Electronics

The first resource can have a look at is the platform configuration option page. Additionally, check the manual on how to use the mbed CLI to show configuration options.

Additionally, you can look at targets.json on GitHub:

For example, "Target" => "config" => "default-adc-vref" would need to be entered like this into mbed_app.json:

{
    "target_overrides": {
      "*": {
          "target.default-adc-vref": 3300
      }
    }
}

Problem:

You are trying to read an ADC voltage in mbed / PlatformIO like this:

AnalogIn myADC(PA_5); 
// Read and print voltage, then return
float v = myADC.read_voltage();
printf("%f\n", v);

but this only prints nan or 0.000.

Solution:

mbed doesn’t know the reference voltage for your platform. The easiest method is to provide the referene voltage in the constructor of AnalogIn:

AnalogIn myADC(PA_5, 3.3);

This specifies a reference voltage of 3.3V. While this applies to most applications in their default configuration, note that the reference voltage might be different depending on the configuration of your microcontroller.

In my experience, it’s almost always better to experimentally verify the reference voltage instead of trying to theorize about it if it’s not immediately obvious.

Full example:

#include <mbed.h>

BufferedSerial pc(USBTX, USBRX, 115200); // tx, rx

AnalogIn   myADC(PA_5, 3.3);

FileHandle *mbed::mbed_override_console(int fd) {
    return &pc;
}

int main() {
  while(1) {
    float v = myADC.read_voltage();
    printf("%f\n", v);
    ThisThread::sleep_for(100ms);
  }
}

{
    "target_overrides": {
      "*": {
        "target.printf_lib": "std"
      }
    }
}

Problem:

You are using code like

printf("%.2f\n", myFloat);

in your mbed/PlatformIO application, but instead of printing myFloat with 2 decimal places, it always prints it with 6 decimal places (like 0.000000).

Solution:

mbed uses the minimal-printf library by default which is configured to save space on the Microcontroller. Hence, float max decimals support is disabled by default. In order to get all printf features at the expense of more flash usage and much slower executing, us add mbed_app.json in the root directory of the PlatformIO project with "target.printf_lib": "std":

{
    "target_overrides": {
      "*": {
        "target.printf_lib": "std"
      }
    }
}

See the platform configuration option page for more details and similar options.

Problem:

You are using code like

printf("%f\n", myFloat);

in your mbed/PlatformIO application, but instead of printing myFloat it prints literal %f.

Solution:

mbed uses the minimal-printf library by default which is configured to save space on the Microcontroller. Hence, float support (i.e. %f support) is disabled by default. You need to enable it by adding mbed_app.json in the root directory of the PlatformIO project with "platform.minimal-printf-enable-floating-point": true:

{
    "target_overrides": {
      "*": {
        "platform.minimal-printf-enable-floating-point": true
      }
    }
}

See the platform configuration option page for more details and similar options.