Using the STM32MP1 board and Qt framework
Application to control 64 LEDs via I2C communication
'LED Controller' STM32MP1 Challenge 1st Place Winner



The STM32MP1 Quest Challenge, open to anyone interested in designing electrical and electronic systems, ended on June 22.

STMicroelectronics Korea held the 'STM32MP1 Complete Conquest Quest Challenge' contest from April 13 to June 14 at e4ds make.

The competition, which involved developing original applications using the STM32MP157C-DK2 Discovery Kit with the STM32MP1 board, consisted of seven quests, one per week. The final quest, which involved completing an application, was held over a special two-week period.

You can only challenge the next quest if you pass the previous quest, and participants who complete all the final quests will receive prizes such as the Galaxy S20, Galaxy Watch, and Galaxy Buds according to the ranking selected by ST Korea.

A total of 238 people took on the STM32MP1 Complete Conquest Quest Challenge, and only 14 people completed all the quests. On June 22nd, the final rankings were announced, and the first place honor went to an engineer nicknamed 'Rudals' who developed the 'LED Controller'.

The LED controller by Rudals Engineers is an application that provides a GUI to control up to 64 LEDs. It also allows testing several LEDs in total or individually.

e4ds News asked Engineer Rudals about his feelings about winning this competition, the challenges he faced, and the experience he gained as an engineer.


Q1. Congratulations on winning first place in the STM23MP1 Complete Conquest Quest Challenge. Could you briefly introduce yourself?
A. Hello. I am a developer in my 40s who develops broadcasting-related software for Android OS.


Q2. How did you find out about this competition? Have you always been interested in electronic circuit design?
A. I decided to participate after seeing a post made by a member on a Naver Cafe. Since my main job is software development, I naturally became interested in hardware, which I felt was lacking.

Many people are interested in Arduino and STM32 related information as a hobby, and recently, their interest has expanded to the field of hardware PCB design.


Q3. Please explain the task you developed.
A. I wanted to implement a project that could utilize both hardware and software of the STM32MP157C-DK2 board as much as possible. After brainstorming a few projects that I could implement within a limited time frame and scope, I chose the LED controller.

If the project uses the STM32MP157C-DK2 board as a controller and controls 8x8 LEDs via I2C communication, it seems possible to utilize most of the functions I had in mind.

So, on the STM32MP157C-DK2 board, I updated the kernel after adding the I2C5 related DTS to the kernel level, and created an application dedicated to the LED controller using QML (Qt Modeling Language).

The LED panel was made using 'WS2812B' LED and 'ATmega328p' 8-bit MCU, which were among the parts I had as a hobby.

Q4. Are there any particular difficulties that come to mind during the development process?
A. This was my first time using QML (Qt Modeling Language) through this competition, and personally, developing a GUI with it was the most difficult part.

Kernel updates through DTS modifications or communication using I2C drivers were relatively easy as they could be done using a Linux system.

On the other hand, the GUI part was difficult because it required designing the overall UI scenario, creating the necessary resources, and examining whether the functions written in the scenario could be implemented.


Q5. How do you feel about using the STM23MP1 board and Qt? Was it difficult or challenging?
A. I enjoyed this competition because it gave me a chance to experience both hardware and software development.

It would be difficult to say whether it was suitable or difficult to implement without fully understanding the new system environment, but I could not find any shortcomings while implementing this LED controller project.

Personally, I regret that I was not able to utilize the dual core. In the future, I would like to use TensorFlow to do AI work related to object recognition.


Q6. If a competition like this Quest Challenge were held again, would you participate?
A. I plan to actively participate whenever an event is held.


Q7. Is there any part of the competition that you would like to see improved?
A. I didn't feel any particular inconvenience during the competition because the 'Challenger Bulletin Board' and 'Ask Anything' bulletin boards allowed for communication between participants and flexible quest progress.


More information about the LED controller made by Rudals Engineers can be found at e4ds MAKE.