Feasibility of Porting Wi-Fi HaLow Code from STM32U to STM32F407G-DISC1

Software Embedded
1

Dear Team,

I would like to confirm whether the existing Wi-Fi HaLow code, which is currently developed for the STM32U series MCU, can be ported to the STM32F407G-DISC1 platform.

Is this migration officially supported? If so, could you please let me know whether there are any known limitations or compatibility issues that should be considered during the porting process?

From my understanding, the STM32U and STM32F4 families have different HAL drivers, clock configurations, peripheral implementations, startup files, and CMSIS support. Therefore, I expect that the hardware-dependent layer (SPI, GPIO, DMA, UART, interrupts, timers, etc.) will require modification while the Wi-Fi HaLow protocol and application logic can remain largely unchanged.

Could you also advise if there are any known issues that may be encountered during the migration, such as:

  • SPI communication or timing issues
  • Driver or HAL compatibility problems
  • Clock configuration differences
  • DMA or interrupt-related issues
  • Any STM32U-specific dependencies that are difficult to replace
  • Other known limitations when using the STM32F407G-DISC1

If there are any application notes, porting guides, or reference projects available for STM32F4, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share them.

Thank you for your support. I look forward to your guidance.

Kind regards,

Amal Jishnu

2

Hi @amaljishnuinthings7

Yes this is supported. You will need to provide the appropriate platforms and bsps files.

You can use the Morse Micro IoT SDK Porting Guide | App Note 45 as a reference for porting.

These are very out of date, but as a point of reference, we previously released files for an F4 platform:

3

The Morse Micro development board does not have a test point for the BUSY pin. So, I implemented the BUSY pin logic entirely in software instead of using a physical BUSY pin. Is this approach correct?

Pin Configuration:

  • CLK (PB13) → SPI2 Clock
  • MISO (PB14) → SPI2 Master In Slave Out
  • MOSI (PB15) → SPI2 Master Out Slave In
  • CS (PB12) → Chip Select
  • RESET (PE0) → Reset Transceiver
  • WAKE (PD0) → Wakeup Control
  • SPI IRQ (PE1) → Interrupt
  • BUSY (PB5) → Not connected / Unused (BUSY logic is handled entirely in software)
4

Current Progress

  • Phase 1: MCU & SPI Hardware Initialization — COMPLETE

  • Phase 2: Transceiver Hardware Reset & Training Sequence — COMPLETE

  • Phase 3: ROM Bootloader Handshake & Chip ID 0x0809 Verification — COMPLETE

  • Phase 3: Firmware Payload Upload (fw_mm8108b2_rl) — IN PROGRESS NOW (8,192-byte DMA chunks)

  • Phase 4: Transceiver Boot & Wi-Fi AP Connection (INTHINGS-HALOW) — NEXT

The ROM bootloader handshake succeeds, and the chip ID is correctly detected as 0x0809. However, firmware initialization fails after the firmware and BCF are processed.

Below is the complete boot log:

[0000.038] ---> [LOG] Log level set to verbose....!
[0000.043] ---> [HALOW_APP]   STM32F407 Wi-Fi HaLow AP Connection V25 (SLEEP DISABLE)
[0000.051] ---> [HALOW_APP] ========================================
[0000.058] ---> [HALOW_APP] Initialising Wi-Fi HaLow interface (SPI Mode 0 - 2.625MHz)...
[0000.067] ---> [APP_WLAN] Step 1: Preparing WLAN subsystem (mmwlan_init)...
[0000.075] ---> [APP_WLAN] Step 2: Booting Wi-Fi HaLow module (mmwlan_boot)...
[0000.083] ---> [HAL_WLAN] mmhal_wlan_init() called
[0000.088] ---> [HAL_WLAN] hard_reset() start: PE0 LOW...
[0000.154] ---> [HAL_WLAN] hard_reset() complete: PE0 HIGH.
[0000.210] ---> [HAL_WLAN] send_training_seq() bit-bang 80 clocks start
[0000.217] ---> [HAL_WLAN] send_training_seq() complete
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=0, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=4, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=8, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=12, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=16, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=20, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=24, req_len=8192 -> ret_len=8192
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=8216, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=8220, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=8224, req_len=32768 -> ret_len=32768
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=40992, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=40996, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=41000, req_len=32768 -> ret_len=32768
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=73768, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=73772, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=73776, req_len=20928 -> ret_len=20928
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=94704, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=94708, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=94712, req_len=3920 -> ret_len=3920
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=98632, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=98636, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=98640, req_len=3720 -> ret_len=3720
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=102360, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=102364, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=102368, req_len=3612 -> ret_len=3612
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=105980, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=105984, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=105988, req_len=32768 -> ret_len=32768
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=138756, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=138760, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=138764, req_len=32768 -> ret_len=32768
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=171532, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=171536, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=171540, req_len=32768 -> ret_len=32768
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=204308, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=204312, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=204316, req_len=32768 -> ret_len=32768
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=237084, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=237088, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=237092, req_len=6524 -> ret_len=6524
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=243616, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=243620, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=243624, req_len=3088 -> ret_len=3088
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=246712, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=246716, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=246720, req_len=28040 -> ret_len=28040
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=274760, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=274764, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=274768, req_len=3188 -> ret_len=3188
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=277956, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=277960, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=277964, req_len=32768 -> ret_len=32768
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=310732, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=310736, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=310740, req_len=18516 -> ret_len=18516
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=329256, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=329260, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=329264, req_len=5836 -> ret_len=5836
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=335100, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=335104, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=335108, req_len=3040 -> ret_len=3040
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=338148, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=338152, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=338156, req_len=25880 -> ret_len=25880
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=364036, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=364040, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=364044, req_len=3612 -> ret_len=3612
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=367656, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=367660, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=367664, req_len=1696 -> ret_len=1696
[HAL_BIN] FW read: offset=369360, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] BCF read: offset=0, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] BCF read: offset=4, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] BCF read: offset=8, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] BCF read: offset=12, req_len=192 -> ret_len=192
[HAL_BIN] BCF read: offset=204, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] BCF read: offset=208, req_len=4 -> ret_len=4
[HAL_BIN] BCF read: offset=212, req_len=68 -> ret_len=68
E     2061 Fa36fmst pointer not set
E     2061 Failed
E     2061 Failed
E     2061 Failed
E     2061 Failed
E     2061 Firmware init failed
[0002.099] ---> [APP_WLAN] ERROR: mmwlan_boot failed with status 1! Resetting MCU...