Low Cost STM8S Breakout Boards

Originally Published: 24 August 2020

With most microcontrollers, even the most basic types costing more than £1, the development for low cost electronics is quite prohibitive if a microcontroller needs to be used. After JLCPCB announced they were offering a low cost assembly service, I was itching to try out the service to see how cheap I could develop a board for.

The assembly service only has a small, but growing parts library available. The stock is also split into two sections; basic parts, and extended parts. The basic parts are components that are already loaded onto the pick and place machines in the factory. The extended components need to be retrieved from the warehouse which incurs a cost of £2.27 per component. So we will try and avoid any extended parts.

After browsing the JLCPCB parts library, I managed to stumble upon the STM8S003F3P6 for just under 25 pence each. The specs looked ideal for basic IO, analogue, and serial data functionality. The price also meant that developing low cost electronics (and making any profit) could be more feasible. Below is a table of the STM8003’s key features alongside comparable microcontrollers from other manufacturers.

See more information on the GitHub repository