I'm wondering whether anyone else here has given up completely on KEIL and moved onto something else that is more coherent and cohesive, and whether that made up for any of the deficiencies that I seem to keep experiencing.
I have spent approximately $450,000 on my design that encompasses the STM32 line of products - including licensing the KEIL product for multiple developers. Everyone that I've spoken with is of the consensus that it's useless. And I am beginning to question my own sanity regarding the decision to invest so heavily in a design that relies upon an IDE that - well, frankly - seems so buggy.
Keep in mind that I'm entirely within the STM32 / KEIL ecosystem. Fully licensed and sanctioned - using real software and keeping both the CubeMX32 and the KEIL program fully updated. Regardless - it's SUCH a painful process - that I am wondering whether there's anyone who has used it to develop actual real products. Seriously. And I have a legacy of working for over 20 years in technology designing everything from embedded systems to very sophisticated transactional processes. But KEIL? Waste.
ANyway, if anyone can give me recommendations for what to move to - in lieu of KEIL - I would really appreciate it. I'm tired of seemingly doing everything right, and still getting countless error messages. Even small things like "xxx requires white noise" where - well, KEIL provides libraries that include TABS instead of SPACES in defines., etc.
What a terrible, lousy product.
Thanks.
(image of example errors which - despite being resolved elsewhere - continue to plague me). customer.telswitch.com/.../keil.jpg
@Aaron Woolfson,
Come on man. Give us some details - what is precisely the problem? Did it really take 450000 USD to figure out something you or your great (?) developers should have figured out in no time (remember: YOU called the product a waste!). Either elaborate or go get a life...! Happy new year.
To answer your question - yes, I have created many products with the tool chain - often from scratch, in combination with open source packages and without.
Here's the details:
$26,303 on back office / AWS $122,334 on Firmware Development (mostly worthless!) $33,845 hardware layout / part 1 (worthless!) $14,490 hardware layout / part 2 (great company - Jumping Point Technologies, Brentwood California. WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE!!!!) $11,506 project management $10,298 legal $39,052 iPhone app development $3,420 MVNO / Mobile $4,000 graphics / branding $6,156 industrial design $12,000 keil $44,550 hardware manufacture $42,000 training / travel / misc. $68,000 organizational support (staff, help, etc).
Now, my frustration is this. a) I have a great product. b) I have a great idea of what has to go into it. c) I have wonderful backers who are well known and appreciate my integrity.
So my experience doesn't sound a-typical. It sounds rather typical. I do, in fact, have my entire device built around the STM32F417 variant of the part. Otherwise, I would have used an ATMEL part. I really was persuaded toward STM because (a) I have a strong relationship with Arrow, and (b) because I've felt particularly good about my interactions with STM. And the support from KEIL had been good when I've used it.
It sounds like - however - I really need to hire a local (bay area) consultant who is willing to let me hire them for a day-a-week to hang out and just have them help me through some of the idiosyncrasies of the KEIL product.
Anyone available?