uart-serial-baremetal

UART Serial (Bare-Metal)

Purpose

Implement UART/USART for debug console and device communication: baud rate calculation, 8N1 framing, polling and interrupt-driven I/O, overrun handling, and optional DMA basics.

When to Use

• First printf/log output on new hardware
• Serial protocol to sensor/module
• Replacing blocking HAL_UART with minimal driver
• Fixing garbled or missing characters

Workflow

1. Baud rate (STM32)

BRR = pclk / (16 * baud)   /* oversampling by 16 — check RM for USART */

void usart2_init(uint32_t pclk, uint32_t baud) {
    RCC->APB1ENR |= RCC_APB1ENR_USART2EN;
    /* GPIO PA2/PA3 AF — see gpio-baremetal */

    USART2->BRR = pclk / baud;  /* simplified — RM has fractional formula */
    USART2->CR1 = USART_CR1_TE | USART_CR1_RE | USART_CR1_UE;
}

Verify pclk from actual clock tree (SystemCoreClock, APB prescaler).

2. Polling TX/RX

void uart_putc(USART_TypeDef *u, char c) {
    while (!(u->SR & USART_SR_TXE))
        ;
    u->DR = (uint8_t)c;
}

char uart_getc(USART_TypeDef *u) {
    while (!(u->SR & USART_SR_RXNE))
        ;
    return (uint8_t)u->DR;
}

3. Interrupt-driven RX ring buffer

void USART2_IRQHandler(void) {
    if (USART2->SR & USART_SR_RXNE) {
        uint8_t b = USART2->DR;
        rb_push(&rx_rb, b);
    }
    if (USART2->SR & USART_SR_ORE) {
        (void)USART2->DR;  /* clear overrun — required on STM32 */
    }
}

4. retarget printf (newlib)

int _write(int fd, char *ptr, int len) {
    (void)fd;
    for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
        uart_putc(USART2, ptr[i]);
    return len;
}

Link with --specs=nosys.specs or provide full syscalls.

5. Agent usage

/uart-serial-baremetal Calculate USART BRR for 115200 at 84 MHz PCLK

Common Problems

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Garbage chars	Wrong baud/PCLK	Recompute BRR; check APB divider
Lost bytes	ORE not cleared	Read DR on ORE; use IRQ + ringbuf
No output	TX pin not AF	GPIO alternate function
printf hangs	_write missing	Implement retarget

Related Skills

• skills/baremetal/gpio-baremetal — TX/RX pin mux
• skills/baremetal/interrupts-and-exceptions-baremetal — USART IRQ
• skills/baremetal/dma-baremetal — UART RX DMA
• skills/embedded/openocd-jtag — semihosting alternative