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