Developing for MCUs

Note: Enable the McuSupport plugin to develop for MCUs.

Use subsets of QML and Qt Quick Controls to create user interfaces for devices that are powered by microcontroller units (MCU). Qt for MCUs has a new graphics rendering engine with a low memory footprint and optimization for MCUs and other resource-constrained devices.

Connect MCU boards to a computer to build applications for them. Deploy the applications on MCUs to run and debug them.

For a list of Qt for MCUs reference implementations, see Qt for MCUs - Supported Target Platforms.

Requirements

To use Qt Creator to develop QML applications for MCUs, you need the following:

The toolchains are available for cross-compilation on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS. However, the Qt for Qt for MCUs SDK is currently only available for Windows and Linux.

The hardware-specific requirements vary depending on the hardware platform you are developing for. For more information see:

Qt for MCUs SDKs

While you can use the latest Qt Creator version to develop with any Qt for MCUs SDK, the following combinations have been tested to work well.

Qt Creator versionQt for MCUs SDK version
16.0.0 or later2.10 or later
15.0.02.9
13.0.22.8
12.0.22.7
11.0.32.6
10.0.22.5
10.0.02.4
9.0.02.3
7.0.0 up to 8.0.22.0 up to 2.2
6.0.x1.3 up to 2.2
4.12.4 up to 5.0.31.3 up to 1.9
4.12.2 or 4.12.31.2
4.12.0 or 4.12.11.1
4.11.x1.0

See also Enable and disable plugins, How To: Develop for MCUs, and Qt for MCUs.