Using DMA-based ADC sampling with STM32 (HAL library)

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Hedy

Here’s an example of using DMA-based ADC sampling with STM32 (HAL library) to read analog temperature sensor data at regular intervals with minimal CPU load.

Goal:

• Use ADC + DMA to sample analog voltage (e.g., from an NTC or LM35 sensor).
• Use TIM3 to trigger ADC every 100ms.
• Store data in a buffer.
• Process temperature data later in your code (e.g., compute average).

Hardware Requirements:

• STM32 microcontroller (e.g., STM32F103C8T6 or STM32F4 series)
• Analog temperature sensor (e.g., LM35 → outputs 10mV/°C)
• Analog input pin (e.g., PA0)

STM32CubeMX Configuration:
1. Enable ADC1:

• Mode: Scan Conversion Disabled
• Continuous Conversion: Disabled
• DMA Continuous Requests: Enabled
• External Trigger: Timer 3 TRGO
• Resolution: 12-bit

2. Enable DMA:

• Circular Mode: Enabled
• Direction: Peripheral to Memory

3. Configure Timer 3:

• Set period to trigger ADC every 100 ms
• TRGO event: Update Event

4. Configure PA0 as analog input

Auto-Generated HAL Code
In main.c:

Define ADC buffer:

c

#define ADC_BUF_LEN  16
uint16_t adc_buffer[ADC_BUF_LEN];

Start ADC + DMA:

c

HAL_ADC_Start_DMA(&hadc1, (uint32_t*)adc_buffer, ADC_BUF_LEN);

This begins continuous DMA transfer from ADC to memory.

Processing Data
In main.c inside the main loop:

c

float read_temperature_from_adc(uint16_t raw)
{
    float voltage = (raw / 4095.0f) * 3.3f; // Assuming Vref = 3.3V
    float temp_c = voltage * 100.0f;        // For LM35: 10mV/°C
    return temp_c;
}

while (1)
{
    HAL_Delay(1000);

    uint32_t sum = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < ADC_BUF_LEN; i++)
        sum += adc_buffer[i];

    uint16_t avg = sum / ADC_BUF_LEN;
    float temp = read_temperature_from_adc(avg);

    printf("Temperature: %.2f°C\r\n", temp);
}

Optional: Debug Output
Redirect printf() via UART or SWO for debugging.

Notes:

• DMA in circular mode keeps filling the buffer without CPU intervention.
• If needed, you can use DMA complete callback (HAL_ADC_ConvCpltCallback) to process each batch.
• For multiple channels, enable scan mode and increase DMA buffer accordingly.

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Hedy