port to STM32 and W5500

[JAndrassy]

Hi Shawn

You know I do a research on Arduino networking libraries. But I don't have all the specific hardware so I try to run the LwIP based libraries on boards I have. I made the Ethernet library for Portenta C33 Eth peripheral run on an Uno R4 with an Ethernet shield. I adopted the hw interfacing functions to a driver for W5500 from esp8266 Arduino (LwIP too). Then I used the same trick with the STM32Ethernet library, which was written for a STM32 MCU with an Eth peripheral. I used Black Pill, a board with STM32 F411 MCU without the Eth peripheral.

And then I ported your QNEthernet to the STM32 core and W5500 and I tested it on the same Black Pill with a W550 module. Everything I wanted to test worked.

The port to STM32:

• I copied elapsedMillis.h from Teensy core into the library
• I removed use of EventResponder (and patched a yield function implementation in the sketch)
• I just commented out Entrophy in RandomDevice (I don't want to test secure connection)
• in sys_arch I used millis() in sys_now implementation (why systick_millis_count?)
• in lwipopts.h I removed #include <imxrt.h> and #include <sys/time.h>. they seem unused.
• in ConnectionManager I removed #include <core_pins.h>. seems unused too
• avr/progmem in STM32 core doesn't have DMAMEM and FLASHMEM so I just used -DDMAMEM="" -DFLASHMEM=""
• I hade to -DTEENSYDUINO=160, because the IPAddress operators from ip_tools were in conflict with IPAddress

For the W5500 port I wrote lwip_w5500.cpp. I attach it. All the s_netif and netif lines are duplicated from lwip_t41.c. Maybe do a compare. What was possible I left in place.
For the w5500 I had to change lwipopts.h. Enable the checksums, because the W5500 doesn't do them and set ETH_PAD_SIZE to 0.

lwip_w5500.cpp

The yield function I used instead of EventResponder

void yield(void) {
  static bool busy = false;
  if (!busy && Ethernet) {
    busy = true;
    Ethernet.loop();
    busy = false;
  }
}

[ssilverman]

Thanks for testing the waters here. I've made a bunch of changes that should address the issues you saw during porting:

1. No more elapsedMillis dependencies.
2. EventResponder is now gated on the ARDUINO_TEENSY41 and ARDUINO_TEENSY40 macros, and provides a place to put your own yield function or handler. See just below the attachLoopToYield() function in QNEthernet.cpp.
3. RandomDevice now works on non-Teensy boards by using std::rand() (may be improved later).
4. sys_arch.cpp now defines sys_now() to use millis().
5. Fixed lwipopts.h dependency on <imxrt.h> and <sys/time.h> for non-Teensy boards. Also improved ETH_PAD_SIZE and checksums for non-Teensys.
6. Removed <core_pins.h> include from ConnectionManager.
7. For those platforms without DMAMEM and FLASHMEM, fixed their use.
8. The ip_tools files should work better now.

In other words, all the issues should be solved and the library should be able to be used out-of-the-box with STM32. I tested with blackpill_f411ce in PlatformIO. I haven't yet pushed my changes, so watch for those soon.

I also wrote my own W5500 driver that I'll share in the near future.

Other changes of note:

1. Revamped driver interface.
2. New qnethernet_opts.h file for changing QNEthernet options without having to set project-wide macros.

Note: Random numbers aren't just used for crypto or security. They're for these things (non-exhaustive list):

1. Initializing std::rand() with a seed,
2. Selecting local ports when opening TCP and UDP sockets,
3. mDNS response delays,
4. Random delays for other protocols to help the device cooperate on a network, etc.

[JAndrassy]

Hello. what a nice surprise. I am glad I inspired you.
so now all ARM Teensy are supported with W5500? And STM32 with W5500?
the STM32 Arduino community has a forum https://www.stm32duino.com. Let them know when it is ready.

I am working on integrating a driver for ESP32 as WiFi adapter. Espressif has a firmware for ESP32 which makes it an MAC level WiFi adapter. Arduino made a driver for the host side for their new Portenta C33 board. It has a form of an Arduino library and I extracted it from their Renesas Core into a stand-alone repository and I made it compatible with any ARM Arduino (originally it used Reneasas SDK for SPI, delay and pin manipulation).

Now I finished a first version of integrating the ESPHost library int the RP2040 core, which uses LwIP from RP2040 SDK and has WiFi only for Pico W on-board WiFi. The maintainer added support for wired Ethernet with W5500 and enc28j60, but there was no WiFi option for other RP2040 boards .

[ssilverman]

I just pushed the latest master. Let me know what you think. I haven't yet committed the W5500 driver, but here's my current version. To use it, un-comment QNETHERNET_DRIVER_W5500 in qnethernet_opts.h (the new version attached here). You can unzip the file in the root of the QNEthernet library. (Don't forget to update/pull first.)

• v1: w5500_driver.zip
• v2: w5500_driver.zip
• v3: w5500_driver.zip

(Use the latest; the earlier versions are historical but only slightly different.)

I'm sure there's room for improvement in the design and in the W5500 driver, but I think it's a good start for:

1. Compiling for other platforms, and
2. Adding new drivers.

so now all ARM Teensy are supported with W5500? And STM32 with W5500?

Yes, correct. (Well, it should, but I haven't yet tested with a Teensy 4.0.)

[ssilverman]

The upcoming 0.27.0 release will contain the new driver. Note that it’s now in master. I tested with Teensy 3.1 and 4.1.

[JAndrassy]

sorry, I still work on WiFi drivers in Pico Core when I have time for Arduino.
do you plan to add the enc28j60 driver too? people still use with these powerful MCUs the EthernetENC library which was optimized for ATmega.
and maybe the WiFi drivers I make for Pico Core could be ported to your library later.

[ssilverman]

Oh, I was just adding the detail that I added my W5500 driver to the library. This is just informational; there’s no need or expectation to do anything on your end. Note also that I added a new driver interface API.

If I had some hardware, the time, and the will, I could add a driver for the ENC28J60, I suppose. Who would use it?

Side question: If you have the time and the willingness, would you be willing to test the latest on an STM32 with the new W5500 driver? Simply uncomment the line that defines QNETHERNET_DRIVER_W5500 in qnethernet_opts.h.

[JAndrassy]

I maintain the EthernetENC library and it collects GitHub stars

[JAndrassy]

in EthernetClass::start() I had to move driver_set_chip_select_pin(chipSelectPin_); before if (!driver_has_hardware()) {.
then it works

[ssilverman]

Great catch. Fixed and pushed. Thanks!

[JAndrassy]

just for fun I attempted to compile the library with the Arduino SAMD core. but they are on C++ 11 version of arm gcc, so no luck. I was lucky then choosing the STM32 Core

[ssilverman]

That’s odd you had to add that. Do you have the latest version?
See:

QNEthernet/src/QNEthernet.cpp

Line 57 in 6813ca5

#else

[ssilverman]

Are you saying you needed to implement yield() and HAS_EVENT_RESPONDER is set? I made an assumption that if that macro is set then you don’t need yield(). Maybe that isn’t true?

[JAndrassy]

sorry. no. yeld() is there. I will investigate why it wasn't applied

[JAndrassy]

yield in QNEthernet.cpp is in the namespace so it is not linked to the global declaration of yield()

[ssilverman]

Fixed. Thanks for noticing that.

[ssilverman]

Note: I’ve been making efforts to keep the c++11 branch up to date.